Recommendation 15

The Cabinet Office said that the next step will be to fully staff up resource for the Centre of Excellence in DSIT and ensure that it has the capacity across digital and commercial teams to operate, which would be taking place in March 2025. It explained that the Centre of Excellence will have 24 digital experts, jointly working to both DSIT and the Cabinet Office to undertake all of the combined activities needed to fulfil the expectations for it that we were told about. The Cabinet Office told us that its expectation was the Centre of Excellence would be the “powerhouse” of a partnership between the two Departments, and that it would rely heavily on the input and expertise of GDS to develop the tools needed for the commercial function.23 21 Qq 28, 38 22 Letter from the Cabinet Office, 13 March 2025 23 Qq 5, 7, 15, 20, 23, 27–29, 38, 41 13 2 Actions to build and make use of digital commercial skills Addressing the skills challenge