Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 15
27th Report - Government’s relationship with digital technology suppliers
Published 6 Jun 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Government’s relationship with digital technology suppliers All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
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
From: Public Accounts Committee, 27th Report - Government’s relationship with digital technology suppliers (HC 640), 6 June 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Twenty-seventh Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026 (deadline 6 August 2025).
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Twenty-seventh report from Session 2024-26
Published 18 September 2025.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it "agrees with the Committee's recommendation" on each of the recommendations in the report, with most carrying a target implementation date of December 2025.
- On roles and responsibilities, it says the Digital Commercial Centre of Excellence (DCCoE) has been launched as a joint Cabinet Office and DSIT team and is "working to formalise the roles and responsibilities" between digital and commercial teams.
- On skills, it sets a three-phased approach for the Government Commercial Function: a first phase by September 2025, a second by March 2026, and a final phase "to be confirmed".
- On the Digital, Data and Technology Playbook, it says a team is working with GDS "to launch a publication in December 2025", bringing it up to date with current practices.
- On spending data, it says the GCF Digital & Data Team "will set out the process" to use commercial insights from data held across government, with "further detail" to be provided to the Committee in December.