Recommendation 19

Cabinet Office also told us that it will work on a “comprehensive package of upskilling, capability and assurance” across the wider civil service to ensure that it could act as an intelligent customer. But it noted that this was an “ongoing challenge” and not a simple set of actions or that would result in change overnight.29 We therefore also asked GCF what it was doing to make sure that all those 6,000 staff within the government commercial function have the digital skills they need. The new Government Chief Commercial Officer said he was new in post and referred to experiences from his previous departmental role about general digital upskilling of senior leaders.30