Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 27
27
Accepted
Government's digital negotiation expertise with 'big tech' suppliers is inconsistent and ineffectively deployed.
Recommendation
We asked whether government had the digital expertise needed to negotiate with suppliers and global ‘big tech’ corporations. The Cabinet Office told us that this was a “complex and big–scale set of challenges” and that the picture was “mixed”. It explained that it was confident that in the centre of Government there were some “incredibly senior, experienced people who spend a lot of their time on the big strategic suppliers”.45 GCF told us that it had a “complex transactions” team of 20 digital experts that it can deploy to departments. When asked whether these experts were being deployed effectively, the Cabinet Office told us that this was “clearly dependent and clearly inconsistent”, and it would look into the example we raised.46
Government Response Summary
The government accepts the recommendation, stating the DCCoE has been launched, a Technical Design Authority established, and a strategic supplier relationship management approach is being developed. This work, focusing on strategic and big tech suppliers, has a target implementation date of December 2025.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
1.4 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: December 2025 1.5 The DCCoE has been launched as a joint team between the commercial and digital functions, with support from the Crown Commercial Service. To support this a Government Digital Service (DGS) led Technical Design Authority has been established to set digital strategy supported by a Digital Commercial Working Group across government. 1.6 A strategic supplier relationship management approach is being developed which leverages the skills and capabilities of the Government Commercial Function (GCF) Supplier and Markets team, Crown Commercial Service and departmental category leads from across government. The work will focus on the key strategic supplier relationships and big tech providers supporting the development of national digital infrastructure.