Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 13
13
Accepted
Departments inconsistently follow market engagement guidance and are unclear on pre-contract interaction.
Conclusion
Departments have opportunities throughout the lifecycle of a contract to improve the effectiveness of competition. Making the most of the opportunities available through competition starts from departments designing realistic requirements for goods or services and using these to inform their source. While Cabinet Office guidance encourages the need for departments to engage the market sufficiently, departments often take an overly cautious approach to engagement and are not always clear on what they can do.26 Departments are also unclear how to engage with the market before they let a contract, and do not consistently follow central guidance.27
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the implicit recommendation, stating that it is already implemented through the Sourcing Playbook and Market Management guidance, which provide best practice, resources, and assessment frameworks to improve early market engagement and requirement design.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation Recommendation implemented 2.2 The Sourcing Playbook, published in 2019 and revised annually, sets out best practice on service delivery, insourcing, outsourcing, mixed economy sourcing and contracting. This includes setting out a clear expectation that contracting authorities should undertake an assessment of the health and capability of the market when deciding how to deliver a service. This enables a contracting authority to understand our markets, recognise our influence on them and design commercial strategies and contracts that promote market health, and in turn maximises value for money and service quality. Effectiveness of early market engagement is assessed as part of the commercial continuous improvement assessment framework with a masterclass programme to share best practice. These principles are supplemented by a supporting guidance note on ‘Market Management’ that outlines more detail and practical guidance on the factors to consider when making these assessments. In addition, the Cabinet Office also provides resource and guidance to contracting authorities when they undertake market health assessments. 2.3 The Crown Commercial Service undertakes extensive analysis of supply markets and engages with suppliers to inform its strategies for each of the categories of goods and services in which it establishes commercial agreements. As part of its commercial agreement development process, it then undertakes further supplier engagement to inform the design of specific commercial agreements.