Ministers have told watchdog MPs they will have to wait until December for detailed responses to a damning report on government’s digital-procurement capabilities.
Back in June, members of parliament’s Public Accounts Committee warned there is “a mountain to climb” in order to address Whitehall’s technology-procurement challenges.
MPs said that those challenges included a failure to recognise “the scale of reform required” to address long-standing digital-procurement issues.
The committee made a series of recommendations, including urging ministers at the Cabinet Office and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to set out how they will ensure the Government Commercial Function and the Government Digital Service operate both individually and jointly.
MPs said that the GCF, which works on a cross-government basis but is housed in the Cabinet Office, has a staff of 6,000 but only 15 of them are “dedicated to the full-time management of technology suppliers”.
MPs said Cabinet Office and DSIT should clarify who out of GCF and GDS leads on relationship-management with digital suppliers.
The committee also asked ministers to “explicitly state” how the ratio of digital commercial experts to the wider commercial function will be overhauled to “ensure that the views of digital experts are given due prominence and properly considered throughout the lifecycle of contracting for digital technology”.
In their official “Treasury Minutes” response, which was published towards the end of last month, ministers at the Cabinet Office and DSIT agreed with all the committee’s recommendations but suggested the detail being sought would take longer to provide.
Ministers flagged the creation of the Digital Commercial Centre of Excellence, which is housed in DSIT alongside the relocated and expanded GDS. DCCoE is a joint team between the commercial and digital functions, supported by the Crown Commercial Service.
They said a GDS-led “Technical Design Authority” had also been established to set digital strategy supported by a “Digital Commercial Working Group” across government.
“A strategic supplier relationship management approach is being developed which leverages the skills and capabilities of the Government Commercial Function supplier and markets team, Crown Commercial Service and departmental category leads from across government,” they said. “The work will focus on the key strategic supplier relationships and big tech providers supporting the development of national digital infrastructure.”
The “target implementation date” for the work is December 2025.
In relation to MPs’ recommendations on improving the ratio of digital commercial experts to generalists and those with other specialisms, ministers said the situation would be subject to a review.
“The GCF in conjunction with the DCCoE, will undertake a review of the level of resources aligned to digital procurement, that will have contract management capabilities and the extent to which senior business owners have completed both the Commercial Foundation Awareness Course and Contract Management Capability Programme,” they said. “Further detail will be provided to the committee in December.”
Ministers added that other work in the area includes the creation of a “commercial IT directors group”, intended to “ensure that thought leadership, capability, knowledge, and insights can be shared to support the delivery of increased capability”.
The findings of the PAC report were reinforced last week by a report released by industry body techUK, which suggested that government’s transformation aspirations are being hindered by a “mismatch” between public-sector buyers and technology suppliers.