Public Sector Procurement Digital Goods and Services 2024-04-25
2024-04-25
TAGS
Response quality
Questions & Answers
Q1
Partial Answer
▸
Context
No specific background event or incident is mentioned, but the question refers to the adequacy of public sector procurement practices.
What recent assessment has been made of the adequacy of public sector procurement of digital goods and services?
The Government recognise how vital digital products and services are for delivering public services. The digital, data and technology playbook provides best practice guidance for the procurement of digital products and services. The playbook is updated annually, most recently in June 2023. Departments are responsible for ensuring that public services delivered by the private sector represent value for money.
▸
Assessment & feedback
The adequacy of procurement practices was not directly addressed with specific assessments or figures.
Response accuracy
Q2
Partial Answer
▸
Context
The MP highlights issues such as lack of competitiveness in procurement, dependency on single-source providers, and the National Audit Office's criticism.
Digital services procurement should be a win, win, win: the British public get better services, businesses get a good and reliable customer, and public services are reduced in cost. However, that is not the case under this Government. Departments are locked into single-source providers and dependent on legacy systems. The National Audit Office itself said that procurement was not competitive enough. As an example of that, can the Minister say how competitive cloud service provision is across his Government? Will he set out how he is using open source to boost competitiveness in digital services procurement?
We have a highly successful commercial function in Government, which is driving up value for money across all our commercial arrangements. It monitors contracts, before, during and after they have been in place, to ensure that we reduce the chances of issues such as lock-in.
▸
Assessment & feedback
The competitiveness of cloud service provision and the use of open source were not specifically addressed with details or figures.
Response accuracy