Welcome to our monthly framework update to help you with your procurement planning. We will publish it online each month and also share it in our newsletters and on our social media channels.
The update provides a brief summary of what has been awarded, extended or expired during the previous month. It also outlines what is due to expire in the next 3 months.
You can also find out what new procurements we are working on by exploring our upcoming deals page.
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The requirements outlined in PPN 06/21 have created an opportunity for all of us to work towards the same goal of achieving net zero by 2050. We are working to optimise your supply chain to ensure you can maximise your net zero and social responsibility goals.
Find out how the new requirements impact you, what steps are being taken to help suppliers fulfil the requirements of PPN 06/21, and why a greener supply chain is good for everyone.
PPN 06/21 introduces new criteria at the selection stage of the procurement and requires any suppliers bidding on contracts over £5 million to detail their commitment to achieving Net Zero through the publication of a Carbon Reduction Plan (CRP).
What is a carbon reduction plan?
A CRP provides a visible way to measure your supply chain’s impact on your organisation’s carbon footprint. A supplier’s CRP will allow you to view their emissions data in a standardised way that complies with new government requirements.
Supplier CRPs need to:
be regularly updated and published on the supplier’s website
verify the supplier’s commitment to achieving Net Zero by 2050
provide current UK emissions for Scope 1 and 2 of the greenhouse gas (GHG) Protocol, in addition to a subset of Scope 3 emissions
provide emissions reporting for the 6 greenhouse gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol
detail the environmental management measures that can be applied in the delivery of the contract
What impact does PPN 06/21 have on you?
Across the UK 74% of District, County, Unitary and Metropolitan Councils have declared a Climate Emergency. Part of the work they are undertaking is looking at the supply chain and working with them in order to hit the targets they have set for themselves.
In-Scope Organisations should take action to apply PPN 06/21 when procuring goods and/or services and/or works which are subject to the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, where there is an anticipated contract value of £5 million per annum and above (excluding VAT) unless it is not related and proportionate to the contract.
How is CCS enabling a greener supply chain?
Engaging with sustainable suppliers can help your organisation demonstrate its commitment to the environment. Greener supply chains can help:
reduce your environmental impact
ensure more ethical raw materials are used
improve supply chain employee working conditions
drive operational efficiency
At Crown Commercial Service (CCS), we realise how critical it is for our customers that suppliers comply with new government regulations stipulated in PPN 06/21.
“We are educating and encouraging the entire public sector supply chain to step up and meet the Governments’ Net Zero policy ambitions. Working alongside our customers, our suppliers are critical to our ability to deliver. We need their expertise, products, services, compliance and effective reporting to enable our customers to deliver their commitments,” explains Joe Tilley, Sustainability Director and Strategic Portfolio.
Not only have we embraced it for our relevant commercial agreements, we are also offering CRP training to ensure your supply chain can contribute to your net zero and social responsibility goals. Since December 2021, the CCS Sustainability team has trained thousands of suppliers to help them produce, release, and maintain a CRP that conforms to the requirements detailed in PPN 06/21.
What makes the CRP training so effective?
By design, the training enables attendees to engage with the presenter interactively. Questions can be asked at any time during the session. Every session is run with a standard format to maintain consistency and allow as many questions to be answered during each session.
“We are taking proactive steps to get in front of Procurement Policy Note (PPN) 06/21 implementation. The support we are giving suppliers reflects the positive steps we are making to implement the policy,” explains Marie-Helene Durif, Deputy Director, Technology Products & Services and workstream Lead for Supplier Sustainability.
Rallying to the challenge
Suppliers have rallied to the challenge to create compliant CRPs, providing invaluable feedback and insight. Here’s what they are saying:
Can customers attend a session to understand more?
Customers can also join the training along with suppliers. The training sessions allow customers to see how a CRP is created and what information to look for as part of their procurement process.
If you want to join in, secure your place today. Or you can watch the training sessions on demand here.
Vehicle telematics hardware and software solutions are used to collect data about the vehicle it is fitted to and how it is driven. The data produced ranges from location tracking and fuel consumption to speed and movement and how a vehicle is being driven (driver behaviour).
The full range of telematics products and services available under the new Vehicle Telematics Solutions [RM6315] agreement will allow customers to better analyse the use of their vehicles and make informed, evidence-based decisions in the management of their fleet. It is an important component of the total fleet solutions offered by CCS.
The key benefit of telematics solutions to customers is the use of real time vehicle data to support the management of risk and efficient fleet management. These benefits can result from using the vehicle data to identify, implement and manage initiatives designed to improve driver behaviour and compliance with fleet policy. For example, by using tracking solutions like driver ID and automated driver benchmarking, customers can improve the on-road behaviour of their drivers, reducing the risk of accidents, injuries and property damage.
The new agreement replaces the current Vehicle Telematics Hardware and Software Solutions [RM6143] agreement, which expired on 23 April 2024. It is similar in terms of scope and scale to its predecessor but with the introduction of a new single-lot structure that offers all available products and services in one place. This allows buyers to more easily identify the solution that suits them and provides a simpler procurement journey.
Sustainability remains a key focus, with vehicle analysis tools helping customers to achieve their carbon reduction goals by improving fuel efficiency and informing their approach to the transition to zero-emission vehicles.
The new agreement will run for 2 years, until its expiry on 4 March 2026.
Tammy Carter, Head of Fleet at Crown Commercial Service, said:
We’re delighted to launch our newest vehicle telematics agreement, offering a simple and efficient route to market that gives public sector customers access to sustainable, safety-conscious solutions that enable value through fleet optimisation.
It is another example of the additional value CCS offers its customers in connecting them with the solutions they need.
High inclusion for SME suppliers
The marketplace for vehicle telematics includes many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and this agreement represents our commitment to supporting SMEs. 90% of the suppliers awarded places on the agreement are SMEs.
Innovations and benefits
a simple 1 lot structure, encompassing a wide range of vehicle telematics solutions in a single, consolidated framework
a simple order form has been introduced to support the customer journey by giving easier access to the full range of products available under the agreement
specific solutions are now available for:
specialist and heavy vehicles including those utilised for waste management, winter maintenance or other Streetscene operations
customers undertaking covert operations and blue light related fleet and incident management
Find out more
To find out more about Vehicle Telematics Solutions visit the agreement webpage or contact the CCS Service Desk at info@crowncommercial.gov.uk / 0345 410 2222.
Don’t forget, you can find a full list of all the commercial agreements we offer, alongside details of how we can help you build policy considerations into your procurement, in our interactive digital brochure.
Sam will be known to many at CCS from her prior time as Commercial Director for Buildings, before she left to join Home Office as Chief Commercial Officer in July 2020. During her time at the Home Office, she has led on the many commercial and operational challenges they have faced.
Sam is based in the North West and will start at CCS on 8th July to allow a handover period with Simon before he retires.
Peter George, Chair of CCS’s Board, says:
I am pleased that Sam will be joining us as CEO and I look forward to working with her, the Board and the Executive team. Welcome back to CCS Sam!
I am delighted that Sam Ulyatt will be taking on the role as the new Chief Executive of the Crown Commercial Service. Joining from the Home Office where she was Chief Commercial Officer, Sam has a wealth of experience in leading and finding solutions to complex commercial challenges; I look forward to seeing all she achieves in this new role.
Simon Tse, current CCS Chief Executive, says:
First of all, I’d like to offer my sincere congratulations to Sam on her appointment as the new CCS Chief Executive. I’m really pleased to be handing the baton on to someone who knows, and is passionate about, CCS and will continue to live the values of the organisation. I know she will be committed to driving value for our customers and ensuring that the CCS values of Listen, Respect, Collaborate and Trust are embedded throughout the organisation. With the new Procurement Regulations coming later this year, I have all faith in Sam’s ability to lead CCS at such an exciting time.
Gareth Rhys Williams, Government Chief Commercial Officer and CCS Non-Executive Director, says:
I’m thrilled that Sam has been appointed as CEO of CCS. CCS plays a vital role in the success of the wider Commercial Function and her combination of private sector background and her experience at the Home Office and from previously at CCS makes her ideally suited for this role. Her energy, focus on the customer, and experience of negotiating major deals will all help CCS continue to build on the strong base that Simon has established.
Sam Ulyatt says:
I am delighted to have the opportunity to come back to Crown Commercial Service as your Chief Executive. We will, together, continue the great work across the public sector by adding value to the critical services we support and enabling better outcomes for the UK. I commit to shape and lead the organisation by listening, respecting, collaborating and trusting. Key to this is connecting with the whole of the public sector and providing direction in which we all commit to deliver for stakeholders.
Over the past 10 years we are proud to have gone from strength-to-strength, growing both our team and the commercial solutions we offer – and supporting more and more organisations across the public sector.
Notable successes over the last 10 years include:
Commercial benefits have increased from £606m in 2017/18 to £3.8 billion in 2023/24*
the choice of approved suppliers on our commercial agreements has increased significantly from 1,700 to more than 10,000 – 7,500 of which are SMEs (a growth of 88%)
the scope of our commercial agreements has grown to approximately 120 currently live agreements used by over 21,000 customers
CCS was established in its current form in April 2014 to replace the Government Procurement Service with the aim of centralising central government procurement spend and helping the UK public sector to better extract value from its commercial and procurement activity. As a Trading Fund, predecessor organisations to CCS began in 1991.
It provides commercial agreements to give all public sector bodies a choice of vetted suppliers who offer the best value, leveraging the scale of public sector demand. By using these agreements, to buy everything from locum doctors and laptops to police cars and electricity, public sector customers can achieve commercial benefits such as reduced costs compared to market prices and better value in contract terms and conditions. In 2022/23, CCS helped the public sector to achieve commercial benefits equal to £3.8 billion.
CCS also has responsibility for building commercial skills and capability across government and the public sector. For example, in 2022, we announced our commitment to invest £12 million in the NHS to enable a common procurement platform, Atamis, across the health service. Within the first year of the programme significant benefits and efficiencies have already been realised, with further still expected as the platform is more widely rolled out. This includes the North West London Procurement Services, which provides a single shared service for 9 NHS partner organisations. The switch to the Atamis system has helped them to identify £34 million of potential savings, allowing them to reinvest into patient care.
Simon Tse, CEO of CCS said:
CCS’s 10-year anniversary is an exciting milestone, not only because we have so much to look back on and be proud of, but also because it marks the start of our next chapter.
I would like to say a special thank you to our fantastic team (past and present) for all of their hard work and dedication – and to the many amazing customers and suppliers we have had the pleasure of working alongside.
We are still on a journey of changing and evolving as an organisation to ensure that we can achieve everything we have set out to achieve in our ambitious strategy.
Parliamentary Secretary Alex Burghart said:
Over the past ten years, Crown Commercial Service has brought substantial benefits to its customers across the public sector.
Through its offer of a wide range of choices and working to bring better value across their commercial activity, CCS has already helped customers to achieve billions of pounds of savings.
I congratulate the CCS on all that it has achieved in its first decade, and look forward to seeing its continued success and growth.
Jacqui Rock, Chief Commercial Officer, NHS England said:
Congratulations to CCS on a wonderful 10 years. It is a pleasure to work with you in pursuit of NHS ambitions, most recently through the energy product, that is helping the health service to achieve greater value for money and find efficiencies for reinvestment into patient care. I look forward to our continued partnership and where this will take us in the next 10 years.
*The methodology for calculating commercial benefits has evolved since the formation of CCS. The current methodology was established in FY 2017/18 and provides a like-for-like comparison to the present day.
Our experts discuss the topical themes and debates in public procurement right now. They also share their own experiences as leaders of the government commercial profession.
David Skinner
David Skinner joined Crown Commercial Service (CCS) in September 2014. In November he became Director of Customer Experience within CCS.
His current role is to lead teams to build commercial partnership solutions for customers across the public sector.
David has over 35 years experience in customer service and relationship management in corporate and people market sectors. He’s held senior management commercial roles for organisations including Barclays Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland.
More: You can find all episodes of Commercial Insider in one place on our website.
Interview text
Please tell us about Crown Commercial Service and your role within the organisation
CCS plays an important role in helping the UK public sector save money when buying common goods and services. We use our commercial expertise to help the public sector purchase everything from locum doctors and laptops to police cars and electricity.
I am the Director of our Customer Experience Directorate – otherwise known as CXD. I lead a number of teams focussing on the best ways to engage and maintain relationships with our 20,000 customers.
My team and I aim to embed a customer first mentality across CCS, in all ways of working. Ultimately, we bring the voice of the customer to CCS.
Customer-focused strategies affect nearly every aspect of business at CCS. Gaining the trust of customers is critical, you have to really communicate, engage and build trusted relationships. However, the rewards can be huge. For example, we have been entrusted with some incredibly high profile humanitarian projects over the last 12 months, including arranging flights to Turkey from London for UK fire and rescue service colleagues, following the devastating earthquakes.
What are the current challenges facing the public sector when it comes to procuring common goods and services?
We understand that the public procurement process can be complex. Most organisations face countless challenges.
CCS is working across all customer sectors to help address these challenges. From investing in commercial capability training in local government through to producing easy to digest guidance in the shape of our Procurement Essentials series.
We’re working to help provide the public sector with the skills and support it needs.
It’s fair to say that the Transforming Public Procurement programme is the biggest change to public procurement in our professional lifetime. It seeks to overhaul the procurement landscape, speeding up and simplifying processes. CCS has established a project team to ensure that we’re ready and able to help our customers navigate the changes the reform will bring.
What is CCS doing to put public sector customers at the heart of what it does? How have we listened to customers and how are we making it easier for them to use our agreements?
As a team, it’s our role to gather customer intelligence and data. We then work with commercial colleagues to build solutions that we know customers really want and need.
We’re always looking for ways to save our customers time and to make CCS easier to work with. For example, our new tail spend solution enables a ‘click and buy’ easy transactional procurement for low value ad hoc purchases. The solution was developed after extensive engagement with CCS’s customers and the supply market.
Because we listen, our customers have confidence in using us. Last year we worked with the NHS to provide solutions for virtual wards. This allowed over 100,000 patients to recover at home with hospital-level care, helping speed up their recovery while freeing up hospital beds for patients that need them most.
What is your focus for the future?
Our aim within CXD is to continue to be the ‘intelligent voice of the customer’, ensuring customer desires are fed into the products and services we create.
Our focus remains on continually demonstrating the value and benefits that CCS brings. We want to help the public sector to spend less and, when they do have to, to spend wisely through safe and reliable agreements, using reputable suppliers.
How are you and your team helping customers to make responsible decisions about sustainability and social value?
We understand that public sector organisations are facing enormouspressures across their supply chains and that, in these circumstances, it might be tempting to prioritise other challenges rather than social value. That’s why many of our agreements, including our recently awarded Facilities Management and Workplace Services, now require suppliers to report on social value metrics. This includes carbon net zero and modern slavery, making it easier for our customers to take account of the latest public procurement policy.
In particular, we realise how critical it is for our customers that suppliers comply with new government sustainability regulations stipulated in PPN 06/21. Not only have we embraced it for our relevant commercial agreements, we are also offering Carbon Reduction Plan training to ensure supply chains can contribute to net zero and social responsibility goals. Since December 2021, the CCS Sustainability team has trained thousands of suppliers to help them produce, release, and maintain a CRP that conforms to the requirements.
In September, we launched our new carbon net zero grants and funding page on our website. This brings all open CNZ grants and funding opportunities from across the government into one place, supporting the public sector in achieving their net zero goals.
How is CCS helping to provide value for money customers and help with the rising cost of products/services?
Drawing on our world-class commercial and procurement expertise, we’re continuing to work with our operations colleagues to leverage the best deals and benchmark our prices, whilst delivering tailored solutions.
One way we achieve this is through aggregated volume pricing. For example, in 2022, 26 customers joined 4 mobile voice and data aggregations and saved a total of £11.4 million. This saving is equivalent to an average of 73% when compared to previous costs.
Our experts discuss the topical themes and debates in public procurement right now. They also share their own experiences as leaders of the government commercial profession.
Clemmie Smith
Clemmie Smith is Deputy Director for Health and Education Workforce at Crown Commercial Service (CCS), with responsibility for workforce requirements relating to recruitment, flexible and temporary staffing in healthcare and education settings.
Together with her team, Clemmie helps to manage £2 billion of workforce spend each year for the NHS, schools and other public sector organisations.
Before joining CCS in 2016, she worked in a number of strategic and collaborative procurement roles within the public sector. This included roles in local government, central government and bluelight and the university and cultural sector.
Clemmie has covered multiple categories, from fleet to facilities management to library services, but more recently focusing on workforce and people services.
More: You can find all episodes of Commercial Insider in one place on our website.
Interview text
Please tell us about Crown Commercial Service and your role within the organisation
CCS is an incredibly interesting place to work and a hugely important part of the public sector procurement landscape. Last year CCS helped the public sector achieve commercial benefits of almost £3 billion pounds and this is growing every year.
I joined CCS 6 years ago to work in the Health Workforce category and 2 years ago I took on the Deputy Director role across Health and Education Workforce. The team is a large one, with a wealth of diverse knowledge and experience. It has been a critical period for workforce in both the NHS and in schools. My team is working closely with organisations across these sectors. We support their recruitment and flexible and temporary staffing needs so that they can deliver for patients, pupils and the public.
Working with partners in both health (as part of the NHS Workforce Alliance) and education, we helped achieve £220 million pounds of commercial benefits for our customers last year, across 7 core frameworks.
What is CCS doing to make it easier for customers to use agreements? How have you listened to customers?
We are always looking at ways we can make our agreements easier for customers to use. We have lots of networks and channels, through which we gather feedback from NHS Trusts, other health organisations and schools.
In health, we have been working with our partners in the NHS Workforce Alliance to streamline framework documentation across our agreements. This is in direct response to feedback received from customers. We have also been working on a new approach that will allow us to automate some of our sign-up and call-off processes via a digital portal.
In education, the team has worked hard to make things as easy as possible for schools to access workers through our Supply Teachers and Temporary Staffing agreement. We’ve developed a digital tool that allows schools to search local agencies and rates and we have simplified the call-off documentation.
What are you and your team working on at the moment?
My team and I are working on a whole host of activities. From providing our procurement pipeline to engaging with customers and policy makers on how commercial can enable provision of key health and education priorities.
The NHS Workforce Alliance is currently bringing its second generation of health workforce agreements to market, covering a workforce portfolio that will support the full ‘hire-to-retire’ cycle. This includes key agreements for international recruitment, flexible or bank staffing and agency staffing, alongside existing solutions for employee support services like occupational health and learning and development.
What is your focus for 2022 and beyond?
We know that the next year and beyond will be a difficult period for both health and education organisations in managing their budgets, when workforce challenges are growing. My team, alongside our partners, is focused on how we can work with those organisations to alleviate some of these challenges.
We have solutions and commercial expertise that can support key Government priorities such as recruiting new clinical workers into the NHS and clearing the NHS elective backlog. 4,000 new clinical staff were recruited across 80 Trusts last year via our Workforce Alliance International Recruitment agreement. We expect that number to be even higher this year.
We have also introduced a new Clinical Insourcing agreement, which enables NHS Trusts to use partners to provide services on their sites out-of-hours to increase capacity and help clear waiting lists.
How do you and your team ensure that you’re maximising commercial value and ensuring quality is at the forefront?
In the health and education workforce category it is absolutely critical to keep a dual focus on value and quality. Through our solutions, we bring considerable commercial value, using our aggregated strength to control rates in markets that have been benchmarked as having particularly high mark-ups off-framework.
Health organisations and schools can use our agreements in the knowledge that they will pay lower rates than off-framework and that we will work with them to bring these down even more through further competitions and supplier management.
Alongside this, we do significant work around worker compliance to support the provision of appropriately-qualified, experienced and vetted workers into schools and hospitals.
How are you and your team helping customers to make responsible decisions about sustainability and social value?
My team and I have sustainability and social value as core priorities in all the work we do. Social value is built into all of our new agreements, with a key focus on the fighting climate change theme that has been prioritised by the NHS. This means that suppliers are being measured on their social value contributions as part of the tender process, but also that we have built social value into ongoing supplier relationship management activity. We then work with customers to help them shape their own social value goals by providing examples and case studies from across CCS.
How is your team investing in / improving commercial capability for our customers?
My team and the wider organisation is investing in commercial capability in many ways. At a local level, the Health and Education Workforce team and its partners run regular customer webinars and events. We share knowledge and insight on a range of topics, from social value to international recruitment, clinical insourcing and IR35.
As part of CCS’s Health Leadership Group, we have also been working more broadly on how we can support the health sector in the development of commercial capability. One way we have already done this is through investment in the Atamis eCommerce roll-out to the NHS. Working with DHSC and NHS England, we’re providing funding for licences for all Trusts, ICSs and other NHS organisations to accelerate use of the procurement and tendering platform across the health service.
Our experts discuss the topical themes and debates in public procurement right now. They also share their own experiences as leaders of the government commercial profession.
Dr Philip Orumwense, CBE
Dr Philip Orumwense is the Commercial Director and Chief Procurement Officer for Technology at Crown Commercial Service (CCS) with responsibility for common goods and services across technology and digital categories. He and his team help to manage over £10 billion of technology spend each year on behalf of public sector customers.
Philip has also worked extensively within the private sector, including for Siemens where he had responsibilities for multi-site and multi-business commercial activities spanning the UK, Germany and elsewhere in Europe, South and North America.
Philip was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 2020 by Her Majesty the Queen, for services to the public.
More: You can find all episodes of Commercial Insider in one place on our website.
Interview text
Please tell us about CCS and your role within the organisation
In a constantly evolving technology market, it’s vital for the public and third sector to make the right procurement decisions.
CCS is the biggest public procurement organisation in the UK. We help customers get the best technology solutions at the best price, from laptops for schools to advanced cloud technology solutions for local authorities to help them with their digital transformation journeys. We provide access to an unparalleled range of technology products and services, all designed to help public sector organisations run more effectively and cost efficiently.
I joined CCS in February 2021 as Strategic Commercial Director for Technology, having worked extensively in other Government Departments including DWP and the Government Commercial Function (GCF).
In just over 18 months the amount of commercial benefits we’ve delivered for technology customers has increased from £431 million to £1.2 billion, representing significant savings for the public purse. This includes £4 million in savings for 14 NHS trusts on mobile voice and data services, which includes voice calls, mobile email, connectivity and applications.
What is CCS doing to make it easier for customers to use technology agreements? How have we listened to customers?
We want to continue to do more in adding real and further value to our customers as they work with us.
We’re constantly developing our commercial agreements to help customers make the best use of technology in the most cost-effective way.
Under G-Cloud 13 we’re introducing improved terms and conditions. For example, greater inclusion for the provision of day rate cloud support services along with introducing a fourth Lot for further competition for cloud support for larger, more complex requirements.
New Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs), negotiated throughout 2021/22 are helping customers get the best technology at the right price. It will now be easier for public sector bodies, no matter how big or small, to get better value for money cloud capabilities and cutting-edge technology.
What are you and your team working on at the moment?
My team and I are at the forefront of developing cutting-edge commercial technology agreements and solutions for government departments and the wider public sector.
We’re in the process of bringing to market several new, innovative commercial solutions including our ‘first of its kind’ Big Data and Analytics agreement, which aims to support the public sector to improve data use to create efficiency and improve services. It has been developed in accordance with the National Data Strategy and will support the requirements of the government and the wider public sector as they continue to use data to innovate. It is yet another example of how CCS is helping the public sector to continue on its digital transformation journey.
G-Cloud 13 and Cloud Compute 2 will continue to encourage the transformation of cloud, storage and digital and technology professional services throughout the public sector. With a run rate of commercial benefits in excess of £1 billion per annum, this presents an opportunity to become one of the foremost technology thought leaders in the UK.
What is your focus for the future?
Our focus remains on leveraging the best value from our existing suite of agreements. We’re continuously looking for opportunities to promote the message of aggregated buying.
We’re also preparing ourselves for the upcoming rules reform and its implementation, once the parliamentary process is complete. Our key priority is making sure that we understand how we’ll grasp the opportunities so we can bring even more power to our customers’ procurement.
What are the trends emerging in the procurement of technology right now? How is CCS working to ensure its customers can access the very latest technology?
Digital transformation is playing a key role in creating the public sector of the future. One where increased and improved use of technology can help evolve services and meet the needs of communities more effectively and efficiently. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the use of digital tools, the public sector needs to keep pace with new technologies.
Procurement is no exception. My team and I are working right across central Government and the wider public sector, engaging with various stakeholders including the Central Digital & Data Office (CDDO) and the Government Digital Service (GDS) to ensure that our products and services remain current and relevant at all times.
How are you and your team helping customers to make responsible decisions about sustainability and social value?
We’re continuing our work on providing sustainable technology solutions to ensure the government delivers on its commitment to carbon net zero.
Our Crown Hosting agreement provides data centre colocation facilities for the public sector, delivering significant cost savings and sustainability measures. Through this agreement, carbon savings in the region of 99.9% are achieved from efficient hyperscale facilities and ‘Green Electricity’.
We’ll also be engaging with the various procurement policies including how we boost our own and our supply chain partners compliance to the modern slavery statement.
And we’re accelerating our focus on growing our SME spend through our supply chains. Our SME engagement statistics for 21/22 are outstanding (total SME spend for technology through CCS agreements was £1.88bn, representing 25% of direct spend) but there’s more to do.
How is the technology commercial team investing in / improving commercial capability for our customers?
During 2021/22 we recorded strong spend growth. £27.6 billion of public sector spend was channelled through our agreements, doubling our spend from 5 years ago.
The more spend that comes through our agreements, the more money we can generate to re-invest in raising the bar, investing in our own commercial capability and sharing that knowledge and expertise with our customers. For example, right now we’re working to help our customers continue their digital transformation journeys. We support the cross-government technology code of practice, which is a set of criteria to help the public sector design, build and buy the very latest technology. The code of practice forms the basis of our new guide to digital transformation in local government, which we’ve created to help local authorities improve services for their citizens. We’ve aligned where our technology commercial agreements can support with addressing the key points in the guide.
Our experts discuss the topical themes and debates in public procurement right now. They also share their own experiences as leaders of the government commercial profession.
Kim Harrison
Kim Harrison is Associate Commercial Specialist at Crown Commercial Service (CCS), with responsibility specifically for fleet across the Corporate Solution’s category.
Kim and her team help to manage over £1 billion of fleet spend each year on behalf of public sector customers.
Before joining CCS Kim held commercial leadership roles within the NHS and further education sectors, spanning a wide range of products from IT hardware and software to professional services and consumables.
More: You can find all episodes of Commercial Insider in one place on our website.
Interview text
Please tell us about Crown Commercial Service and your role within the organisation.
The UK public sector spends around £300 billion pounds every year on procurement. Getting the best from procurement spend allows the public sector to maximise every pound and redirect precious resources where they’re needed most.
Last year our Corporate Solutions agreements delivered over £150 million pounds of commercial benefits across the public sector.
I joined CCS in 2012. I wanted to be part of the biggest public sector procurement operation in the UK with a huge ready-made network of commercial colleagues.
The fleet team works with over 3,000 public sector customers whose combined fleet comprises around 125,000 vehicles. Over 30,000 vehicles are acquired through our agreements each year, in addition to the complementary services needed to support them.
My role is to determine leading commercial strategy across a range of products and services. I then translate this into commercial agreements with benefits for the public purse.
Our public sector fleets have a range of outputs required for their services: from vehicles that help deliver frontline emergency services, to a local government organisation who need support in areas such as implementing staff benefit schemes, such as green car salary sacrifice.
Right now we’re also empowering the public sector to achieve their carbon reduction goals through ultra-low emission and electric vehicles and implementation of charging infrastructure.
What is CCS doing to make it easier for customers to use agreements? How have you listened to customers?
CCS agreements have strategic importance across the public sector. We take the responsibility to really own and understand our customers, markets and commercial models.
A pivotal aim of my work is supporting public sector fleets in their transition to ultra-low emission vehicles and the charging infrastructure that will be required to support them. We want to help ensure transport plays a key role in achieving government targets for carbon reduction. It’s a challenge, but also a great opportunity.
For specialist vehicle fleets, the shift to sustainable solutions will prove even more challenging and could require a full review of operational requirements and how they’re delivered.
We’re providing support to all our customers to help them with their mobility strategies and carbon reduction plans. In September we launched our new carbon net zero funding and grants webpage. This brings all open grants and funding opportunities for net zero projects together in one place. The webpage will support public sector organisations to review available funding streams and providers. They can then engage with CCS to understand available routes to market for projects, and complementary agreements.
Through our new and improved fleet portal, we’ve also now made it even easier for customers to compare a huge choice of vehicles side by side, including environmentally sustainable options.
What are you and your team working on at the moment?
It’s a really exciting time within the fleet group at CCS. The transition to electric vehicles is, understandably, the main focus for the industry.
We’ve seen a rise in public sector bodies using procurement to move to carbon net zero solutions. During 2020/21, ultra low emission vehicles accounted for 39% of all new vehicles procured by the public sector through our agreements. That number rose to 48% in 2021/22 and is already tracking at 51% for 2022/23.
CCS offers 36 commercial solutions in areas that will be key to accelerating the transition to net zero including fleet solutions. Across our fleet agreements we remain fully engaged with the market to enable us to stay abreast of best practice and future innovations.
We’re busy making sure that any new vehicle and service developments available in the UK can be accessed as soon as possible by our customers. For example, our new Vehicle Purchase agreement makes available all vehicle brands in the UK market, including those newly emerged with zero emission products.
Across the wider corporate pillar, earlier this year we put in place a new solution to help the public sector get the best deal on the procurement of millions of low value products. It’s estimated that public sector tail spend on goods is currently in excess of £1 billion per year. Our new Tail Spend Solution helps the public sector to manage and aggregate these low value, ad hoc purchases, which are often made from lots of different suppliers. The solution was developed after extensive engagement with CCS’s public sector customers and the supply market.
What is your focus for the future?
Our priority always has to be on creating more value for our customers. But we also continue to support them with key policy priorities and deepen the value we add, such as levelling up, carbon net zero and delivering social value.
We’re also focusing on continuing to strengthen our links with government policy setters and the market. This will allow us to help shape and influence future direction, and ensure we can continue to develop relevant commercial solutions.
Despite unparalleled vehicle availability issues this year, we’ve helped to keep essential front line emergency fleets moving. Being front and centre of this activity and seeing the direct impact you have gives me great satisfaction. I’m incredibly proud to play my part in helping to keep all of them on the road, but there’s always more work to be done.
How do you and your team ensure that you’re maximising commercial value whilst ensuring quality is at the forefront?
My team and I ensure that we’re at the forefront of innovation and industry developments.
Relationships are key. Suppliers as well as trade bodies and other independent fleet operators in the private sector offer helpful perspectives on the marketplace so that we can maximise the quality of our offering to customers. We equally work closely with our customers to understand their future fleet requirements, and wider business strategies.
At the same time we’re committed to leveraging the best value from our existing suite of agreements.
How are you and your team helping customers to make responsible decisions about sustainability and social value?
These days a successful transport management strategy needs to consider cost savings alongside social value, health and safety and environmental impact.
We’re giving our customers the flexibility to obtain more from their contracts and to see the bigger picture. For example, we’re building social value into our agreements through the requirement for all suppliers to sign up to Driving for Better Business. This is a government-backed National Highways initiative, which aims to help employers improve their employees’ driving practices and reduce work-related road risk.
Our experts discuss the topical themes and debates in public procurement right now. They also share their own experiences as leaders of the government commercial profession.
John Welch
John Welch is Deputy Director for Construction at Crown Commercial Service (CCS) with responsibility for common goods and services across construction categories. He and his team help to manage over £1.5 billion of construction related works and services projects and programmes each year on behalf of public sector customers.
John has over 20 years’ experience as a building and property professional in the private and public sector. He has worked across multiple sectors including building, infrastructure, civil engineering, petro-chemical and nuclear.
John is the current Chair of the NEC User’s Group.
Before joining CCS John was Head of Procurement at Cavendish (Babcock) Nuclear, where he worked on transforming the procurement function and supporting multiple key clients, including EDF.
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Interview text
Please tell us about CCS and your role within the organisation.
My team and I are at the forefront of establishing commercial solutions for central government departments, their arms length bodies and wider public sector organisations when procuring for their construction and infrastructure needs.
CCS offers the largest number of construction commercial agreements in the UK, driving industry change in support of the government’s construction strategy. We provide an end to end integrated solution for the design and build stages of the building’s life cycle, whether customers are looking to build a new hospital, buy or lease a modular classroom or modernise their public sector offices.
I joined CCS in October 2018, my first role as a Civil Servant, because I saw an opportunity to shape the industry I’m passionate about. During my time here I’ve been fortunate to have had the chance to influence the way construction procurement is approached. For example by co-authoring the Construction Playbook with colleagues across government, developing and driving policy change during the Covid-19 response and implementing the first government alliance based construction frameworks (FAC-1) – designed to ensure that the industry works collaboratively and consistently.
The amount of commercial benefits we’ve delivered for construction customers over the last 3 years has increased from £5 million to £226 million, representing significant savings for the public purse including across schools, NHS Trusts and local authorities.
What is CCS doing to make it easier for customers to use agreements? How have you listened to customers?
We’re continuously improving our service for our customers; always listening and acting on their feedback, following policy implementation to stay ahead of the curve and add real value.
Our frameworks are designed to facilitate a real shift change in how construction requirements are procured; they also contain specific dedicated Lots to support different sectors in the industry like defence and residential.
We’ve produced an abundance of customer guidance including recorded webinars on current topics that customers can access to help inform their procurement approach.
We’ve recently built a secure collaborative platform that promotes ways of working for customers to access suppliers and discuss topics and share best practice. Building on this, we’ve also established strategic focus groups made up of CCS, suppliers and customers dedicated to working on specific areas like social value and small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
What are you and your team working on at the moment?
Lots. The growth in the building pillar and specifically the construction group at CCS has happened rapidly. In the last 3 years our team has grown from 3 to 44 procuring the biggest construction framework in the UK as well as enhancing our offerings around Offsite Construction, Professional Services and Estates Decarbonisation.
But we’re not standing still. After negotiations earlier this year we successfully partnered with NHS England on a new ‘first of its kind’ construction framework. The Construction Works and Associated Services 2 / ProCure23 (P23) agreement recognises the importance of public sector construction as a key driver of economic recovery, providing health bodies in England with a new route to market for construction works and associated services, helping the public to get the NHS services they need. Lots 1-3 are specifically for healthcare projects in England, while Lots 4 and 5 are available to all public sector bodies in the UK.
The principles of this agreement continue on the same path as our existing ‘gold standard’ approach, increasing supply chain collaboration, boosting innovation, supporting the Government’s carbon net zero (CNZ) target, and focusing just as strongly on building safety.
What is your focus for the future?
We’ve been supporting the 2022 refreshed version of the Construction Playbook (published in early September 2022), leading drafting groups and developing guidance notes. I’m pleased that greater emphasis has been put on implementing the Gold Standard recommendations, which our frameworks facilitate well. CCS continues to be part of the steering group supporting and overseeing the Construction Playbook’s implementation.
I continue to work across areas of the procurement rules reform through a construction and infrastructure lens. Until the parliamentary process is complete, we won’t know what the changes will be but it’s important for me to play my part to ensure there are no unintended consequences of removing or adding new regulations across the construction spectrum.
We’re currently procuring the second generation of our Offsite Construction Solutions framework with a major focus on modern methods of construction (MMC). The continuous improvement and innovation in this space has been dramatic. Our new framework will facilitate greater efficiencies, increase productivity and support CNZ targets.
How are you and your team helping customers to make responsible decisions about sustainability and social value?
We’re currently running two major procurements which will support the government in the delivery of CNZ as well as promoting more offsite manufacturing.
Our Estates Decarbonisation Demand Management and Renewables DPS will provide effective routes to market for products and services that can support organisations’ decarbonisation strategies. It can be used for the supply and installation of relevant products such as solar panels and heat networks.
As previously mentioned, our Offsite Construction Solutions framework will support customers in delivering more efficient, effective, sustainable projects and programmes offsite, reducing the impact on the environment.
All of our frameworks embed social value requirements. We’ve recently partnered with the Building a Safer Future Charter, which consists of 5 commitments that demonstrate commitment to protecting life by putting safety first, ahead of all other building priorities. We are champions of this, supporting our suppliers on the journey to achieving this accreditation.
How is your team investing in / improving commercial capability for customers?
We work closely with our customers to help equip them to make the best strategic buying decisions for their construction needs. The knowledge and experience we hold within the team is second to none and we want to share that with our customers.
We regularly publish white papers, including on Modular buildings and Modern Methods of Construction and have recorded our own podcast series on topics such as social value and mental health in construction. We’ve also created our own guide to the Government’s Construction Playbook, which sets out the ways customers can ensure their construction procurements are in line with the policies of the playbook.
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