New data unveils government spend surpasses £3bn on digital services

The government and other public sector organisations have spent more than £3.2bn on digital, data and technology services since 2012, according to new data.

Thousands of SMEs are now signed up to provide their digital, data and technology services to government, and public bodies are utilising their expertise to drive the UK’s digital transformation.

This quarter’s newly published sales data shows that sales have reached £3.2bn, with 48% of this being spent on SMEs. This means that £1.43 out of every £3 is going to SMEs.

The latest figures arrive not long after the third anniversary of the Digital Marketplace, which was created in 2014 by Crown Commercial Service (CCS) and Government Digital Service (GDS).

The platform hosts CCS frameworks including G-Cloud, Digital Outcomes and Specialists and Crown Hosting Data Centres.

Niall Quinn, director, technology strategic category for CCS, said: “In the three years since Digital Marketplace was launched, we have overhauled the public sector procurement landscape, harnessing the expertise of innovative companies and giving thousands of SMEs the opportunity to supply to government for the first time.

“We’re now planning the next steps of our journey, making the platform and processes more commercial, more flexible and better tailored to the needs of users - both buyers and suppliers.”

Warren Smith, director, digital marketplace, added: “We’ve started to bring the tools, techniques, technologies and culture of the internet to public procurement and contracting.

“What we’ve achieved so far is testament to an amazing team and the importance of user-centred, design-led, data-driven and open approaches, but we’ve only scratched the surface.

“The next 3 years, to 2020, will see a step-change where these approaches are mainstreamed across government.”

The Digital Marketplace website recorded over one million visits in 2017, compared to the same number in the whole of the preceding two years.