The UK government plans to tender a commercial framework for end-user hardware and software worth up to £24 billion ($32.18 billion) including tax - double the £12 billion maximum announced six months ago.
Earlier this month, UK tech minister Liz Kendall told the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee the government was addressing ongoing concerns about extracting value from major vendors through centralized public sector procurement.
"We're systematically looking at tech spend across central government and public services [including] negotiating whole government agreements," she said. "We're going to start with end-user services, like laptops, but also cloud, to make sure we get the best value for money.
Last week, Crown Commercial Service (CCS), a unit of the Cabinet Office, published a pipeline notice for buying off-the-shelf hardware, software, and associated services.
Hardware covers laptops, desktops, tablets, smartphones, all peripherals, monitors, printers, scanners and “human interface devices”, broadly described as “end user computing”, the notice says.
Software includes commercial off-the-shelf software and open source software licenses. Services set to be associated with these products includes hardware support, implementation, maintenance, and recycling.
The framework - under which vendors agree discount pricing for indicative spending of £20 billion excluding value added tax (VAT) or £24 billion including it - is scheduled to run from July 2027 until January 2030, with a possible extension to 6 July 2031.
CCS published an earlier version of the “pipeline notice” in June, pegging the maximum value at £12 billion including VAT. The Register has asked CCS why it increased the nominal value of the agreement.
The full name for the framework is Technology Products and Associated Services (TePAS) 3. It replaces TePAS 2, awarded in November 2023 for £8 billion and later expanded to £12 billion after it was extended by 18 months to a total of four years. That arrangement expires in October 2027.
The UK government’s appetite for striking mega frameworks is illustrated by a £19.2 billion (including VAT) agreement for technology services and £16.8 billion (including VAT) for cloud services. ®
Source: The register