Crown Commercial Service has announced that the taxpayer saved billions of pounds in the last year, with the agency celebrating its ten-year anniversary.
Over the course of 2022/23, more than £3.8 billion worth of taxpayer money was saved thanks to the work of CCS, with the number of approved suppliers on commercial agreements increasing to more than 10,000. As part of this 88% growth since 2014, 7,500 of the suppliers are SMEs.
By centralising public sector procurement, more than 21,000 organisations are being supported to not only save vital money, but also procure their services quicker and easier.
Simon Tse, Crown Commercial Service CEO, commented on the anniversary, saying:
“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.”
Whilst also serving to provide commercial agreements to all organisations in the public sector, CCS is responsible for the development of commercial skills and capability cross the entire sector. An example of this drive is how 2022 saw CCS committing to the investment of £12 million so that the NHS can access a common procurement platform for the entire service: Atamis.
Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office Alex Burghart added:
“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.”
Image credit: iStock
