6. The Cabinet Office created CCS in April 2014 from the Government Procurement Service, and consolidated in it all commercial roles that were present in the Cabinet Office. Accordingly CCS has five functions. In addition to being responsible for buying common goods and services either directly on behalf of departments or through frameworks, CCS also: develops procurement policies for the UK public sector; advises and supports departments on complex procurements; manages the government's strategically important suppliers; and develops and strengthens commercial capability across government departments.7
7. Initially, all five functions reported to the CCS Chief Executive. However, by the middle of 2015 the Cabinet Office decided that three functions would report to the Cabinet Office government chief commercial officer on a day-to-day basis. These functions cost around £7 million in 2015-16 and are forecast to cost around £9.5 million in 2016-17. The Cabinet Office estimates the expenses for these three functions amount to £25 million for the next three years.8
8. Around half the departments that the National Audit Office interviewed were unclear about aspects of CCS's governance such as which functions reported to the government chief commercial officer. In addition, the NAO found the current governance arrangement reduced clear lines of sight and blurred accountability. The Cabinet Office told us that all commercial activities were swept up into CCS at its launch, but noted that these functions were not in the right place in the long run. While HM Treasury had agreed with the set-up and funding structure, the Cabinet Office expects the arrangements and structure to change over time.9
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8 Q98, C&AG report, paras 1.13, 3.13 and Figure 5