Introduction

The Government spends nearly £200 billion a year with private and voluntary providers. This includes relatively simple contracts to provide goods or established services, to innovative, high-profile commissioning arrangements delivering services directly to the public, such as health and justice services. In 2013, following issues with overbilling in the Ministry of Justice's electronic monitoring contracts with G4S and Serco, the Government commissioned a series of reviews of contract management across departments. The reviews found widespread problems in contract management, including poor governance, record keeping and capacity issues. The previous Committee reported in 2014 that "problems with contracting are widespread, long standing and rooted in the culture of the civil service". Since then the Cabinet Office has led a cross-government programme to improve commercial capability.