Procurement

Procurement is part of a bigger transformation and innovation puzzle. If done well and outcomes-focused, it can help stimulate the local government tech market and economy as well as deliver better outcomes for citizens and value for the taxpayer. Despite the headlines and financial constraints facing local government, the sector spent £2.9B on IT procurement FY24/25. The largest IT spend by region was London with 491.69, then the South East 407.34. Interestingly the highest spend with SMEs by region was the East of England 24.8.

Procurement frameworks are an important route to market for public sector digital spend, with over £360million going through the top 5 IT frameworks in FY 2024/25. While G-Cloud 13 had by far the most spend that year with £117million, it also has the largest number of suppliers. The call off value per contract is among the lowest of the IT frameworks. G Cloud is also among the many frameworks up for renewal. The teams at Crown Commercial Service (CCS) have been working with techUK to hold market engagement sessions to get feedback on what has been working well insight on how to change them. Notably, CCS hosted a very thorough market engagement series at techUK for the Technology Services 4 framework in summer 2024 and over 100 suppliers will be welcomed on the platform in early 2026.

With so many different frameworks to choose from, including sector specific ones for areas like health or education, it may become difficult for buyers to navigate the framework landscape and understand which framework might be best suited for the project they are undertaking. Similarly, it is becoming increasingly difficult for suppliers, particularly SMEs, to decide which frameworks they should spend time and resources applying to get on. As technologies develop and market conditions change, it will be interesting to see how the use of procurement frameworks are affected.

With devolution and local government reorganisation some councils are pausing transformation projects which can take into account total spend by region. However, the sector continues to grow and technology offers the opportunity for local government to innovate and rethink how they can deliver services better.

To ensure value to the taxpayer and avoid unnecessarily procuring a solution that does not meet a user need, techUK encourages public services to routinely adopt early meaningful market engagements to effectively articulate the problem they are trying to solve and to ensure that a solution exists and is fit for purpose and future proof. By engaging with the technology market early, public services will be able to interrogate the problem first to ensure they are procuring for the right outcome.

Local government IT spending FY24/25

techUK plays a pivotal role in driving digital transformation across the public sector by fostering collaboration between government and industry. Public sector can view the market engagement opportunities available to them on techUK's Transforming Public Services Hub. A good example of meaningful engagement was when techUK convened the digital and IT leaders across the North East region with tech suppliers to better inform them of the regions strategic priorities, helping to foster greater collaboration by identifying opportunities towards achieving the North East's digital goals together.

techUK continues to champion public sector as a worthwhile and viable market for suppliers by regularly hosting market insight sessions helping suppliers be on top of the latest data and information on who the biggest buyers, suppliers are, latest tech trends and contracts due for renewal. techUK also supports SMEs by facilitating partnering and networking events so they can identify and meet with established players in the market who they can partner with on future projects and procurements.

Procurement Week 2025: In February, techUK held a series of webinars to explore what changes the market could expect with the roll out of the Procurement Act 2023 and the impact they would have on would mean for tech suppliers. The Week covered everything from the impact on supplier bidding strategies and frameworks to leveraging social value and winning work under the new rules, providing actionable insights for businesses ready to thrive in this evolving landscape. View the round up here.

AI in Public Sector Procurement: In April 2024 techUK hosted a roundtable that brought together commercial leaders from a number of central Government departments to discuss the use of AI in Public Procurement. The meeting raised a number of interesting issues and insights with regards to both Buyer and Supplier behaviours and use of AI however most Buyers were relatively early on in their use of AI to make procurement more efficient. Now, more than a year and a half later, the perception from the market is that AI has become much more part of a mainstream tool kit to drive effective procurement in central Government departments. The new panel session set for November 2025 will look at how the use of AI in procurement has changed, what the current use cases are and then identify and address challenges and concerns for both buyers and suppliers.

Innovation in Procurement - Pioneering Public Sector Resilience: In an era where public sector challenges are increasingly complex, the techUK webinar, “Innovation in Procurement – New Approaches to Public Sector Resilience”, brought together thought leaders and innovators to explore how procurement can be transformed into a strategic lever for resilience, inclusion, and innovation. The session featured insights from the Scottish Government, Bloom Procurement Services, and Supply 25, showcasing how procurement is evolving beyond traditional boundaries to become a catalyst for change. Read all about it here.

About this data

This report analyses two datasets – spend data and contract award data – covering the financial year from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025.

Spend data is derived from invoices published by over 1,000 public sector bodies for transparency purposes. These invoices capture only direct procurement by public sector organisations, and do not reflect indirect procurement through the supply chain. Contract award data is drawn primarily from Contracts Finder and the Find a Tender Service, supplemented by a number of local, regional and sector-specific procurement portals.

The datasets are accurate as of the date of download: 11 August 2025 for spend data, and 28 August 2025 for contract award data. When calculating average and median figures, contracts with null or zero values have been excluded. On the spend tabs, an asterisk next to the buyer name indicates those with incomplete invoice records for the period analysed.

Identifying VCSEs: The primary method of identifying VCSEs is through our 'Supplier Type' field, drawn from Moody's data on suppliers (originally sourced from the 'Company Type' field on Companies House), matched to our database of invoices. Organisations with the type 'Charitable Organisation' and 'Non Profit Organisation' are marked as VCSEs. Additionally, Community Interest Companies are identified using a search for suppliers with 'Community Interest Company' or 'CIC' in their registered name. Academic Institutions that are registered as Charitable or Non Profit Organisations are excluded from this analysis. To exclude Academic Institutions, a combination of key word searching, SIC (Sector Industrial Classification) codes, and manual verification were used.

Identifying SMEs: SMEs are first identified using data from Bureau van Dijk, a company information database owned by Moody's. A level of manual verification occurs, with suppliers classified as an 'SME' based on this EU definition.

Identifying Local suppliers: For the purposes of this analysis, revenue is considered local when the supplier's headquarter region matches that of the buyer.