With reforms delayed until next year, procurement agency takes steps to lengthen the Digital Outcomes and Digital Specialists and Programmes deals, collectively worth more than £4bn to thousands of suppliers

A four-month delay in introducing new procurement laws has led the Crown Commercial Service to extend into 2026 two digital frameworks collectively worth over billions of pounds to the featured suppliers.

The Digital Outcomes 6 and Digital Specialists and Programmes agreements were both introduced in 2022 and were respectively due to conclude in June and March of next year. Both engagements have been extended, by respective terms of nine and 12 months, so that each now runs until March 2026.

Newly published commercial documents from CCS reveal that the extensions were, in large part, related to the decision to delay the practical introduction of the reforms set out in the Procurement Act that passed into law in 2023. The changes enshrined in the legislation had been due to take effect on 28 October but, about six weeks out from this date, the Cabinet Office announced that the implementation was being pushed back until 24 February 2025.

In March of this year, CCS began a market-engagement process to inform its work to replace the two digital frameworks with one or more new arrangements.

In a pair of modification notices issued this week – outlining the extensions to the incumbent deals – the procurement entity said that it was delaying the launch of the new agreements as all the work it had done so far on shaping them was based on the new procurement regime that will now be introduced next year.

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“Need for modification [was] brought about by circumstances which a diligent contracting authority could not foresee,” the notices say. “Due to the recent decision made by government to delay the implementation of the Procurement Act 23… in order to enable CCS to ensure its portfolio is ready for the new implementation date of 24/02/2025, and to safeguard the significant work already completed in the development of the replacement agreement under the new regulations, CCS proposes to extend the framework agreement.”

The Digital Specialists and Programmes framework – which is intended to support public bodies in delivering large-scale transformation initiatives – has 75 different suppliers and is the bigger of the two arrangements, with estimated spending of £3.3bn between 2022 and 2026. Digital Outcomes 6, meanwhile, includes more than 3,000 providers and is focused on the delivery of smaller digital tools and services, has a projected value of £813m.

The two agreements were created as discrete entities to replace the previous longstanding ‘Digital Outcomes and Specialists’ series of frameworks, which ran for five iterations.

The changes being introduced by the Procurement Act are intended to create “a simpler and more flexible commercial system” for buyers, while “opening up public procurement to new entrants, such as small businesses and social enterprises”, according to government guidance.

The new laws are also hoped to provide greater transparency throughout buying processes, as well as “taking tougher action on underperforming suppliers and excluding suppliers who pose unacceptable risks”.