How can government spend its £125bn common goods and services budget more efficiently?
A significant proportion of government procurement is for goods and services bought across multiple departments — energy, IT, facilities management, professional services, temporary labour. The potential savings from coordinated purchasing are substantial, but so are the institutional barriers.
This work examined how central purchasing bodies and procurement frameworks actually operate across the public sector, and identified the key structural choices — aggregation, supply chain mapping, category management, levy, commission and rebate structures, social value measurement — that determine whether centralised procurement delivers genuine savings or simply creates a new layer of cost and complexity.
SDWH provides independent analysis of:
- Procurement strategy options; framework design and evaluation
- Spend analysis and opportunity identification
- Supply chain structure
What are the risks when a procurement framework has only one supplier?
Single-supplier procurement frameworks offer administrative convenience but create significant resilience and value-for-money risks. When that supplier serves a critical public service — as in the case of pharmaceutical supply chain finance in the NHS — the consequences of failure can be severe and the recovery options limited.
This investigation identified the specific vulnerabilities created by sole-source framework arrangements, the warning signs that preceded supplier distress, and the steps procurement teams should take to maintain optionality and resilience in high-dependency supply chains.
SDWH provides independent analysis of:
- Supply chain resilience; sole-source dependency mapping
- Framework design options incorporating competitive provisions
- Supplier risk factors
How much does lack of competition cost the public sector, and what can procurement officials do about it?
The economic cost of insufficient competition in public procurement is not abstract. This work put a number on it: £4–8bn per year in potential benefits, or 1–2% of what government spends every year on goods and services. It set out 18 practitioner-focused recommendations for procurement officials across a wide range of acquisition and outsourcing contexts.
The analysis pays particular attention to the rapid growth of procurement frameworks and the ways in which framework use, if poorly managed, can entrench incumbent suppliers and undermine competitive discipline even in markets where genuine competition exists.
SDWH provides independent analysis of:
- Competition strategy options; market analysis for major procurements
- Framework design incorporating meaningful competitive provisions
- Pre-market engagement approaches
What does successful procurement look like from start to finish?
Most procurement failures are not failures of intention but failures of execution at specific stages: a specification that locks in an incumbent, a contract that creates no incentive for performance, a transition arrangement that leaves the organisation exposed at handover.
This 10-stage strategic guide to the commercial lifecycle maps the decisions that matter at each stage, the questions that should be asked, and the governance arrangements that support good outcomes. It was reissued to support the Procurement Act 2023, making it directly relevant to current practice.
SDWH provides independent analysis of:
- Commercial lifecycle stages and decision points; outsourcing strategy options
- Contract management arrangements; post-award governance design
- Procurement Act 2023 readiness
How do you scrutinise a major government procurement or contract?
Those examining government commercial activity need a structured approach that covers the full commercial lifecycle — from requirements definition through to contract exit. Without that, findings tend to cluster around process compliance rather than the decisions that actually determined value.
This framework identifies what reviewers should look for at each of the 10 commercial lifecycle stages, and how to calibrate review depth to the complexity and risk of the contract in question. It is directly applicable to both internal and external review functions.
SDWH provides independent analysis of:
- Commercial review framework design; commercial risk factors
- Preparation for external scrutiny of procurement activity
- Training on commercial lifecycle stages