UK government inflates G-Cloud framework to £14B
- Reference: 1761642910
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/10/28/uk_g_cloud_15/
- Source link:
The Crown Commercial Service (CCS), a branch of the Cabinet Office, opened [1]the G-Cloud 15 tender last week to provide cloud infrastructure, platform, and hosting services across the public sector.
The tender notice says the deal is expected to be in place from September next year until September 2030. The agreement is expected to include cloud compute, which was previously available under a different framework.
[2]
Pegged at a maximum of £14 billion (excluding VAT) over four years, the framework's value and timeframe have swollen since [3]an earlier market engagement , which estimated it to be worth up to £4.8 billion and run for 18 months from March 2026.
[4]
[5]
The expansion comes as UK public sector cloud spending reached £6 billion in 2024, according to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. Government spending under the previous G-Cloud 14 framework totaled £3.1 billion in FY 2023/24.
In July, the [6]government extended two major cloud framework deals due to procurement delays for G-Cloud 15 frameworks, creating an additional £1.65 billion in potential spending.
[7]So much for the paperless office: UK government inks £900M deal for printers etc.
[8]Faced with £40B budget hole, UK public sector commits £9B to Microsoft
[9]UK government to open £16B IT services competition after 6-month delay
[10]UK government's cloud strategy: Pay more, get less, blame vendor lock-in?
The likely multibillion-pound spending on cloud services comes as the government grapples with creating a competitive market.
In April last year, [11]The Register revealed officials admitted negotiating power over billions of pounds of cloud infrastructure spending has been inhibited by vendor lock-in.
[12]
A paper from the Central Digital & Data Office – which was part of the Cabinet Office and is now merged with the GDS in DSIT – said the government's approach to cloud adoption resulted in "risk concentration and vendor lock-in that inhibit UK government's negotiating power over the cloud vendors."
[13]In February , Andrew Forzani, chief commercial officer in the Cabinet Office, told a Parliamentary spending watchdog that if the government wanted to use its spending power to strike better deals with the top cloud providers, individual departments needed to improve how they aligned their requirements. ®
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[1] https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/068082-2025
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aQCiSFMPZ8BoBRDdM-vjNgAAAQI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/015819-2025
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aQCiSFMPZ8BoBRDdM-vjNgAAAQI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aQCiSFMPZ8BoBRDdM-vjNgAAAQI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/29/ukgov_extends_cloud_deals/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/08/uk_government_printer_deal/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/07/uk_microsoft_spending/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/17/uk_technology_services_4/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/28/uk_government_cloud_strategy/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/04/uk_cddo_admits_cloud_spending_lock_issues_exclusive/
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aQCiSFMPZ8BoBRDdM-vjNgAAAQI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/28/uk_government_cloud_strategy/
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
the indians will be happy
that's an additional £14 billion that'll be handed over to the +91 firms or the big consultancies who offshore all the jobs. Although south africa is now being seen as preferential to actually spending UK tax payer cash on UK workers.
micros & small businesses are fucked, we don't even get looked at. They requiring ISo27001,ISO9001, cyber essentials (probably plus soon) for even small firms, and insurances in place before you're on the framework. which means you're potentially £20k down before you've even got a tender with no guarantee of ever getting work, especially as Crown Commercial seems to hate british workers & business.
it's a fucking joke. after the british & americans sent $trillions to the Chinese for the grunt work rather than spending it here & now whinge that chinese firms can do stuff cheaper & better, they've decided that no UK worker should have a high paid career either & that the plebs havings chance to own a ferrari or house was pissing off the CEO class, so now they're shovelling £100s of billions to india.
Government IT
On time.
On Budget.
Works.
Choose 1...
Re: Government IT
This is the British government we're talking about. How about "Choose none"?
Fear of lock-in
TBH it is difficult to reconcile cloud hosting call-off contracts with a maximum term of 8 years (5+1+1+1) with fear of lock-in. Is the 5 year initial term designed to accommodate the term of HMG's next committed spend agreement with AWS, given OGVA2 expires next year?
"the framework's value and timeframe have swollen"
Oh, isn't that nice ? The powers that be have already multiplied by 4 the benefits their friends will be given.
That way, they will avoid 50% of the issues when the final cost of this project ends up sailing past £25 billion.
Because you know it will.
Talk about foresight . . .