Consultancy and professional services spend data requirements
Follow this guidance to submit information to the Cabinet Office on all consultancy and professional services spend at or above the thresholds specified below.
Until October 2021, the requirements for you to seek approval for Consultancy and Professional Services (C&PS) spend are as set out in the guidance currently in effect. In summary, these are that spend proposals above £10m require Cabinet Office’s approval under the commercial spend control, and that central government bodies must collect data on their C&PS spending over £1m but below the £10m threshold. The new control thresholds and arrangements coming into effect from October are set out in the relevant section below.
From 4th May 2021 you are required to submit information to the Cabinet Office on all consultancy and professional services spend valued at £100,000 or above (excluding recoverable VAT), and/or of a duration of three months or longer. This should be done once the spend has been approved by the appropriate authority in your organisation.
Reporting requirement
Cabinet Office must be informed both after the appropriate authority has approved taking your requirement to market and after approving the award of contract (at the Outline Business Case and Full Business Case points). This is a condition of your delegated authority under the control to procure consultancy and professional services. You must also inform the Cabinet Office of any subsequent extension or amendment to the contract that is approved, or of any significant variation in the cost, duration or terms of the contract when it is awarded.
You must report all approvals made from 4th May 2021 via the Consultancy and Professional Services Portal (CPSP). Disclosures should be made as soon as possible and no later than 10 working days after approval.
Consultancy and professional services category definitions can be found in Crown Commercial Service’s Common Areas of Spend Procurement Definitions:
New approval requirement from October 2021
From October 2021 (date to be confirmed closer to the time), as part of the disclosure process, departmental officials will be required to confirm that approval was given by a relevant minister. For non-ministerial departments and other central government bodies, approval may be given by the organisation’s accounting officer.
In August, we will publish further guidance setting out expectations and timings for introducing the requirement for central government bodies to seek Cabinet Office’s approval to spend for proposals of £500,000 and over and/or a duration of nine months or longer.
Triage
The Cabinet Office has been developing a triage approach for managing consultancy demand, with an initial pilot being extended to volunteer departments from May to September. Separate guidance will be provided for each of these departments. Advice and considerations at the triage stage will be used to inform the subsequent approval decision under the C&PS spend control, and formalising this in processes will be a key output of the Triage pilots.
In addition, all departments can access triage advice and strategic advice on an ad hoc basis to support them, including; to access strategic advice, existing knowledge, work and capability in HMG, and to consider alternative means of delivery to external firms. Please contact governmentconsultinghub@cabinetoffice.gov.uk to access guidance and Triage support.
Approval above £10m
For C&PS cases that trigger the above thresholds, you must continue to refer spend over your existing commercial spend control threshold to commercialassurance@cabinetoffice.gov.uk, as well as entering summary data on the spend proposal on the CPSP.
Contact
Please contact cabinetofficecontrols@cabinetoffice.gov.uk if you have any queries.