Welcome back to Procurement Monthly: your public sector procurement roundup. Last month we found more than half of G-Cloud 14 suppliers had won nothing. This month its successor went live, two of the largest frameworks in the country landed, the government opened its first Sovereign AI competitions to suppliers, and central government's social value rules were rewritten. Here's what each means for you.
On 10 August, the Government Commercial Agency launched G-Cloud 15, merging G-Cloud 14, its Cloud Compute Lot 4 and Cloud Compute 2 into a single agreement worth an estimated £14bn over four years. It's the first G-Cloud run under the Procurement Act 2023 and the first set up as an open framework. More than 4,200 suppliers are on it, around 90% of them SMEs, and every one was assessed on quality, technical capability and price before appointment. That tougher up-front check gives buyers more confidence to award without running their own long evaluation, which shifts the contest from winning tenders to getting found. The open format also means new suppliers no longer wait years for the next round, so expect more competition arriving mid-term.
On 7 August, the Government Commercial Agency awarded RM6378 Facilities Management and Security Services, an estimated £120bn framework running until 2034. It carries 126 suppliers across 11 lots covering total, hard and soft FM plus security, and it replaces the separate FM and security frameworks, RM6232 and RM6257. Eighteen firms made the top lot for total FM contracts above £15m a year, including Mitie, CBRE, ISS, Serco, Sodexo and Kier, and it will be the recommended route for central government FM. This is the first time FM and security sit under one agreement, and eight years is a long time to be off it. The top lot is the familiar roll call of large incumbents, so the real opening for smaller firms sits in the sub-£2m lots. The old FM framework alone was worth £35bn. Framework ceilings are starting to look like phone numbers.
See the framework notice.
On 31 August, HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office launched the first competitions under the £100m Sovereign AI R&D Procurement Scheme, announced by Chancellor John Healey at the G20. Four challenges are live: NHS productivity, AI compute efficiency, integrating AI across defence, and security testing for AI agents. The scheme targets demonstrator-stage technology, with upfront payments available where appropriate, and winners keep the intellectual property they create while the government takes a licence to use it. Turnover thresholds and track-record requirements have kept smaller AI firms out of government for years. This scheme removes both and puts the state in the role of first customer. The first round is explicitly a test of the delivery model, so judge it on what gets bought, not what gets announced.
Read the announcement.
On 5 August, the Cabinet Office published PPN 026 and a new Social Value Model, replacing the PPN 002 model less than a year after it became mandatory. Social value now means two things, good jobs and skills, and the weighting doubles from 10% to 20% on contracts of £5m or more. It only applies above £1m, so most small contracts fall outside it. Bidders get credit for targeting people not in education, employment or training, care leavers, and people with long-term health conditions, and on contracts of £5m or more departments will set a social value KPI and publish progress each year. The SME and VCSE award criteria are gone. The rules apply to central government procurements from 1 January 2027, with detailed guidance due this autumn. On big contracts, social value now decides at least a fifth of the score and delivery gets reported in public, so a specific, costed jobs and skills offer beats a page of good intentions. The sub-criteria and evaluation method are still to come, though, and social value waffle has been declared dead before, so wait for the guidance before booking the funeral.
Read our PPN 026 explainer.
On 18 September, EM Lawshare opened tenders for its next legal services framework, with a maximum value of £1bn excluding VAT. West Northamptonshire Council is running it for a consortium of just over 240 public bodies, 82% of them councils. Ten firms will be appointed, and there are no lots, so every firm has to cover all ten work areas, which span everything councils handle except child care. Tenders close at midday on 19 October. The model is not new, since EM Lawshare has run an unlotted, ten-firm framework before, but the scale is. The last framework was worth £70m, so the new ceiling is roughly 14 times that. Ceilings are headroom rather than forecasts, but it signals how much legal spend the consortium expects to route through one agreement. Firms without full-service coverage are out before they start.
G-Cloud 15 is the UK government's cloud procurement framework, launched by the Government Commercial Agency on 10 August 2026. Worth an estimated £14bn over four years, it merges G-Cloud 14, its Cloud Compute lot and Cloud Compute 2 into one agreement, and it is the first G-Cloud run as an open framework under the Procurement Act 2023.
RM6378 is the Government Commercial Agency's Facilities Management and Security Services framework, awarded in August 2026 with an estimated value of £120bn and a term running to 2034. It brings facilities management and security under one agreement for the first time, replacing the separate RM6232 and RM6257 frameworks.
The Sovereign AI R&D Procurement Scheme is a £100m government fund that opened its first procurement competitions on 31 August 2026. It backs British AI startups to build systems for the NHS, defence, AI compute efficiency and AI agent security, letting them keep their intellectual property while the state acts as an early customer.
