Jurisdiction United Kingdom | Headquarters Liverpool | |
Formed April 1991 (originally)
January 2014 (current name) Website www.gov.uk/government/organisations/crown-commercial-service | ||
The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) is an executive agency and trading fund of the Cabinet Office of the UK Government. The CCS is responsible for improving government commercial and procurement activity.
Contents
History
The CCS was originally created as the Buying Agency on 1 April 1991. On 1 April 2000, it became part of the newly established Office of Government Commerce (OGC) within HM Treasury. On 1 April 2001, the Buying Agency, the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency, Property Advisors to the Civil Estate and other units from the Treasury merged to form OGCbuying.solutions. The agency's name was changed to just Buying Solutions in April 2009. On 15 June 2010, it moved, along with its parent agency the OGC, to become part of the Efficiency and Reform Group within the Cabinet Office. Its name was changed to the Government Procurement Service (GPS) in July 2011. In January 2014 the GPS merged with the procurement management from government departments to form the Crown Commercial Service (CCS).
Operations
CCS operates as a trading fund established under the Government Trading Funds Act 1973 with offices in Liverpool, Norwich, Newport, Leeds and London.
The CCS provides a professional procurement service to the public sector to enable organisations to deliver improved value for money in their commercial activities and provide professional support when it matters, advising on technical issues, energy saving and environmental improvements.
The CCS's operations break down into framework agreements, which are a set of pre-tendered contracts with a range of suppliers from which public sector customers can purchase goods and services. A small commission (averaging less than 1%) is collected from the suppliers for each sale they make under these frameworks agreements.
Management of the Government Secure Intranet (GSi)
As part of its support of the national government Internet infrastructure, the CCS manages the UK's Government Secure Intranet (GSi), including the entire third-level government domain .gsi.gov.uk (including all sub-domains).