According to a recent National Audit Office report, it is not possible to show that the Crown Commercial Service has achieved more than departments would otherwise have achieved by buying common goods and services themselves. Government can save money by using Crown Commercial Service deals, but central government has not yet achieved value for money from its central buying. Furthermore, the Cabinet Office severely under-estimated the difficulty of implementing joint buying across government, according to the report from the National Audit Office (NAO).
The Crown Commercial Service (CCS), a government agency and trading fund, is directly responsible for buying around £2.5 billion of goods and services for central government and public sector organisations. CCS buying frameworks were used by central government and public sector organisations in £12.8 billion of public spending. CCS helped save government departments and public sector organisations £521 million in 2015–16. However, these savings were calculated on a different basis and are not directly comparable to the planned net benefits of £3.3 billion over four years.
The NAO could not tell whether these savings would have been achieved anyway if the departmental buying functions had not been transferred to CCS. A CCS survey shows that 6 out of 10 customers are satisfied with the CCS service. Some departments have, however, complained that CCS's services can be poor quality and CCS itself reports that service delivery has not always been in line with service agreements.