Cabinet Office
This document provides a list of the Crown Representatives and the strategic suppliers they work with.
About Crown Representatives
The Cabinet Office introduced a new approach for how government engages with its key strategic suppliers in 2011. It introduced the Crown Representative network to act as a focal point for particular groups of providers looking to supply to the public sector.
Crown Representatives help the government to act as a single customer. They work across departments to:
- ensure a single and strategic view of the governments needs is communicated to the market
- identify areas for cost savings
- act as a point of focus for cross-cutting supplier-related issues
Crown Representatives cover all sectors of service provision including small and medium enterprises, voluntary sector organisations, mutually owned organisations, large suppliers and specific sectors.
The government is committed to doing business in new and innovative ways and the team of Crown Representatives is at the heart of this work and the reforms currently underway.
If you have any questions regarding the Crown Representative programme please email markets-sourcing-suppliers@cabinetoffice.gov.uk.
Managing risk
This government recognises the importance of managing its relationships with strategic suppliers, on a cross-government basis, by observing their performance in the delivery of public services and monitoring financial health.
Strategic suppliers bring many benefits to the delivery of public services, but serious and/or persistent underperformance by strategic suppliers, and/or financial risk to strategic suppliers, are bad for the delivery of public services and the taxpayer.
In 2019, the government introduced a new approach to the monitoring and management of strategic suppliers through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the government and each of its strategic suppliers. Therefore, the Strategic Supplier Risk Management Policy that was in place prior to this MOU is no longer in effect.
The approach of using an MOU reflects governments now well-developed relationships with, and understanding of, its strategic suppliers. Under this new approach, strategic suppliers will agree to provide the government with the information it needs to monitor and manage risks across its strategic supplier base, with the full cooperation of industry.
Better focussed and more flexible risk management will increase accountability for our strategic suppliers and enhance the governments contractual relationships with suppliers.