Procurement Profile: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) - in its own words - "pursues [the UK's] national interests and projects the UK as a force for good in the world".

To help fulfil its wide-reaching remit, the FCDO spent over £12.6 billion with suppliers from 2016 to 2020, and awarded almost £8 billion worth of contracts.

If you want to start selling to this critical government department, you need a helicopter view of its procurement footprint.

Using Tussell's market intelligence platform, this profile dissects the FCDO's procurement behaviour from 2016 to 2020,* coverings it:

• Spend with suppliers

• Contract awards

• Upcoming renewal opportunities

• Top suppliers

• Top frameworks

• Sector Case-Studies (IT, Consulting & Facilities Management)

Find our other Procurement Profiles here. 

* In this profile, data for 'the FCDO' is drawn from the FCDO, the now-defunct Foreign & Commonwealth Office, and the now-defunct Department for International Development. The 2016 - 2020 period was chosen due to incomplete invoice data for 2021 and 2022.

Invoice-level spend data lets us 'follow the money' and directly see which suppliers contracting authorities are spending their budgets with.

From 2016 - 2020, the FCDO has spent approximately £12.6 billion with suppliers, spanning over 55,600 individual transactions.

This made the FCDO the 7th largest buyer by total invoice value across this period, one place above Homes England, and one place below National Highways (or Highways England).

The above analysis - produced within the Tussell platform - indicates that FCDO spending was highest in 2019, at £2.9bn, but has remained consistently above £2bn every year.

Across the period, the FCDO's largest suppliers by spend were:

From 2016 - 2020, the FCDO awarded at least 1,488 contract awards, valued at £7.75 billion.

The data shows a clear year-on-year growth in both the total volume and value and FCDO contracts awarded from 2017 to 2019, before falling slightly in 2020.

Across this period, the FCDO's top contract awards were:

It's key to proactively get ahead of contract renewals in public sector sales: you need to engage with your target accounts well before a contract expires, to begin staking your case and understanding the authority's needs. 

Tussell's platform identified 408 likely-to-be-renewed contracts* worth £2.53 billion that are due to expire between 2023 and 2025.

Some of the largest of these upcoming renewals include:

* "Likely-to-be-renewed" is defined as 'services' and 'supplies' contracts.

Knowing who a public body's top suppliers in your sector is key: only then can you appreciate who you'll likely face when bidding on its larger tenders.

From 2016 to 2020, the FCDO awarded contracts to at least 759 suppliers.*

By total contract award value, the FCDO's top suppliers across this period were:

The suppliers with whom the FCDO has awarded contracts most frequently were:

• Oxford Policy Management Ltd (78 contracts, valued at £345mn)

• DAI Global UK Ltd (37 contracts, valued at £410mn)

• AECOM Ltd (36 contracts, valued at £92.4mn)

• IMC Worldwide Ltd (32 contracts, valued at £113mn)

• Tetra Tech International Development Ltd (31 contracts, valued at £325mn)

* This figure includes subsidiaries.

You need hard data to identify which frameworks a contracting authority is actually using to award new work: otherwise, you risk wasting time and resources applying for frameworks that are seldom used in practice.

Of the roughly 1,556 contracts awarded by the FCDO from 2016 to 2020, just 270 - or 17% - were call-offs from a framework.

Using Tussell's framework analytics, we can see the total value of these call-offs sat at £696 million, and spanned 33 different frameworks.

By value of total identified call-offs, the FCDO's most valuable frameworks across the period were:

• General Economic Development Framework (£142mn)

• Conflict, Stability and Security Fund Framework (£133mn)

• Global Evaluation Framework Agreement (£131mn)

• DFID International Multi-Disciplinary Programme Framework Agreement (£95.4mn)

• Prosperity Fund Framework (£68.6mn)

By volume of total identified call-offs, the FCDO's most utilised frameworks across the period were:

• Conflict, Stability and Security Fund Framework (80 call-offs)

• Global Evaluation Framework Agreement (43 call-offs)

• DFID International Multi-Disciplinary Programme Framework Agreement (20 call-offs)

• DFID Goods and Equipment Procurement Supplier (19 call-offs)

• General Economic Development Framework (17 call-offs)

Across this period, the FCDO operated 34 of its own frameworks, with a maximum potential value of £4.3 billion.

Below is a breakdown of the FCDO's IT, Consultancy and FM-related contract awards from 2016 to 2020. This analysis was conducted using CPV codes and keyword searches, meaning the data may include some anomalous results.

IT & Software (CPV: 48000000, 72000000, 42960000)

From 2016 to 2020, the FCDO awarded approximately 76 IT-related contract awards, at a total value of £111 million.

The above chart shows a clear upward trajectory in the total value of IT contracts being awarded by the FCDO, with 2020 seeing a record £43 million worth of IT contracts going to suppliers.

The FCDO's largest suppliers in this sector - by total contract award value - were Microsoft Ltd (£16.8mn), Accenture UK Ltd (£15.3mn), Capgemini UK PLC (£12.2mn), KPMG (£9.9mn) and Oracle Corporation UK Ltd (£8.5mn).

The largest IT-related contracts awarded in this period included:

Consultancy, Recruitment & Marketing: 79000000

From 2016 to 2020, the FCDO awarded approximately 94 contract awards for consultancy, recruitment and marketing-related services, at a total value of £235 million.

Analysis shows a steep climb in the total value of such contracts awarded between 2018 and 2019 - from £37 million to £156 million - despite only a moderate increase in the volume of contracts awarded.

The FCDO's top suppliers in this sector were Ernst & Young LLP (£45.7mn), Pricewaterhousecooper LLP (£41.9mn), Adam Smith International (£27.8mn), DAI Global UK Ltd (£22.3mn) and Palladium International Ltd (£16.6mn).

The largest consultancy-related contracts awarded across this period were:

Facilities Management *

Across the period, the FCDO has awarded approximately 138 FM-related contracts, at a total value of £304 million.

Tussell's platform indicates that the volume of FM FCDO contracts has gradually increased year on year since 2016. The value of said contracts, though, has not followed this trajectory, instead spiking sharply in 2020 to £192 million.

The FCDO's largest FM suppliers (by total contract award value) by far were GW Consulting UK Ltd (£116mn) and Jones Lasall Property Consultants PTE Ltd (£104mn).

The largest FM-related contracts awarded over this period included:

* This search was conducted using a combination of several dozen keywords, such as "facilities management", "hard fm", "soft fm", "estate management" etc.

*

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office is one of the most critical departments in central government: getting a grasp of its multi-billion pound procurement behaviour is key if you want to start doing business with it.

This profile only covers the surface of what Tussell's aggregated data platform can tell you about the public sector. With Tussell, you can analyse spend, contract awards, favoured frameworks and more, helping you make more informed decisions and strategies when selling to the public sector.

Book a personalised demo with our team to see how Tussell can unlock public sector insights and opportunities for your business.

Find our other Procurement Profiles here.