GDS hands suppliers new G-Cloud powers

Suppliers now able to remove their services from the Digital Marketplace for the first time

The Government Digital Service (GDS) has given G-Cloud suppliers the ability to remove their services from the Digital Marketplace as part of a flurry of new features.

From today, suppliers will be able to see a full list of their G-Cloud services on their Digital Marketplace accounts and can remove certain services should they wish. In the past, suppliers had to contact the Digital Marketplace team and ask them to do it on their behalf.

The move will allow suppliers to keep their list of offerings better up to date.

If a supplier wants to reinstate a service it has previously removed, it will have to contact the Digital Marketplace team.

On top of this, suppliers will have to honour outstanding deals on services they plan to remove.

"If a buyer enters into a call-off contract for a service that a supplier then removes, the contract is still valid," the GDS said on a blog. "The URL of the service will remain public but we will add a banner on the page stating the date when the supplier made the service unavailable."

The change came into force today but was announced in the new year along with a number of other improvements the GDS intends to make to G-Cloud.

G-Cloud was set up in 2012 with the aim of helping the government procure cloud solutions from a broader range of suppliers. It is currently in its sixth iteration and sales through the framework are fast approaching the £1bn mark.