Government extends Digital Services framework

Move will give buyers the chance to complete existing purchases, government claims

The government has extended the divisive Digital Services framework for six months while it continues to work on its successor.

Digital Services (DS) sits under the Digital Marketplace umbrella alongside G-Cloud and sales through both surpassed the £1bn mark earlier this year.

The framework consisted of two iterations, the second of which began last August.

DS2 was due to expire on 5 May this year, but in a blog post last night, the Government Digital Service (GDS) said that this has now been extended by six months to 6 November.

Digital Services was thought up in 2013 and was designed to be a "dynamic" framework which would help users procure digital services in an agile way, in line with the government's Digital By Default standards.

But the framework sparked controversy last year when suppliers teamed up to speak out about it in a bid to get it overhauled. Some suppliers claimed it was not fit for purpose due partly to the way the framework tendered for projects according to an individual's capabilities instead of a company's entire offering - what they described as body shopping.

With that in mind, the government unveiled the Digital Services successor in the form of Digital Outcomes and Specialists (DOS). This framework, which has been in the making for the past year, was due to go live in February but was delayed, meaning it will get the green light at some point this month.

In its latest blog, the GDS said the extension of DS2 will mean buyers can finish projects even after the new DOS scheme comes into place.

"We can keep DS2 open until 5 November 2016 but we expect to close it before then," said the Digital Marketplace team. "We will email DS2 buyers and suppliers 30 days before we do this to let them know the new closing date. Buyers who would like to buy DS2 services must award contracts before the framework closes, otherwise they will need to start the procurement process again through DOS."