The professional services and commodities category unit is responsible for contract management on behalf of the Department for category management areas of business travel (covering rail, air and car hire), hotel and conference bookings, and desktop stationery. These framework agreements will expire in 2010. Once these finish, the Department will be working with other Government departments, including the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), to unitise existing or new public sector agreements.
The team is also responsible for advising the Department on existing compliant Department or other Government department (including Buying Solutions) frameworks in place for the engagement of professional services (including consultants and skilled interim personnel).
Where frameworks are not in place, individual business units are responsible for undertaking tailored procurements to meet their requirements, advertising in the Official Journal of the European Union or elsewhere as appropriate.
