National Audit Office a Short Guide to Commercial Relationships

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National Audit Office scrutinises public spending for Parliament and is independent of government. The UK public sector spends about £250 billion through commercial relationships with external providers. Most contracts are procured within the EU regulatory regime, which sets rules and constraints around how this is done. Good contracts should set out very clear roles and someone to hold to account, says NAO. But getting the right incentives and robust performance data is very challenging as we have shown in our work on Delivering the Defence Estate.