Only one of the government’s 12 key tech suppliers is UK-based
Introduction: who are the ‘Strategic Suppliers’?
A handful of companies sit at the heart of the British state.
The ‘Strategic Suppliers’ cohort, first established by the Cabinet Office in the early 2010s, is a group of 36 companies that liaise directly with government through a network of designated Crown Representatives.
Though small in volume, they punch well above their weight in the market. In FY25/26, UK public bodies collectively paid the group over £25 billion - equivalent to 10% of all direct procurement spending in that year.
Twelve of these firms are technology providers: Accenture, Atos, AWS, Capgemini, Capita, CGI, DXC, Fujitsu, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Sopra Steria.
Whether you’re a new market entrant or are from one of the Strategic Suppliers yourself, understanding how these industry leaders perform can tell you a lot about the government market today.
Each year, Tussell uses real data on government spending and contracts to evaluate how the Strategic Suppliers are performing, compiled in our annual Strategic Suppliers Report. The latest edition (accessible for download here) found the following:
Only one of the 12 tech Strategic Suppliers is UK-based
As of November 2026, there are 36 designated Strategic Suppliers.
Yet only a few months ago, there were 39. Jacobs and Tilbury Douglas, two construction & engineering service providers, alongside Computacenter, a leading UK-based technology firm, were dropped from the group in July.
The reasons why are unclear, but the timing is interesting.
The government has made clear its ambitions to procure more from British businesses. The removal of Computacenter from the group, however, means that only one UK-based tech firm remains: Capita.
This reveals the inherent tension in the government’s procurement aims: it wants to do more business with domestic firms, yet many of the services it relies on are owned by overseas companies.
The 12 tech Strategic Suppliers saw their gov’t revenue grow in FY25/26
Tussell projects that real-terms spending with the Strategic Suppliers fell 13% between FY20/21 and FY25/26. This may reflect successful government efforts to diversify its supply chain, away from a handful of suppliers.
The tech firms, on the other hand, appear to be bucking this trend, with collective direct government revenue projected to have grown 6% from FY24/25 to FY25/26, reaching £5.5 billion.
Given the government’s efforts to digitise and seize AI, this might not be all too surprising - and should come as reassurance to tech suppliers that they’re operating in a particularly buoyant part of a growing market.
Managed IT is the tech Strategic Suppliers’ highest-value service line
We deployed Tussell’s new contract taxonomy onto all of the Strategic Suppliers’ contracts, dating back to FY20/21.
We found that, by value, Managed IT Services, Software Development and Cloud Hosting are the tech Strategic Suppliers’ largest service lines.
The contract category that has seen the largest growth is ERP, Finance & HR system contracts, followed by Software Development and Cloud Hosting. This may not be all too surprising considering the continued drive to digitise legacy admin systems.
Notably, cybersecurity and AI are absent from the top five fastest-growing contract categories. This may reflect the time window analysed, and the fact that - according to Tussell’s AI Procurement Tracker - the government’s deference to smaller players for its AI pilots reflects the time window analysed.
Conclusion
The twelve tech Strategic Suppliers represent the most influential players in the public sector tech market today.
The findings above - which only scratch the surface of our full report’s findings - should give all tech suppliers reading food for thought. What are these firms doing to stay afloat, while the other Strategic Suppliers’ grip on the market continues to slip? What lessons can your business learn?
Download a full, free copy of Tussell’s 2026 Strategic Suppliers Report here.
