The UK Department for Transport (DfT) is responsible for supporting "the transport network that helps the UK's businesses and gets people and goods travelling around the country".
From Q1 2016 to the end of Q3 2021, the DfT spent approximately £30 billion with private suppliers, making it the third-largest contracting authority by total spend across this period.
Using our market intelligence platform, this buyer profile digs into this spend - and much more - to understand the DfT's procurement behaviour. If you're looking to do business with the DfT, getting this high-level overview is a vital first step.
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Sector Case-Studies (IT, Consulting & Facilities Management)
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From January 2016 to the end of August 2021*, the DfT spent approximately £30.1 billion across nearly 54,000 transactions with private suppliers.
This made the DfT the third-largest public body by total spend with private organisations: one place above the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, and one place below Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd.
As the above analysis shows, DfT spend jumped dramatically in 2020, surging from £2.7 billion total in 2019 to £11.2 billion the following year.
Across the covered period, the DfT's largest suppliers by spend were:
Supplier / Organisation |
Sector |
Total Invoice Value |
Largest Listed Spend |
Value / Date |
Govia Thameslink Railway Ltd |
Rail |
£3.28bn |
# (RBSGen Fund Auto out) |
£221m / Apr 2020 |
London & South Eastern Railway Ltd |
Rail |
£2.3bn |
# (RBSGen Fund Auto out) |
£110m / Apr 2020 |
First Trenitalia West Coast Rail Ltd |
Rail |
£1.54bn |
2013 Wk3 EMA - Estimated Periodic Franchise Payment (Basic Franchise Pay) |
£142m / Apr 2020 |
First MTR South Western Trains Ltd |
Rail |
£1.41bn |
# (RBSGen Fund Auto out) |
£127m / Apr 2020 |
Northern Trains Ltd |
Rail |
£1.36bn |
# (RBSGen Fund Auto out) |
£97.4m / Apr 2020 |
* As of writing, this is the latest date the Department has published its invoices.
From January 2016 to the end of December 2021, DfT awarded approximately 1,822 contract awards at a total value of £13.2 billion.
The large value of contracts awarded by the DfT in 2016, 2017 and 2019 stem from a number of franchise awards: in 2016, for instance, Abellio Greater Anglia Ltd was awarded a £3.7bn contract "to operate the East Anglia rail passenger franchise from 16.10.2016 until 12.10.2025".
Excluding franchise-related contracts, the DfT's top contract awards across this period include:
Title |
Award Date |
Award Value |
Supplier(s) |
June 2020 |
£384m |
WSP UK Ltd, Costain Group PLC, Fluor Ltd |
|
Nov 2018 |
£150m |
Atkins Ltd |
|
Provision of RAIDS WP3 - Technical & Programme Management and Analysis |
March 2021 |
£96m |
TRL Ltd |
Total Facilities Management Services - Department for Transport |
Sept 2017 |
£90.3m |
Mitie (Facilities Services) Ltd |
Dec 2021 |
£68.1m |
Transport Trading Ltd |
* The DfT awarded 7 'Smart Mortways Alliance' contracts from June - September 2020, ranging from values of £384m to £8.43m, to roll-out the government's 'smart motorways' project. These were awarded to numerous suppliers, including Balfour Beatty Group Ltd, Jacobs UK Ltd, BAM Nuttal Ltd / Morgan Sindall PLC JV, and those named above.
Tussell's platform identified 122 likely-to-be-renewed DfT contracts - with a total value of £371 million - that are due to expire between 2023 - 2025.*
68 of these contracts - or 55% - were not call-off contracts from a framework, valued at £96.8 million.
The spike in upcoming renewal value in April 2024 stems from a diverse collection of contracts, namely the £96 million Provision of RAIDS WP3 contract with TRL Ltd. This is the largest likely-to-be-renewed contract across this period.
Aside from this contract and call-off contracts, the largest upcoming potential renewals include:
Contract Title |
End Date |
Award Value |
Supplier(s) |
June 2025 |
£15.3m |
Informed Solutions Ltd |
|
March 2023 |
£11.9m |
Specialist Computer Centres PLC |
|
March 2023 |
£10.7m |
BT Ltd |
|
March 2024 |
£10m |
Winckworth Sherwood LLP |
|
Provision of Legal Adviser for the Passenger Services Commercial Model Design Team |
Feb 2023 |
£3.44m |
Ashurst LLP |
* "likely-to-be-renewed" is defined as 'services' and 'supplies' contracts
From January 2016 to the end of December 2021, DfT awarded contracts to at least 693 suppliers.*
Excluding rail companies, the DfT's top suppliers - by total contract award value - include:
Supplier |
Sector |
Total Contract Award Value |
Largest Listed Contract |
Contract Value / Award Date |
Fluor Ltd |
Engineering & Construction |
£390m |
£384m / June 2020 |
|
Jacobs UK Ltd |
Engineering & Construction |
£274m |
£222m / June 2020 |
|
Atkins Ltd |
Engineering & Construction |
£150m |
£150m / Nov 2018 |
|
Balfour Beatty Group Ltd |
Engineering & Construction |
£162m |
£222m / June 2020 |
|
WSP UK Ltd |
Engineering & Construction |
£160m |
£384m / June 2020 |
The suppliers with whom the DfT awarded contracts most frequently were:
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Aecom Ltd (70 contract awards, valued at £22.2m)
-
OVE Arup & Partners (54 contract awards, valued at £25m)
-
WSP UK Ltd (41 contract awards, valued at £160m)
-
Atkins Ltd (40 contract awards, valued at £170m)
-
Steer Davies & Gleave Ltd (36 contract awards, value at £9.11m)
* This figure includes subsidiaries.
Below is a breakdown of the DfT's IT, consultancy and FM contract awards from January 2016 - December 2021. This analysis was conducted using CPV codes and keyword searches, meaning the data may include some anomalous results.
IT and Software (CPV: 48000000, 72000000, 42960000)
From 2016 - 2021, the DfT awarded approximately 338 IT and software-related contracts, at a total value of £367 million.
The above analysis clearly shows that both the volume and total value of DfT IT and software contracts has increased year-on-year, surging to £250 million in 2021 (a 5312% increase from 2016).
£96 million of the 2021 totals comes from the aforementioned Provision of RAIDS WP3 (Technical & Programme Management and Analysis) contract, awarded to TRL Ltd in March 2021 via the Traffic Management Technology 2 framework.
The largest suppliers in this sector - by total contract award value - includes TRL Ltd (£100m), Identity Holdings Ltd (£50m), Insight Direct UK Ltd (£43.4m), Informed Solutions Ltd (£31.9m) and SAP UK Ltd (£16.4m).
The largest contracts in this period include:
Contract Title |
Award Date |
Award Value |
Supplier(s) |
Provision of RAIDS WP3 - Technical & Programme Management and Analysis |
March 2021 |
£96m |
TRL Ltd |
Provision of Haulier Information & Advice Sites and COVID Testing Services |
April 2021 |
£50m |
Identity Holdings Ltd |
June 2021 |
£42.4m |
Insight Direct (UK) Ltd |
|
July 2021 |
£15.3m |
Informed Solutions Ltd |
|
March 2021 |
£9.5m |
Kainos Software Ltd |
Marketing, Recruitment, Consultancy (CPV: 79000000)*
From 2016 - 2021, the DfT awarded approximately 182 consultancy-related contract awards, at a total value of £174 million.
The above analysis indicates that the DfT began awarding more valuable consultancy contracts from 2019, with the DfT Draft Specification for Solution PSTVS contract award accounting for £20 million of that year's total.
The largest suppliers in this sector - by total contract award value - include Corporate Travel Management (North) Ltd (£20m), Deloitte LLP (£18.9m), Eversheds Sutherlands International LLP (£14.3m), Identity Holdings Ltd (£14.3m) and WPP Brands UK Ltd (£11.4m).
The largest consultancy-related contracts in this period included:
Contract Title |
Award Date |
Award Value |
Supplier(s) |
June 2019 |
£20m |
Corporate Travel Management (North) Ltd |
|
Procurement of Information and Advice Stands and Events Management |
Sept 2020 |
£14.3m |
Identity Holdings Ltd |
March 2021 |
£11.4m |
WPP Brands (UK) Ltd |
|
Provision of Commercial and Financial Advisors for the Williams Rail Review |
Dec 2019 |
£9m |
Deloitte LLP |
July 2019 |
£7.5m |
23red Ltd |
* Search excluded the term 'facilities management'
Facilities Management *
From 2016 - 2021, the DfT awarded only 10 FM-related contract awards, at a total value of £113 million.
A substantial bulk of this value comes from a single contract, Total Facilities Management Services (DfT), awarded to Mitie (Facilities Services) Ltd in Sept 2017 for £90.3m. This contract is due to expire in January 2023.
The largest suppliers in this sector - by total contract award value - were Mitie (Facilities Services) Ltd (£90.3m), B W Interiors (£21m), Flexiform Business Furniture Ltd (£1.26m), Mace Group Ltd (£203k), and The Event Umbrella Ltd (£200k).
The largest contracts awarded in this period include:
Contract Title |
Award Date |
Award Value |
Supplier(s) |
Sept 2017 |
£90.3m |
Mitie (Facilities Services) Ltd |
|
Sept 2019 |
£21m |
B W Interiors |
|
May 2019 |
£1.26m |
Flexiform Business Furniture Ltd |
|
DfT Group Facilities Management Service Model Project Manager Remit |
March 2016 |
£203k |
Mace Group Ltd |
Emergency catering services to support traffic management in Kent |
Jan 2021 |
£200k |
The Event Umbrella Ltd |
* This search was conducted using a combination of several dozen keywords, such as "facilities management", "hard fm", "soft fm", "estate management" etc.
Of the roughly 1,822 contracts awarded by the DfT from January 2016 - December 2021, at least 492 - or 27% - were call-offs from a framework.
Using Tussell's frameworks analytics, we can see the total value of these call-offs sat at just over £2 billion, and spanned over 74 different frameworks.
By value of total identified call-offs, the DfT's most valuable frameworks across the period were:
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Specialist Technical Advice for Rail (STAR) Framework (£164m)
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Traffic Management Technology 2 (£102m)
By count of identified call-off contracts, DfT's most utilised frameworks were:
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Specialist Technical and Commercial Advisory Services for Rail and Other Transport Modes Framework (STAR 2) (76 call-offs)
-
RM3756 - Rail Legal Services (36 call-offs)
-
G-Cloud 11 (35 call-offs)
-
RM6018 Research Marketplace Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) (35 call-offs)
-
RM3745 Management Consultancy Phase 1 Award (21 call-offs)
Across this period, the DfT operated approximately 58 frameworks of its own, with a maximum potential value of £443 million.
*
The Department for Transport is a major government spender: through this high-level analysis, you can begin to understand the best route for your organisation to find new business with the Department.
This profile only covers the surface of what Tussell's aggregated data platform can tell you about the public sector. With Tussell, you can analyse spend, contract awards, favoured frameworks and more across the public sector, helping you make more informed decisions and strategies when selling to the public sector.
Book a personalised demo with our team to see how Tussell can unlock public sector insights and opportunities for your business.
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