UK Police saved nearly £2 million

Brief

One of the areas where police forces have historically struggled to collaborate and standardise to achieve savings is office supplies. As part of the Collaborative Law Enforcement Procurement (CLEP) Programme, Opportunities for savings on office supplies were identified through collaboration and standardisation of their requirements.

An office supplies category strategy was developed through the CLEP programme with the objective of saving 7% – 10%. This represented a potential saving of between £690,000 – £980,000.

Solution

As the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) already had in place an established framework for office supplies (RM3703) it made sense for the programme to undertake a further competition under the agreement, rather than re-approach the market directly.

In doing so the programme was immediately able to benefit from standardisation and consolidation as the products available through the agreement are based on a streamlined core product catalogue of around 900 items.

Additionally, 60% of the UK police office supplies had previously been bought through a single supplier which presented an opportunity for greater competition by running an eAuction, led by CCS. This bought over 85% of the UK police spend together.

Result

• Got savings via framework and through the eAuction
• Regions savings were 23%
• Some forces save up to 31%
• Potential savings of £1.9million