Guidance

Cabinet Office Commercial Assurance (version 8)

Updated 13 May 2026

Follow this guidance when you want to get approval for commercial activities above your organisation’s Delegated Authority Limit (DAL), and for transactions that meet the Novel, Contentious, and Repercussive (NCR) criteria, in accordance with HM Treasury latest definition.

Background

Most Cabinet Office spend controls ceased as a requirement from 1 April 2026 as part of changes to the spending control and accountability framework. The Cabinet Office is committed to iterating the spend controls process to increase government efficiency and collaboration.

Scope of Central Commercial Assurance

Cabinet Office Commercial Assurance will now take place as part of the Treasury Approval Process. As such, it applies to all commercial activity for spending proposals that have a whole life cost above one or more of the relevant Delegated Authority Limits (DALs), or are deemed to be Novel, Contentious, or Repercussive (NCR).  

If you are unsure of the Delegated Authority Limits for your organisation, contact your HM Treasury Spending Lead or your Department’s Finance Business Partner.

Some examples of commercial activity that will require trigger the Treasury Approval Process (above DALs) is set out below:

• New or replacement contracts or call offs from frameworks, Dynamic Purchasing Systems (DPS) and Dynamic Markets (including concession contracts) 
• Contract changes or extensions 
• Contracts that exceed the DALs even where there is zero spend commitment e.g. Framework agreements, Dynamic Purchasing Systems and Dynamic Markets 
• Contracts with a grant element 

Prior Information Notices for Cases in Scope of Commercial Assurance

Organisations are encouraged to engage the market when developing their commercial strategy. However, you must ensure any market engagement is not conducted in such a way that any spend determination by HM Treasury is compromised.

CO Commercial Assurance operates on the following principles:

• You do not need to seek approval from HM Treasury to issue a Prior Information Notice where this involves sounding out supply markets regarding your organisation’s requirements, how the services will be delivered, or to gather intelligence on delivery models, terms and conditions, performance standards etc. in developing the strategy that will inform your Outline Business Case.
• You do need to seek approval from HM Treasury prior to issuing a PIN or other notice when your organisation intends to warm up the market to an imminent procurement, before HM Treasury has approved the Outline Business Case.

For all commercial activity requiring HM Treasury approval, organisations are encouraged to share Prior Information Notices with their relevant Commercial Business Partner in the CO Commercial Assurance Team who will provide guidance on whether the commitment to the market is too prescriptive and does not allow subsequent options analysis. As a rule of thumb, organisations should avoid market engagement that would be reputationally damaging if the organisation did not proceed with the strategy presented.

Assurance against standards

The CO Commercial Assurance function assures cases against the Commercial Functional Standard and other functional policies and best practice including Sourcing Playbook, Construction Playbook and Procurement Policy Notes.

The CO Commercial Assurance methodology distils analysis into six ‘tests’:

1. Commercial policies - test the extent to which the case takes account of relevant Government commercial policies including those relating to SMEs, Social Value, Prompt Payment and Modern Slavery.
2. Commercial options and maximising competition - tests the robustness of options analysis and chosen route to market, considering how competition has been maximised.
3. Markets & Suppliers - tests the extent of market engagement and supplier/market health, including how supply market risks and issues have been factored into the procurement.
4. Risk allocation, pricing and value for money - tests how value for money will be realised, that risk is allocated to the party best able to manage it and that the approach to pricing is appropriate.
5. Contract, management and delivery - tests if the contract will be fit for purpose, appropriate performance mechanisms will be included and there is a robust approach to contract management, including transition and exit.
6. Process and planning - tests the extent and effectiveness of commercial planning, assurance and compliance with process.

Guidance and Support

Each organisation has a Cabinet Office Commercial Business Partner who can support and advise you on Commercial Assurance with the overall governance process moving to a single, multi-disciplinary approval point in HM Treasury.

This is part of a broader review of Cabinet Office spend controls which ceased as a requirement from 1 April 2026 as part of changes to the spending control and accountability framework. 

Email commercialassurance@cabinetoffice.gov.uk, who can advise you who your Commercial Business Partner is.

Pipeline Updates

In order to maintain strategic visibility of pan HMG commercial activity, your organisation must record all future commercial activity costing £20 million or more (excluding VAT) on a commercial pipeline managed through the Commercial Assurance Management System. You should add new commercial activities in scope, which is due to be procured within the next 18-24 months to the pipeline as soon as possible.

You should also include any material changes to services which result in contract variations of £20 million or more in your pipeline. This includes new activities, extensions and contractual changes.

You can access guidance on developing a commercial pipeline, including details of the minimum viable pipeline (MVP).

The updated pipeline is expected to be submitted twice a year. Please indicate which pipeline items are above your organisation’s DAL or NCR, to enable alignment with the pipeline of cases submitted for HM Treasury approvals. Please note that the submitted pipeline will be used for analysis and information purposes only and not for assurance activities

Submitting an Assurance Approval Request

Organisations with cases in scope of HM Treasury approvals, which require CO Commercial Assurance engagement, may continue to submit a commercial approval request using the online system Commercial Assurance Management System.

On receipt of the documents, a designated case lead will carry out a review of the submission and engage with the nominated point of contact to seek further clarification or clarify specific areas of the case as applicable.

The case lead will complete an assessment of the case and submit advice to the nominated HM Treasury Spending Principle to feed into the recommendations provided to the relevant HM Treasury approval forum (see HM Treasury MOU with your organisation for details).

A decision regarding the case, including related conditions will be communicated to the submitting organisation by the relevant HM Treasury Spending Principle or their nominated contact

Retrospective Cases

Retrospective cases will be communicated to the relevant HM Treasury Spending Principle for a decision on next steps. These cases include, but are not limited to, the following categories:

1. where the procurement has already commenced (e.g. issue of an SQ, ITT or equivalent, or issue of a PIN which commits the Authority to running the procurement in a particular way);
2. where the results of the evaluation have been communicated to bidders (through e.g. a preferred bidder letter or similar);
3. where contracts have already been executed or commitments to enter into a contract or an extension have been made;
4. where spend has been incurred or committed,

Managing Conditions of Approval

Cases will often be approved with conditions set by HM Treasury. These may include commercial conditions, designed to strengthen the commercial case, address non-compliance with standards and policy, or mitigate identified risks.

Any applicable conditions will be communicated in writing in the approval notification from HM Treasury, including due dates. You should proactively respond to all conditions by the set deadlines and notify HM Treasury and the CO Commercial Assurance Team if you will not be able to meet the condition due date. 

Evidence and responses against commercial conditions may also be uploaded into the Commercial Assurance Management System. If you have a login, you can provide responses to conditions directly in the system. If you do not have access to the Commercial Assurance Management System, you can provide responses to your organisation’s assurance team or if such a team is not in place, to the CO Commercial Assurance Team via email who will update the Commercial Assurance Management System on your behalf.

Early Engagement

Early engagement is the process by which an organisation’s commercial team explains the context and issues associated with a commercial case to the relevant Commercial Business Partner in advance of final internal approval and before the formal HM Treasury approval process commences. It is an opportunity to familiarise the CO Commercial Assurance Team with the circumstances of your project and provide your organisation with early feedback on the Commercial Assurance review. Commercial teams are encouraged to always engage early on contentious and high value programmes that are in scope of HM Treasury approvals.

The point at which early engagement starts will depend greatly upon the nature of the programme and a balance must be found between engaging early enough to allow any feedback to be actioned whilst still at a point when commercial plans are sufficiently mature. 

If a case is particularly contentious, then early engagement allows the CO Commercial Assurance Team to provide feedback to the submitting organisation and HM Treasury sufficiently early to avoid approval delays due to commercial concerns.

Early engagement is not a mandatory part of the Commercial Assurance process for either party and is conducted under the following principles:

• Early engagement is not a substitute for inadequate planning. If organisations seek early engagement to reduce the determination time then this will be agreed at the discretion of the relevant Commercial Business Partner. Requests based upon unforeseen emergencies or risk to life, health and safety will take priority.
• Although guidance and feedback can be provided during early engagement, this does not guarantee an outcome. HM Treasury reserves the right to make a final determination.

Programme Assurance

Most large programmes consist of multiple commercial workstreams, with more than one contract awarded to different suppliers. In these circumstances, an overarching business case and commercial strategy can be reviewed in conjunction with your organisation’s commercial pipeline. Where commercial activity is conducted under a specific programme, HM Treasury with input from the CO Commercial Assurance Team would determine which related commercial transactions would require the Commercial Assurance review.

The relevant Commercial Business Partner can review the programme commercial strategy and recommend the best assurance treatment for each contract activity. Whichever route is determined to be most appropriate, it is important that organisations managing large complex programmes are able to provide the following information in order to facilitate a smoother HM Treasury approvals process:

• A commercial pipeline specifically for the programme (which should be a subset of information contained and identifiable on your organisation’s overall commercial pipeline)
• A programme business case and commercial strategy.
• A procurement plan for each contract activity that describes how it fulfils the overarching strategy.

Efficient and meaningful engagement with the CO Commercial Assurance Team at a programme level allows both teams to minimise the risk of knowledge loss with staff turnover and allows HM Treasury to consider programme level approvals with constructive commercial assurance input.

Interface with other Functions

The CO Commercial Assurance Team is one of a number of functions, which will continue to provide advice to HM Treasury under the reformed spending control and accountability framework. Reflecting their different nature, input will different on a case and programme basis. There are, however, areas of commonality and the CO Commercial Assurance Team will coordinate advice provided by other functions where practicable and appropriate. Organisations can help this process by alerting the relevant Commercial Business Partner when they are aware of the involvement of other functions in the assessment of the case.

It is important to note that engagement with one function does not obviate the need to engage with others. The Functional assurance teams will work together with HM Treasury to achieve efficiencies but it is the requesting organisation’s responsibility to engage with and provide the necessary information to all relevant assurance teams.

Contact

Email commercialassurance@cabinetoffice.gov.uk for questions related to the commercial assurance process.