Facilities management control
Follow this guidance to request spend approval when buying or extending facilities management contracts, regardless of their cost.
Facilities Management (FM) Control processes are changing – here’s what it means for you
Alongside Budget 2025, the government announced significant reforms to the public spending control and accountability framework, therefore the Office of Government Property is changing how FM business cases are handled.
What’s changing?
From late February, FM Control will no longer review Full Business Cases, extension requests or contract variations.
From 1 March, Outline Business Case reviews will also cease.
The exception is Ministerial Panel cases, which will still be reviewed until 1 April.
Why now?
With the 31 March deadline approaching, there isn’t sufficient time to allow a full assessment of these cases and deliver added value. This change will allow the team to focus on developing and implementing the new expert upstream advice model launching on 1 April.
What do I need to do?
For non-ministerial cases with a contract signing date prior to1 April that would previously have gone through FM Control, you will need to use the Self-Certification checklist instead.
This is straightforward: complete the checklist and have an accredited property leader (SCS) in your organisation sign it off.
What happens after 1 April?
The new model brings some important changes to spending approvals:
- below your Delegated Authority Limits: Approve through your own departmental processes
- above your limits, or novel/contentious/repercussive spending: You’ll need HM Treasury approval through the Treasury Approvals Process
Any conditions attached to previously approved cases remain your department’s responsibility. Functional teams will no longer track these.
HM Treasury will share more detailed guidance before 1 April.
FM control documents
Updates to this page
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Added Annex 1: FM Services Definition and FM Self-Certification checklist
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Text change 1- Current text: 'Over £500,000 and under £10 Million - approval should be sought by completion of the FMC1 Submission form, emailed to fmcontrols@cabinetoffice.gov.uk Over £10 Million - the Cabinet Office Commercial Spend Controls Process should be followed, submitting via the Commercial Assurance Management System indicating the case is FM specific. For cases over £10m which will not be submitted for commercial control approval (e.g. cases that are classified with the Commercial ‘assure’ status) please submit your Outline Business Case or Full Business case along with confirmation of the Commercial ‘Assure’ status to fmcontrols@cabinetoffice.gov.uk.' To be replaced with: 'Over £500,000 and under £20 Million - approval should be sought by completion of the FMC1 Submission form, emailed to fmcontrols@cabinetoffice.gov.uk Over £20* Million - the Cabinet Office Commercial Spend Controls Process should be followed, submitting via the Commercial Assurance Management System indicating the case is FM specific. For cases over £20m which will not be submitted for commercial control approval (e.g. cases that are classified with the Commercial ‘assure’ status) please submit your Outline Business Case or Full Business case along with confirmation of the Commercial ‘Assure’ status to fmcontrols@cabinetoffice.gov.uk. *Please note that the £20m threshold may be reduced for procurements identified as contentious or outright contentious.' Text change 2- Current text: 'The FM Controls approval process will operate within two Service Level Agreement (SLA) timescales. For cases above £500,000 and under £10 million the SLA time is 10 working days. For cases above £10 million the SLA time is 28 calendar days (excluding any pause time whilst queries are answered).' To be replaced with: 'The FM Controls approval process will operate within two Service Level Agreement (SLA) timescales. For cases above £500,000 and under £20 million the SLA time is 10 working days. For cases above £20 million the SLA time is 28 calendar days (excluding any pause time whilst queries are answered).' Text change 3- Current text: 'All cases above £500,000 and under £10 million the FMC1 form should be completed along with any supporting documentation (including OBC/FBC) and submitted to fmcontrols@cabinetoffice.gov.uk.' To be replaced with: 'All cases above £500,000 and under £20 million the FMC1 form should be completed along with any supporting documentation (including OBC/FBC) and submitted to fmcontrols@cabinetoffice.gov.uk.' Replaced Annex 1,2 and 3 with updated versions.
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The FM Control is now jointly administered by the Office of Government Property, Crown Commercial services and Government Commercial Function. Changes have been made to the policy and guidance to reflect this change along with new thresholds and a new submission form.
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First published.