What changed in G-Cloud 15

Timeline

G-Cloud 15 is an open framework: rather than a fresh framework every year or two, the same agreement runs for four years and reopens to new suppliers twice.

Five lots

G-Cloud 14 had three lots: Cloud Hosting, Cloud Software and Cloud Support. G-Cloud 15 splits cloud software into infrastructure software (2a) and applications (2b), and adds Lot 1b for IaaS and PaaS above OFFICIAL. Lot 3 now explicitly includes managed services and FinOps.

Lots 1a and 1b ask the same service questions, as do 2a and 2b. 42,893 services were listed in total.

Bids are scored

G-Cloud 14 did not score bids. G-Cloud 15 does, and the weights differ by lot.

• Quality Cloud Services asks about cloud service performance, and operational continuity and evergreen maintenance.
• Maximising Buyer Value asks about account management and billing transparency, technology support and user enablement, and access to innovation.
• Each part has up to 250 words (500 words for the two parts of Quality Cloud Services, 750 for the three parts of Maximising Buyer Value), answered in order, without attachments.
• On Lots 2a and 2b, price means discounts: the six call-off value band discounts are totalled and the highest total scores the full 80%. Unit prices are not scored.
• On Lot 3, the lowest average day rate scores the full 80%.
• On Lots 2a, 2b and 3, the award criteria are checkbox answers (for example user support and data sanitisation on 2a/2b, staff security clearance on Lot 3).

Social value

Social value is mandatory on every lot and worth 10%. It is assessed pass or fail at framework award: a pass earns the full 10%. You choose at least one measure from the Model Award Criteria and name a Social Value Contact.

Policy Outcome 5 is not used. The supplier declaration covers social value in three parts — understanding, commitment (the measures chosen) and organisational readiness — plus operational readiness. The commitments then appear on your listings.

Lot 3 DDaT rate card

Lot 3 prices are a rate card built on the government Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) roles, replacing the SFIA rate card used on G-Cloud 14. For each role level you offer, you give a maximum day rate for UK delivery and for offshore delivery.

• 9 job families, 58 roles, 222 role levels: architecture; chief digital and data; cyber security; data; IT operations; product and delivery; quality assurance testing; software development; user-centred design.
• Rates are maximums: they can be reduced, not increased. The minimum is £50 a day, and a day is 7.5 hours.
• Price is 80% of the Lot 3 score, and the lowest average day rate scores the full 80%.

G-Cloud Kit bundles day-rate benchmarks for all 222 role levels, from 1,462 suppliers’ listings. Some examples:

Maximum day rates; the middle half runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile. Each supplier counts once per role level. See bundled data for the method.

Lot 1a/1b price formula

Lots 1a and 1b price each deployment model with a formula:

Baseline Price
  + Fixed Onboarding Costs
  − Framework Discount
  ± Further Supplier-Specific Schemes
  − Time Limited Discounts

• Baseline prices, published at a web link, can move; the framework (minimum) discount is fixed.
• The onboarding price and the minimum discount are each scored at 5%.
• Lot 1b prices go on a separate, non-public platform.

Lot 2a/2b discount bands

Lots 2a and 2b list unit prices, which can be reduced but not increased, and a discount for each of six annual call-off value bands. The discounts are fixed for each term. They are also what is scored: the six discounts are totalled, the highest total scores the full 80%, and unit prices are not scored. The table shows the median discount suppliers offer in each band.

From 230 Lot 2a and 1,764 Lot 2b suppliers; each supplier counts once per band. On every lot, “price on application”, “from £x” and unexplained price ranges are not allowed, and a 0.75% management charge applies.

Procurement Act 2023 and the Central Digital Platform

G-Cloud 14 was let under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. G-Cloud 15 is an open framework under the Procurement Act 2023, and the supplier declaration changed with it.

• Register on the Central Digital Platform (CDP), which gives your organisation a 12-character Public Procurement Organisation Number (PPON). Consortium members and associated persons share their details through CDP share codes.
• Declare the mandatory and discretionary exclusion grounds (Schedules 6 and 7 of the Act) in your core supplier information on the CDP. The bid asks whether you or a connected person declared any.
• Bids are checked against the government’s debarment list.
• The declaration also covers parent companies, subcontractors, payments in contracts over £5m a year, modern slavery, social value, connected persons and the award form.
• A new section asks whether a third party or bid writer helped prepare the bid. AI-assisted drafting may need declaring: G-Cloud Kit shows you the question but never answers it for you.

Certifications

Service questions and limits

• New questions include an AI chatbot in user support, FOCUS resource tagging, post-quantum cryptography, the Software Security Code of Practice, multi-cloud support and quality management systems.
• Supplier type replaces the old reselling sections and is asked for every service on every lot: not a reseller, or a reseller with extra features and support, extra support only, or no extras. Lots 1a and 1b also ask, at lot level, whether you bid as a reseller or with sole control of the infrastructure.
• Lot 3 keeps categories and support details, but the separate planning, set-up, training, testing and ongoing support sections are gone; the rate card describes the people instead.
• Limits: service name 100 characters; description 500 characters; up to 10 features and 10 benefits, 10 words each; documents in ODF or PDF/A, up to 5MB, accessible, with no pricing in the service definition document.

Contract terms

• Call-offs use the Public Sector Contract (PSC) terms.
• Call-off length: Lots 1a and 1b up to 5 years plus 3 years of extensions; Lots 2a, 2b and 3 up to 4 years plus 2.
• Buyers search the Digital Marketplace, then shortlist and award through the Contract Award Service.
• Each service still has one terms and conditions document.

What changed in G-Cloud Kit

G-Cloud Kit now has 30 commands. There are no aliases for the removed ones.

The new order of work is in the submission workflow, and every command is listed on the commands page.

Sources

• GCA, RM1557.15 G-Cloud 15 agreement: dates, lots, terms.
• GCA, RM1557.15 G-Cloud 15 tender documents: Attachment 2 (How to tender), Attachment 2d (Quality questionnaire), Attachment 9 (Key changes from G-Cloud 14), Updates to Tender Documents, Framework Schedule 1, Framework Schedule 3 (Prices) and the Lot 3 rate card roles and levels.
• GCA, G-Cloud 15 question export (spreadsheet): the supplier declaration, lot questions and service questions for every lot.
• Procurement Act 2023.
• Digital Marketplace: G-Cloud 15 listings scraped on 6 and 7 October 2026 for service counts and the bundled benchmarks.

This page summarises GCA’s documents for suppliers using G-Cloud Kit. GCA’s own documents take precedence; check them before you bid.