Cabinet Office written question – answered at on 24 February 2026.
Julia Lopez
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office), Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps her Department is taking to facilitate public sector access to Artificial Intelligence expertise through procurement; and how the Government Commercial Agency will (a) identify, (b) accredit and (c) engage individuals and organisations that supply Artificial Intelligence expertise.
Chris Ward
The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office
The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) facilitates public sector access to Artificial Intelligence (AI) expertise primarily through the AI Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS). This agreement provides a flexible route for the public sector to procure AI services from a range of specialist suppliers.
CCS manages flexible commercial agreements that regularly engage the market and encourage new suppliers to join. To be admitted, all providers must demonstrate that they meet the required standards and assessment criteria, ensuring high-quality expertise is available across the public sector.
Until the Government Commercial Agency is established, these functions will continue to be led by CCS.
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The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
