On 15 September 2026 the Government Commercial Agency opened RM6399 Consultancy and Professional Services: £5 billion over four years, ten lots, up to 500 places, tenders by 3pm on 9 November 2026. Two years after Whitehall pledged to halve consultancy spend, the buying route is back at full scale. Here is how to secure a place.
Somewhere in your pipeline is a public body that, from June 2027, will reach for one agreement before it looks anywhere else for consultancy. On 15 September 2026, at 11:02am, the Government Commercial Agency published the notice that decides whether your firm is on it. RM6399 Consultancy and Professional Services carries an estimated £5 billion over four years, ten lots and a ceiling of 500 places, and it closes to tenders at 3pm on 9 November 2026 (tender notice 2026/S 000-087183). Its predecessor, Management Consultancy Framework Four, was cut from £5.7 billion to £1.7 billion in November 2024 as the government set out to halve consultancy spend. The controls behind that cut are still in force. The framework has come back anyway, nearly three times the size, with room for more than twice as many firms. If MCF4 is how you sell today, your place ends on 28 July 2027 and nothing carries across. If MCF4 shut you out, this is the door reopening, and it stays open for 55 days (15 in September, 31 in October, 9 in November).
What exactly opened on 15 September 2026?
A single-stage competition. The notice runs the open procedure under section 20 of the Procurement Act 2023: no shortlist to make first and no second round to recover in, so the document you submit by 3pm on 9 November is the whole case. Clarification questions close at 3pm on 22 October 2026. The agency expects to decide appointments on 1 June 2027, with the framework running from 24 June 2027 to 23 June 2031. Buyers may call off with or without further competition, and the agency takes a fee of up to 1% of everything you invoice.
Ten lots share the £5 billion, and they are not equal.
| Lot | Scope | Value (excluding VAT) | Scored on |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Multidisciplinary, every call-off capped at £2 million including VAT | £600 million | 80% price, 20% quality |
| 2 | Strategy and Policy | £850 million | 90% quality, 10% price |
| 3 | Transformation | £2,000 million | 90% quality, 10% price |
| 4 | Finance | £350 million | 90% quality, 10% price |
| 5 | HR | £200 million | 90% quality, 10% price |
| 6 | Procurement | £300 million | 90% quality, 10% price |
| 7 | Health and Social Care | £300 million | 90% quality, 10% price |
| 8 | Infrastructure and Public Services | £200 million | 90% quality, 10% price |
| 9 | Environment and Sustainability | £125 million | 90% quality, 10% price |
| 10 | Restructuring and Insolvency | £75 million | 70% quality, 30% price |
| Total | Ten lots | £5,000 million |
Source: tender notice 2026/S 000-087183, 15 September 2026. Transformation is 40% of the total (£2,000 million of £5,000 million).
Why is a framework that was cut to £1.7 billion suddenly worth £5 billion?
Because the cut was to the last framework, not to the demand. On 15 November 2024 the Cabinet Office announced its consultancy controls: ministerial sign-off for any engagement above £600,000 or nine months, permanent secretary approval above £100,000 or three months, savings of over £1.2 billion by 2026, and a successor framework shrunk from £5.7 billion over four years to £1.7 billion over two. MCF4 went live on 29 July 2025 with 219 suppliers and no option to extend beyond 28 July 2027 (Government Commercial Agency, RM6309 agreement page). On 11 March 2026 the Public Accounts Committee reported that the government could not show halving would work, and that its own figures put consultancy spend for 2022 to 2023 anywhere between about £1.36 billion and £2.23 billion. Six months later the agency published a four-year framework at £5 billion.
| Previous framework: MCF4 (RM6309) | New framework: RM6399 Consultancy and Professional Services | |
|---|---|---|
| Value | £1.7 billion over two years, cut from a planned £5.7 billion over four | £5 billion excluding VAT (£6 billion including VAT) over four years |
| Term | 29 July 2025 to 28 July 2027, no extension | 24 June 2027 to 23 June 2031 |
| Suppliers | 219 | Up to 500 |
| Route in | Closed since award in 2025 | Open procedure, tenders by 3pm on 9 November 2026 |
Source: Cabinet Office press release, 15 November 2024; Government Commercial Agency, RM6309 agreement page; tender notice 2026/S 000-087183, 15 September 2026.
The approval thresholds have not moved, so departments will place fewer, larger, better justified call-offs, and the agency has sized the pipe for them. The £5 billion is not a promise to spend. It is the ceiling buyers are planning around, and you cannot sell into it from outside.
Which lot should you enter, and which one is a trap?
The lot names read like an old management consultancy brochure. The classification codes do not. The notice attaches the IT services code (CPV 72000000) to Lots 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 8, and Advice Cloud’s reading of the tender documents (16 September 2026) is that digital, technology and cyber runs as a service line through most lots. A data strategy practice, a technology-enabled transformation consultancy or a digital service design firm belongs here as much as on G-Cloud 15.
The trap is Lot 1. It looks like the easy entry, with a broad scope and a name that fits everyone. It is scored 80% on price, and every call-off is capped at £2 million including VAT, so it is a rate card contest for small packages of work. The other nine lots are decided almost entirely on what you write: 90% quality in Lots 2 to 9, 70% in Lot 10. Choose the lot where your evidence is strongest, not the one whose title matches your website.
What will the evaluator be looking for?
Proof, in the form the documents ask for. As summarised by Advice Cloud (16 September 2026), they require Technical Ability Certificates, each backed by a recent, separately named client contract, and current Cyber Essentials certification; earlier commentary also flags a Carbon Reduction Plan for Lots 2 to 10, public liability, employers’ liability and professional indemnity insurance, and a financial viability risk assessment (Neuven Consult, 3 March 2026). Check each against the documents on the notice. In an open procedure nobody rings to ask for the missing certificate; the tender is scored without it.
Then there is the writing. The 90% quality lots are won by answers that show a method, name the client it worked for and state the result, and lost by answers that describe capability in general. Price the 1% fee into your rates rather than on top of them. Decide three things this week: which lots, which named contracts prove each one, and who owns the submission until 3pm on 9 November. Our consultants run framework onboarding on a fixed fee and bid leadership for the tender itself, and our G-Cloud 15 record is 100% of applications accepted. For an international firm, the customer list attached to the notice is the market map: one agreement reaching central government, NHS bodies and the wider public sector.
What does this mean for contracting authorities?
Two dates now sit in your consultancy pipeline. RM6399 starts on 24 June 2027 and MCF4 ends on 28 July 2027: about five weeks of overlap and no extension behind it, so any call-off under MCF4 must be awarded before 28 July 2027. Central government bodies still carry the November 2024 controls above £100,000 or three months, and the £2 million cap on Lot 1 will decide how multidisciplinary work is packaged. Plan the 2027 to 2028 requirements now, decide which will be competed within the framework and which will be direct call-offs, and record the justification at the time. Our procurement transformation team builds that pipeline alongside in-house teams.
The shift to notice is this. In 2024 the market was told to expect less. The notice of 15 September 2026 shows the same controls, a far bigger pipe, and a door that shuts at 3pm on 9 November on a framework that runs to June 2031. The firms that treat the next seven weeks as a bid, with named evidence behind every claim, will be selling through it for four years. The firms that treat it as a form will be reading about them.
Questions consultancy and technology firms are asking
What is RM6399 Consultancy and Professional Services?
A Government Commercial Agency framework for consultancy and professional services across ten lots, valued at £5 billion excluding VAT over four years from 24 June 2027 to 23 June 2031, with up to 500 places. It succeeds Management Consultancy Framework Four (RM6309), which ends on 28 July 2027 (tender notice 2026/S 000-087183, 15 September 2026; RM6309 agreement page).
When is the RM6399 tender deadline?
Tenders are due by 3pm on 9 November 2026. Clarification questions close at 3pm on 22 October 2026. The estimated appointment decision date is 1 June 2027 (tender notice 2026/S 000-087183).
Can a technology or data consultancy be appointed?
Yes. The notice attaches the IT services CPV code 72000000 to Lots 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 8, and the tender documents treat digital, technology and cyber as a service line across most lots (Advice Cloud, 16 September 2026). Choose the lot by how it is scored: 80% price in Lot 1, 90% quality in Lots 2 to 9.
Is my place on MCF4 carried over?
No. RM6399 is a new open procedure and every supplier tenders afresh. MCF4 has 219 suppliers and no extension option; RM6399 allows up to 500 (Government Commercial Agency, RM6309 agreement page; tender notice 2026/S 000-087183).
What does a place on the framework cost?
Nothing to apply. Once appointed, the Government Commercial Agency charges a fee of up to 1% of the charges you invoice to buyers, so it belongs inside your rate card (tender notice 2026/S 000-087183).
Sources: Find a Tender, Government Commercial Agency, Consultancy and Professional Services (RM6399), tender notice 2026/S 000-087183, published 15 September 2026; Government Commercial Agency, RM6309 Management Consultancy Framework Four (MCF4) agreement page, accessed 21 September 2026; Cabinet Office, New controls across government to curb consultancy spend and save over £1.2 billion by 2026, press release, 15 November 2024; House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts, Government’s use of external consultants, press release, 11 March 2026; Advice Cloud, RM6399 Consultancy and Professional Services (CaPS): what tech suppliers need to know, 23 July 2026, updated 16 September 2026; Neuven Consult, GCA RM6399 Consultancy and Professional Services (£5 billion), live opportunity summary, 3 March 2026; Procurement Act 2023, section 20.