If you ask many people where the Government is putting its tech pounds, it’s pretty likely they’d say healthtech and edtech. But, who knew, it turns out that justice is considerably out stripping every other part of public services.

The MoJ, prison service, courts service, the Met Police and ‘other police’ spent £3bn on tech between 2016-2020, according to a December report from Tussell.

The report says that justice buyers spent more on technology, as a proportion of total spending, than the public sector as a whole. In fact, it’s more than double.

It remains a market for the big suppliers with a handful of names winning nearly 60 per cent of deals [Capita, ATOS, CGI group, Leidos, Oracle, etc] but they have been losing market share during that period, which means other suppliers and SMEs are closing in fast.

The bulk of contract terms are thankfully short too, at 2-3 years, which again makes the market more accessible for SMEs. Some contract lengths are only 12-months which really isn’t going to appeal to large suppliers.

Hopefully, the Policing Digital Strategy launched in Jan 2020 will help to focus efforts further around tech spending and really drive opportunities for SMEs.

If you need more data and insight on public services tech spending, chat to Tussell. Otherwise get in touch to discuss how we can help with a techpr campaign to reach the justice and police tech markets.