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The government鈥檚 buying arm has confirmed the award of its long-delayed 拢2.9bn flagship consultancy framework.

Big winners on the six-lot framework include Arcadis, Gleeds, Faithful+Gould, Mace, Ridge and Turner & Townsend (see box below for full list of winners).

However, the architectural services lot has entered another standstill period, prompting market speculation that the award has been challenged. The Cabinet Office, responding on behalf of client body the Crown Commercial Service (CCS), declined to comment on the reasons.

The framework is nearly four years late after the previous process was cancelled by the CCS鈥檚 procurement partner UK SBS following a High Court challenge to the framework by then-failed bidder Turner & Townsend.

The CCS took over control of the framework in November 2014, but it has been dogged by delays, previously blamed on 鈥渢he complexity and size鈥� of the framework and the need to get it right.

A committee of MPs earlier this year slammed the performance of the CCS, calling its management of procurement frameworks 鈥渦nsatisfactory鈥�, although it did not single out the consultancy deal for criticism.

At the time a CCS spokesperson said: 鈥淲ith an experienced senior leadership team now in place, we are confident in our ability to deliver even greater value for the taxpayer moving forwards through the centralised procurement of common goods and services.鈥�

James Butler, director at Faithful+Gould said: 鈥淚 am delighted that we鈥檝e been awarded positions on both Lot 1 and 2 of CCS framework. I鈥檓 really looking forward to leading the F+G team and building on our performance from the last iteration which saw us awarded Strategic Supplier status by GPS in 2012.鈥�