G-Cloud director Tony Singleton bids farewell to GDS as he switches to BIS role

Singleton to start his new role as deputy director of operations at BIS on 1 March

Tony Singleton, the Government Digital Service (GDS) G-Cloud and digital commercial programme director, has bid farewell to the GDS team as he readies himself for a new role at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).

Singleton will begin his role as deputy director of operations at BIS on March 1.

His move is yet another departure from GDS since GDS chief Mike Bracken left last year. However, this particular move suggests that the government values the work he has done so far on the government's Digital Marketplace platform. In particular, the launch of the G-Cloud procurement framework back in 2012 - and that it wants his expertise to help deliver similar results at BIS.

"Tony will lead on recruitment, finances, procurement, commercial and business operations for BIS Digital, using his extensive experience and skills to ensure BIS Digital is able to deliver the group-wide transformation which forms part of the [department's] corporate strategy," said a BIS statement.

Singleton has been working at the Cabinet Office since September 1998, becoming chief operating officer of GDS in January 2011. After more than three years in the role, he became director of G-Cloud and digital commercial programme at GDS. He was rewarded with an OBE in June 2014 for his services to the provision and improvement of digital public services.

Yesterday, Singleton tweeted that he was "sad to be leaving [the Government Digital Marketplace] ... It's been a great journey - but [an] exciting challenge ahead," he wrote.

Earlier this week, the government released its latest figures for G-Cloud - with sales of IT software and services rising to £959m in December, up by £55m as sales continued to increase via the procurement framework.

Sales from the G-Cloud and the Digital Services framework, which make up the government's Digital Marketplace, have now broken the £1bn mark.