@UK PLC

("@UK" or the "Company")

Launch of Innovative NHS Expenditure Carbon Footprint Project

@UK PLC (AIM:ATUK.L), the cloud ecommerce marketplace, is delighted to announce the launch of the new NHS Expenditure Carbon Footprint Project.  The project is being run by NHS Sustainable Development Unit (NHS SDU), with NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS) assisting with data collection and @UK PLC providing analysis services.

In 2008 the NHS SDU calculated the carbon footprint of NHS expenditure at a national level, which at that stage was the largest scope 1, 2 and 3 carbon footprint project of any organisation in the world.  

The new NHS Expenditure Carbon Footprint Project aims to build on this initial project, extending the collection of expenditure data from the national level to all NHS organisations, such as suppliers, GPs, dentists and pharmacists.  The aim is to help inform decision making, revealing where carbon hot spots are and which suppliers and types of goods and services purchased contribute most to the carbon footprint. 

NHS Shared Business Services and @UK PLC will be collecting and analysing the data on behalf of the NHS SDU. The increased scope of the project has been made possible through the technical breakthroughs in Artificial Intelligence by @UK PLC supported by the University of Reading and Goldsmiths College London.  The technology allows for the automated analysis of finance system data to identify and categorise the individual items being purchased for the first time.

In addition the spend analytics capability from NHS Shared Business Services already provides anonymised data intelligence for around £41bn of total NHS non pay spend.

The resulting analysis will supplement the new NHS SDU report into the updated NHS Carbon Footprint due out early next year and will continue the NHS's lead as the first organisation to have an in depth understanding of its carbon footprint.

All the NHS organisations participating in the project will receive a summary of the carbon footprint of their current procurement activity and will be offered the option to upgrade to either, or both, a chargeable Spend Analysis and Carbon Analysis service.  The spend analysis capability from NHS Shared Business Services provides organisations with a detailed breakdown of potential cash savings and was used last year by the National Audit office for its report identifying £500 million in savings in NHS consumables.  The carbon analysis provides a detailed breakdown of the organisations' carbon footprint to further inform their carbon reduction plans and actions. 

Ronald Duncan, Chairman of @UK, commented: -

"It is a privilege to be working with NHS SDU who are international leaders in understanding the supply chain carbon footprint, and we believe that our Artificial Intelligence technology will make a significant impact in the understanding of the NHS Expenditure Carbon Footprint.

"This builds on our established relationship with NHS Shared Business Services, and helps NHS organisations to identify both savings and carbon reduction in a single set of analysis.

 "We hope to extend this solution out to the rest of public and private sector."

Sonia Roschnik, Operations Director of the NHS Sustainable Development Unit (NHS SDU), commented: -

"The NHS SDU are pleased that NHS organisations are getting the opportunity to identify carbon hot spots in their procurement carbon footprint at no cost. The analysis could also provide greater transparency about which suppliers, products and types of organisation are the biggest contributors to the NHS England procurement carbon footprint

"Achieving the targets set out in the Climate Change Act will only be possible with increased transparency about the carbon footprint of goods and services we buy."

 Peter Akid, Managing Director of NHS SBS Commercial Procurement Solutions, commented: -

"NHS Shared Business Services and @UK have been working together for a number of years to support the NHS in understanding its spend activity.  We are delighted to be able to utilise our spend analysis capability to put this data intelligence to further use, and are excited about working with the NHS SDU to heighten awareness of the NHS's carbon footprint.  We are also very pleased to be part of a national programme that will be integral in helping reduce the carbon footprint across the NHS."

Enquiries:

@UK PLC

@UK is Europe's leading Cloud Platform with over 1 million users, which is used for University and College's procurement along with Local Authority, Schools and other Government and Private sector procurement.

The GeM marketplace for Universities on Colleges is the only card based national marketplace in the world and was successfully delivered for the 800 Universities and Colleges and the 680 National Suppliers, proving that Cloud Ecommerce delivers large complex projects for Government on time and budget.

Richard Benyon MP, launched the @UK Green Ecommerce Marketplace back in October 2010, and it is now the largest repository of product carbon footprints in the World.

@UK was used by the National Audit Office to identify over £ 500 million in savings for 25% of NHS spend.  The ground breaking SpendInsight system used to identify the savings resulted in the award of 2 PhD's in artificial intelligence.

@UK delivers key government commitments of Savings Sustainability, and SME Inclusion along with support for Start Ups.  @UK PLC has now created over 200,000 start up businesses and recently launched a new Cloud-Start-Up.com service to provide a complete suite of cloud business software to startups along with the essentials of Limited Company, Bank Account, Domain Name, Email, Ecommerce, Accounting system and membership of the @UK business club.

@UK has 6 key competitive advantages

·      SpendInsight uses unique artificial intelligence to automatically identify savings and is available on a national framework contract

·      Ecommerce Marketplace realises the savings through correct pricing vs catalogue marketplaces which are unable to support carriage, or complex pricing

·      GreenInsight provides unique sustainability analysis and

·      Hybrid Carbon Footprints enabling universal carbon footprints at a price break through of £4 per item

·      High performance cloud technology underpinning the system

·      Start up service allowing start ups to immediately start trading

@UK is included in the Software and Computer Services Sector (9530). 

For further information please visit the @UK PLC websites

Investor Site http://www.uk-plc.net/invest

Main Site http://www.uk-plc.net

SpendInsight Site http://www.spendinsight.com

Cloud-Start-Up.com http://cstartup.com

NHS Sustainable Development Unit (NHS SDU)

The NHS SDU is a dedicated national unit set up to coordinate and stimulate sustainable development systematically across the NHS.  It provides leadership and helps develop organisations, people, tools, policy and research to ensure the NHS fulfils its potential as a leading sustainable and low carbon organisation.

For further information please contact Karl Heidel on 07946 755758, karl.heidel@sdu.nhs.uk www.sdu.nhs.uk

NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS)

NHS Shared Business Services is the market leader in business support services for the NHS.  It currently works with around 45% of NHS Trusts and organisations providing Finance & Accounting, Payroll & HR, Family Health Services and Commercial Procurement Solutions.  

NHS SBS delivers proven cost and efficiency savings for the NHS and provides innovation and leading edge technology to transform and modernise back office services.  

NHS SBS Commercial Procurement Solutions was launched in January 2011 to transform commercial procurement in the NHS.  It enables NHS Trusts to operate with strategic intent when managing the healthcare market, thereby maximising the NHS's full commercial leverage, not just to save money but also to improve quality, patient safety and to reduce inefficiencies.

NHS SBS Commercial Procurement Solutions has the potential to deliver savings opportunities in excess of £3 billion to NHS Trusts over the next five years.

For further information, please contact Peter Akid on 0161 212 3702, peter_akid@nhs.net