New Plans for Public Procurement Aim to Benefit Small Business

A GOVERNMENT proposal, the ‘Transforming public procurement green paper‘, is setting out changes to buying rules for public sector contracts.

The measures, which have been developed over the last 14 months by a team of specialists in international procurement take advantage of the UK leaving the European Union, the government says.

Public Procurement Plans

The plans are to give more flexibility for government buyers of an annual £292 billion worth of services from the private sector. Buyers will be able to take account of a bidder’s past performance, excluding suppliers who have previously failed to deliver. They will also allow consideration of wider social value, such as economic, social and environmental factors, when picking suppliers.

The public sector can deliberately buy British for contracts not subject to international trade rules. It will enable competitions for government contracts, under £4.7 million for public works and £122k for goods and services, to be limited to small businesses, voluntary, community and social enterprises, or to a certain geographical area.

Supporting SMEs

It’s hoped the new rules will support SMEs by opening up opportunities to them and making it easier to win contracts through simpler procurement procedures. The changes will remove over 300 regulations, to create a single rulebook, as well as a single digital platform for registering contracts.

Responding to events this year, the measures will also make procurement more transparent and effective during times of crisis where government needs to act quickly to ensure vital goods and services are bought. Throughout the COVID pandemic, the UK has relied on direct awards.

The new measures will bring more competition into this process, by changing the rules to encourage more competitive buying in a quick time frame. This will allow for multiple companies to bid for emergency work, without slowing the process down.

Gavin Hayman, Executive Director of the Open Contracting Partnership, says: “We’ve all seen how old school procurement has struggled during the pandemic. These proposals will digitize and transform how contracts are planned, awarded and delivered in the UK with open data and public transparency at their heart.

“Done properly, the proposals will save huge amounts of time and money for both government and business, and deliver smarter public services to us all.”

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