Procurement / By /

UK Government Launches Plans To Transform Procurement.

December 17, 2020
Procurement

The UK government yesterday launched a green paper, a series of proposed changes to procurement rules, purporting to put transparency and increased community value at the centre of its new approach.

Certainly 2020 has seen the Government come under significant scrutiny in it’s procurement processes, with a litany of ineffective contracts awarded in the emergency response to the pandemic. If there ever were a catalyst for procurement change, it has been Covid-19.

In any given year, the government buys around £292 billion of services from the private sector. These new measures aim to allow more flexibility for buyers, enabling government to better respond at scale and better use taxpayer funds. It hopes to drive increased competition through much simpler procurement procedures and provide wider societal benefit through including the assessment of social value, for the first time, when awarding contracts.

The rules will certainly help small businesses, who often struggle to match the buying power of large businesses with more significant infrastructure, more established trade and supply chain networks or direct inroads to government officials.

By levelling the playing field for SMEs, new opportunities will hopefully open up. If these proposed changes materialise, they should make it easier for SME’s to win contracts, which in turn will drive local economies, support jobs growth, increase innovation and therefore increase prosperity in communities across the UK.

The rule changes include streamlining the regulatory framework down to three procedures. Assessment will now include a wider range of parameters, including for the first time, economic, social and environmental measures and importantly, the ability to review bidders past performance, and the ability to exclude suppliers who have previously failed to deliver.

The effects of these rules changes should flow on to any further emergency procurement required, which we’ve seen so much of in 2020.These new rules will allow greater competitiveness at speed, and limit the need for government to directly awards contracts with little competition or rigour around delivery capability and cost.

The biggest winner in the new framework is transparency. There will be greater transparency for how taxpayers money is spent, more details on who it is spent on and greater visibility of previous poor performance of contract awards winners. This is all welcome news, as is the new spotlight on the broader effects of procurement  through assessing social and environmental impacts as well as economic impact. The green paper is available here, we’ll be looking more closely at it in coming weeks.

If you’d like to talk to us about the work we do helping governments around the world with their procurement data,get in touch .

–Fiona Hunt

June 6, 2023

Net Zero Needs Further Action, Says NAO

A new National Audit Office (NAO) report highlights that further action is needed by the UK Government to strengthen governance and delivery...
Read more...
June 1, 2023

Critical Audit on Australia’s Frigate Procurement

The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) has recently released its findings into a review of the Department of Defence (Defence) 2018 procurement...
Read more...
May 30, 2023

Space To Innovate- New UK Gov Opportunity

The UK Government's, Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) Space Systems Programme has announced it is seeking proposals to aid UK Defence...
Read more...
May 25, 2023

EU Commission Move To Electronic Procurement

The European Commissions Directorate Generate for Informatics (DIGIT), has launched a new dynamic purchasing system for software licences and associated services (SIDE...
Read more...
May 22, 2023

Biosecure Procurement Trial

The UK Government yesterday announced new measures for domestic tree seed production and biosecurity procurement requirements. The next round of the Domestic...
Read more...
May 18, 2023

New Industry Body White Paper Review of Covid Procurement

Since early on in the pandemic, there has been significant focus on the procurement of Covid related PPE, due to unprecedented nature...
Read more...
May 11, 2023

EU Council Joint Procurement Under European Peace Facility

The European Union Council has adopted an assistance measure worth €1 billion under the European Peace Facility (EPF) that will further contribute...
Read more...
May 10, 2023

Measuring Sustainable Public Procurement

One of the projects we are most proud of is working with The Open Contracting Partnership to create a Sustainable Public Procurement...
Read more...
May 3, 2023

From Hero to Zero – UK Digital Marketplace Shuttered

Within living memory, the UK’s Crown Commercial Service (CCS) had planned to reshape a large swathe of public procurement in the image...
Read more...
May 2, 2023

We Sell Data, Not Seats.

Why we sell data not seats? We're data analysts. We really understand the data we gather. We've been doing it for 15...
Read more...
May 2, 2023

New Tech Disrupts Traditional Government Procurement

A Silicon Valley startup, GLASS, has created a revolutionary new tech, Glass Commerce, an e-commerce marketplace enabling compliant transactions between government buyers...
Read more...
April 25, 2023

Green Public Procurement: New Report

At Spend Network, we are always on the look out for governments, think tanks, research bodies, and other organisations who are working...
Read more...
April 25, 2023

EU Agrees on Anti-Coercion Instrument

The European Commission and European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade have agreed on an anti-coercion instrument (ACI) which will enable public procurement...
Read more...
April 13, 2023

£256 Million Contract for Cyprus Awarded by UK Government

The UK Ministry of Defence  has awarded a £256 million contract, for work, repairs, servicing, and facilities management for the UK defence...
Read more...
April 5, 2023

Endorsements For Export Agencies

Endorsements are a win-win for export agencies. Exporters face new challenges, both in terms of increased barriers to trade following the pandemic,...
Read more...

Newsletter

Compelling research, insights and data directly into your inbox.

Recent media stories

Search

Recent articles