Procurement rule changes to help SMEs
Under plans published in a Cabinet Office green paper, the government will allow the public sector to "buy British" for contracts not subject to international trade rules, by allowing competitions for government contracts under £4.7m for public works to be limited to small businesses, voluntary, community, and social enterprises, or to certain geographical areas.
Other measures in the green paper include:
- Removing over 300 regulations to create a single, uniform rulebook;
- Allowing buyers to include wider social benefits of the supplier, such as economic, social and environmental factors, when assessing who to award a contract to, while still also considering value for money;
- Giving buyers the power to take account of a bidder's past performance, allowing them to exclude suppliers who have failed in the past;
- A new unit to oversee public procurement, with powers to improve commercial skills of public sector contractors;
- A single digital platform for registering contacts
The green paper is available here.
This article originally appeared on Construction Manager
