Making public sector procurement more accessible to SMEs
The government is consulting on a range of measures to make public procurement more accessible to small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
In May 2013, the Prime Minister’s advisor on enterprise and small business, Lord Young of Graffham, recommended developing a set of “single market” principles to be applied by all public bodies in their procurement. Read Growing your business: a report on growing micro businesses.
The government has now committed to consult on the high level standards which all public bodies should be looking to achieve.
This consultation describes the single market principles which suppliers should expect when doing business with the public sector. These principles should simplify and standardise the advertising, bidding and payment of public contracts, and should remove the complexity, cost and inconsistency when trying to sell to more than one public sector body. They would apply to businesses as direct contractors with government and as sub-contractors or partners in a procurement supply chain.