Reforms to public procurement

The government is consulting on a new power in the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill to help small businesses gain better access to public sector contract opportunities.

The intended enabling power would allow the government to introduce a range of measures to make procurement simpler and reduce barriers as the need arises. These measures would be introduced through secondary legislation at a future date and would impose duties on procuring authorities.

This consultation exercise is being launched by the government to get the views of buyers, suppliers and other stakeholders with a keen interest in procurement. This is to ensure that the regulations made under the power in the Bill help create a simple and consistent approach to procurement across the public sector, so that small businesses can gain better, more direct access to this market.