ISSUES
: Business and Trade
Chapter 1: Business today
3
Big opportunities for small firms:
government set to spend £1 in every £3
with small businesses
We are setting an ambitious target that £1 in every £3 government spends will be
with small businesses by 2020.
M
att Hancock, the Minister
for the Cabinet Office has
announced an ambitious
new target to get more small
businesses working on central
government contracts.
In 2013 to 2014, central government
spent an unprecedented £11.4
billion with small and medium-
sized
businesses
–
those
employing 250 employees or less.
This is equivalent to 26% of central
government spend.
By 2020, the Government wants to
increase this to a third. This would
mean an extra £3 billion per year (in
2013 to 2014 terms) going to small
and medium-sized firms directly or
through the supply chain.
Earlier this year, the Government
improved the way it buys goods
and services to help more small
businesses bid for public sector
contracts, by:
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requiring the entire public
sector supply chain to be paid
within 30 days
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abolishing
pre-qualification
questionnaires for low value
public sector contracts, making
it simpler and quicker to buy
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requiring the public sector to
publish its contracts in one
place on Contracts Finder.
Each government department and
the Crown Commercial Service will
now make sure that it meets this
target by setting out individual plans
and targets for spending with small
and medium-sized businesses over
the next five years.
Minister for the Cabinet Office, Matt
Hancock said:
“This is suchanamazingopportunity
for the country’s diverse and
innovative small businesses, and
today I urge them to get stuck in.
From computers to uniforms – there
are so many opportunities for small
businesses to work with us, and I
want to see more of them providing
value for money for the taxpayer
and benefiting from our spending.”
John Allan, National Chairman for
the Federation of Small Businesses
(FSB), said:
“The Government has much to
gain from opening up public
procurement to smaller businesses
and we welcome the Government’s
commitment to achieve this
ambitious target. To meet it, the
Government will need to focus on
robust monitoring and challenge of
poor practices wherever they are
found. The FSB will play its part,
and will work with ministers on this
important goal.”
John Manzoni, Chief Executive of
the Civil Service said:
“Further
opening
up
our
marketplace to small businesses is
good economic sense all round –
making it easier for them to access
and win government business
opportunities, whilst encouraging
increased competition and market
innovation to deliver best value for
the taxpayer.”
27 August 2015
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The above information is
reprinted with kind permission
from the Cabinet Office, The
Rt Hon. Matt Hancock MP and
Crown Commercial Service.
Please visit
for
further information.
© Crown copyright 2016
