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Creating Opportunities for SMEs and Third Sector Organisations

The Government's policy on creating opportunities for SMEs and third sector organisations is to encourage and support these organisations to compete for public sector contracts where this is consistent with value for money policy and the UK regulations and EU Procurement Directives.

Access For All Programme

March 2010

New! Find out all the latest programme update via the March news bulletin.

February 2010

Government welcomed the report and work has commenced on implementation. The recommendations have been split into four workstreams:

Increased transparency and visibility of public sector contracts

Embedded change in procurement practice - procurers will engage more effectively with SMEs

SMEs will have increased skills to engage in public procurement

A clearer picture of the level of SME engagement in public procurement

Accelerating the SME Economic Engine

As part of the 2008 Budget, Government asked Anne Glover to lead a committee to examine what the Government could do to make it easier for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) to supply the public sector and to examine the practicality of setting an aspirational target for SMEs to win 30% of public sector business within the next five years. The Committee's report Accelerating the SME Economic Engine (PDF, 1.96MB) was published in December 2008 alongside the Pre-Budget Report and contained 12 key recommendations for Government and the wider public sector.

1. By 2010, contract opportunities above £20,000 across the whole public sector should be advertised electronically with standard indicative contract value ranges, and accessible through a single free, easy to search online portal.

2. Government should issue all tender documentation electronically by 2010 and thisshould be kept as brief as possible. Businesses should be permitted to tender electronically for all public sector contracts by 2010; no "paper only" tenders should be required after this date, with an ambition for all tenders to be electronic by 2012.

3. Details of contract awardees should be published online in a standard format within 48 days of contract signature, accessible via the single portal by 2010.

4. Tendering opportunities thought especially suitable for SMEs or consortia of SMEs should be flagged by the procurer during the advertising process. Government should provide strategic and detailed guidance for procuring authorities on assessing suitable contracts for flagging, based on risk, value and market maturity.

5. Qualification criteria that are not specific to a sector should be standardised and incorporated in all pre-qualification questionnaires so that businesses do not need to repeatedly submit the same core information in different formats.

6. Procurers should give businesses the opportunity to provide details of all previous relevant experience when bidding for contracts, not just public sector experience. This should be taken into account when selecting successful tenderers.

7. Procurers should ensure that, where they rely on a particular accreditation scheme or standard as part of the process of prequalification or contract award, that they take a flexible approach. Businesses should be given the opportunity to provide evidence that they can meet the contract requirements by reference to other similar equivalent accreditations or standards they may already hold - especially where these have been recognised or required by other public sector procurers.

8. Departments should use their Innovation Procurement Plans to set out how procurement aligns with their overall commercial strategy, encourages innovation and gives advanced notice of long-term procurement plans.

9. Government should encourage wider use of outcome-based specifications across the public sector, as a means of driving innovation.

10. Government should expect and enable prime contractors to make their subcontracting opportunities accessible through the single, online portal created in Recommendation 1.

11. Through contract management, Government should ensure that SMEs and other firms acting as sub-contractors obtain contract conditions, including promptness of payment terms, that are no worse than those applicable to the prime contractor.

12. The Committee recommends that all central government departments should report annually on the value of their contract spend with SMEs, creating a reliable single source of quantitative data which can be used to inform future policy decisions and evaluate the recommendations in this report.

The Access For All programme builds on existing work in this area. Below are some useful publications on considering SMEs and Third Sector

Other useful related information

Return to Key Policy Principles page
Return to Policy and Standards Framework home

If you are looking for a specific document or guidance on a specific topic you can use the search engine at the top of this page. For further information or guidance please contact the OGC Service Desk on 0845 0004999.

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