Innovation

To be successful in the global knowledge economy, the UK must encourage the growth of innovative and dynamic businesses, both large and small. The Public Sector, with its tremendous purchasing power, can provide a powerful incentive for business to develop innovative products, processes and services, achieving better value for money and driving forward improvements in the quality of public services. The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) is working to encourage and embed innovation in public sector purchasing in a number of ways:

Joint OGC/DTI Ideas Portal Project

OGC and The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) have produced a recommended approach for Finding and Procuring Innovative Solutions in line with European Union (EU) rules and value for money policy. This work includes, and has been informed by, case studies from public sector innovation portal and procurement activity.

Publishing Guidance

OGC has published guidance on Capturing Innovation and Early Market Engagement, which will be of particular interest to policy makers, Senior Responsible Owners (SROs), project managers, procurement professionals, senior managers and end users.

Competitive Dialogue

The consolidated Public Procurement Directive also introduced a new competitive dialogue procedure, intended for use in the award of particularly complex procurements.  It allows contracting authorities to discuss all aspects of procurement, providing a structured process similar to the existing practice of letting Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contracts.

It allows for wider application where, for example, it is not possible to define the technical means of meeting the requirement, such as complex IT projects. This should provide procurers with a structured and legally compliant method of undertaking the discussion, which is often necessary in the sourcing and procurement of innovation. OGC has produced guidance on this provision.

Working with others

The OGC is also supporting and actively monitoring the innovation work in other procurement initiatives including:

• The work of Lord Hollick, who has reviewed three projects, Road User Charging, ID Cards, and Telemedicine, and is in the process of formulating broader recommendations relating to the ways innovation can be stimulated by procurement.
• The Cox Review of Creativity in Business.  OGC has provided a response detailing how the programme of work outlined above will also be influential in improving and stimulating creativity from business. 
• The Strategic Procurement Working Group of the UK Science Forum, which aims to propose how procurement can be used to improve UK investment in the science-based industries.
• EU Commission - work on pre-commercial procurement and innovation, defining new methods for procuring innovative new technologies.

This programme of work in its entirety will enable the public sector to capture innovative ideas with the potential to deliver better public services, improved value for money and contribute to departmental public policy objectives. Further details will be posted as work progresses.