{"id":54284,"date":"2015-02-25T00:15:00","date_gmt":"2015-02-25T00:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=3f0676b860dbde12419f5f6b7cf9b5ec"},"modified":"2015-02-25T00:15:00","modified_gmt":"2015-02-25T00:15:00","slug":"news-story-government-spends-11-4-billion-with-smes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=54284","title":{"rendered":"News story: Government spends \u00a311.4 billion with SMEs"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>Central government spent an unprecedented \u00a311.4 billion with small and medium-sized enterprises (<abbr title=\"small and medium-sized enterprises\">SMEs<\/abbr>) in 2013 to 2014. The Minister for the Cabinet Office Francis Maude has announced new figures showing that a record 26.1% of government spend went to <abbr title=\"small and medium-sized enterprises\">SMEs<\/abbr>.<\/p>\n<p>The new data shows that central government spent 10.3% directly with <abbr title=\"small and medium-sized enterprises\">SMEs<\/abbr>, and 15.8% indirectly. This meets our aspiration, set in 2010, that 25% of government procurement spend would be with <abbr title=\"small and medium-sized enterprises\">SMEs<\/abbr> by the end of this Parliament. View the data on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/central-government-spend-with-smes-2013-to-2014\">central government spend with <abbr title=\"small and medium-sized enterprises\">SMEs<\/abbr> 2013 to 2014<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>We have launched a refreshed Contracts Finder website, at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gov.uk\/contracts-finder\">www.gov.uk\/contracts-finder<\/a>. It now has a much better search function, including the facility to search by location. Contracts Finder covers current and future public sector contracts above \u00a310,000 in central government and above \u00a325,000 in the wider public sector. It\u2019s free to use, and you can use it from a computer or a mobile device eg a smartphone or tablet.<\/p>\n<div class=\"call-to-action\">\n<p>Search for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gov.uk\/contracts-finder\">government contracts<\/a> now.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>New legislation coming into force today (25 February) means that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>everyone in the supply chain must comply with 30 day payment terms, including suppliers and sub-contractors<\/li>\n<li>public bodies must publish an annual late payment report, making their accountability more transparent<\/li>\n<li>the bidding process is simpler across the wider public sector \u2013 complex forms, such as Pre-Qualification Questionnaires, are now abolished for low value contracts<\/li>\n<li>the procurement process for public sector contracts will be quicker<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"call-to-action\">\n<p>Read more about the reforms to government buying: <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/procurement-policy-note-0315-reforms-to-make-public-procurement-more-accessible-to-smes\">reforms make procurement more accessible to <abbr title=\"small and medium-sized enterprises\">SMEs<\/abbr><\/a> <\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/procurement-policy-note-0215-public-contracts-regulations-2015\">Public Contract Regulations 2014 guidance<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/transparency-requirements-for-publishing-on-contracts-finder\">transparency requirements for publishing on Contracts Finder<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>Minister for the Cabinet Office Francis Maude said: <\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"last-child\">As part of our long-term economic plan this government is overhauling public procurement to open things up to businesses of all sizes. I am so pleased that our reforms have ensured that innovative <abbr title=\"small and medium-sized enterprises\">SMEs<\/abbr> benefited from \u00a311.4 billion of business last year alone. Over a quarter of our spend now goes to <abbr title=\"small and medium-sized enterprises\">SMEs<\/abbr> but we know there\u2019s much more to do, and these new reforms show just how determined we are to finish the job.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Lord Young, the Prime Minister\u2019s Enterprise Adviser said: <\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"last-child\">Contracts Finder is a world first in terms of scale and ambition. It opens up government business like never before and levels the playing field for <abbr title=\"small and medium-sized enterprises\">SMEs<\/abbr> who in the past, didn\u2019t know how to find public sector contracts, let alone bid for them.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Piers Linney, Co-CEO of Outsourcery and member of the government\u2019s <abbr title=\"small and medium-sized enterprise\">SME<\/abbr> panel, added: <\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"last-child\">We know government business has been incredibly complicated and costly to bid for in the past, and that was reflected in the tiny proportion of spend going to <abbr title=\"small and medium-sized enterprises\">SMEs<\/abbr>. This new legislation and the new site create a huge opportunity for <abbr title=\"small and medium-sized enterprise\">SME<\/abbr> businesses with reduced cash flow risk. They need to educate themselves on their rights under the new legislation and really get under the skin of Contracts Finder to make sure they can seize that opportunity.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The regulations implement new <abbr title=\"European Union\">EU<\/abbr> rules for public sector contracts which will speed up the procurement process. The UK is the first <abbr title=\"European Union\">EU<\/abbr> member state to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/transposing-eu-procurement-directives\">implement these rules<\/a>, doing so in just 10 months, 14 months earlier than the <abbr title=\"European Union\">EU<\/abbr> deadline.<\/p>\n<div class=\"call-to-action\">\n<p>Find out more about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/doing-business-with-government-a-guide-for-smes\">doing business with government<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Government spends over a quarter of its procurement budget with small and medium-sized enterprises. Further reforms will increase the spend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54284"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54284"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54297,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54284\/revisions\/54297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}