Procurement Bill [HL]

Debate between Baroness Parminter and Lord Maude of Horsham

Report stage
Monday 28th November 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Parminter (LD)]

My Lords, I add my support to the noble Baroness, Lady Worthington. There is disunity in Horsham tonight: I disagree strongly with the noble Lord, Lord Maude of Horsham. I went to school in Horsham and was on the council there. However, I take a different view from the noble Lord about the role of procurement.

He talks about procurement’s sole purpose being good value. He went on to say that it is “motherhood and apple pie” to have value-driven public procurement policy, but I argue that it is not. That is the point of procurement: to marry good value with being value-led. Why be in government if you are not using all the levers at your disposal—regulation, fiscal incentives and disincentives, and procurement, with its massive spend—to deliver the values your Government want to deliver?

[Lord Maude of Horsham (Con)]

My Lords—

[Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist (Con)]

I remind the House that noble Lords may speak only once on Report.