Government: Procurement Debate

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Department: Home Office

Government: Procurement

Earl of Erroll Excerpts
Monday 25th June 2012

(12 years, 5 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Baroness Verma Portrait Baroness Verma
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I think that the noble Lord has answered his own question. I am sure that the Treasury is not aware of all reports but, again, I will raise this one with it.

Earl of Erroll Portrait The Earl of Erroll
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Is the Minister aware that smaller innovative companies often have great difficulty joining in on some government IT projects because of the stranglehold that the large systems integrators have on them? Many of the regulations make sure that smaller companies cannot join in and bid for these projects, and many of the frameworks even exclude them from doing so.

Baroness Verma Portrait Baroness Verma
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Absolutely—the noble Earl identifies a serious problem. We have formulated the G-Cloud strategy so that smaller businesses can contract out as well as tender for contracts alongside the large companies. The PQQ requirement has also been ended where contracts are for less than £100,000. We are asking for much less information from smaller companies so that they do not stumble at the first block.