Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Maude of Horsham and Mark Spencer

Wednesday 5th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Maude]

I am confident that our consultation will tease out the benefits. I absolutely accept that the trade union duty to support union members in employment disputes can have a benefit, and for that reason we are not suggesting that all facility time should be removed; indeed, it would not be lawful for us to do so. However, the amount is excessive. It has been allowed to creep up over time, and it now needs to be reduced and controlled for the future.

[Mr Mark Spencer (Sherwood) (Con)]

4. What recent progress his Department has made on its programme to abolish and reform non-departmental public bodies.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Maude of Horsham and Mark Spencer

Wednesday 13th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Maude]

The main change is that for the first time there are official figures for this spend—the previous Government did not even bother to count it—and the numbers are going up. Obviously within each Department there will not necessarily be an even progress all the time—I would have thought that even the hon. Gentleman ought to be able to understand that—but across the whole of Government spend with SMEs has doubled. I would hope that he would enthusiastically welcome that.

[Mr Mark Spencer (Sherwood) (Con)]

5. What steps he is taking to reduce the administrative and regulatory burdens that affects the number of people who volunteer.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Maude of Horsham and Mark Spencer

Wednesday 14th December 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Mark Spencer (Sherwood) (Con)]

7. What assessment he has made of the potential effects of planned changes to Government procurement on UK businesses bidding for contracts.

[The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)]

On 21 November, I announced a package of measures to transform how the Government buy. We want to save money for the taxpayer and for suppliers and to make it easier for small and medium-sized enterprises and voluntary organisations to bid successfully. That is why we have announced a pipeline of £50 billion-worth of future business opportunities. We will make it 40% quicker to do business with Government and we will, in future, engage proactively with current and future suppliers to discuss upcoming procurement opportunities.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Maude]

The first thing that we are doing is trying to ensure that the way in which we implement the European directives is sensible and not overly bureaucratic and legalistic, which it usually is at the moment. The European Commission is introducing proposals to streamline and simplify the procurement directives, which we welcome. I was talking to Commissioner Barnier in Brussels two or three weeks ago, and he was very open to that happening.

[Mr Spencer]

Fresh Opportunities is a company in my constituency that supplies water drinkers to jobcentres. Sadly, though, it lost the contract. That was not because it was inefficient or too expensive but because it could not deliver a service on a large enough scale. What can the Minister do to enable SMEs, which cannot operate on a national scale, to be able to deal with Government bodies?

[Mr Maude]

We have two objectives here. We want to buy as efficiently as we can, which, in many cases, means using the scale of Government to aggregate volume and drive down prices. In many areas of procurement of commodities, goods and services, we are able to get the price advantages of aggregation but, none the less, involve SMEs much more in the process. We have a commitment and an aspiration to increase the value of SME business to 25% of the total.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Maude of Horsham and Mark Spencer

Wednesday 14th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Maude]

Yes, 100%, which is why I adopted one.

[Mr Mark Spencer (Sherwood) (Con)]

6. What plans he has to support the voluntary sector.