Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Cabinet Office

Oral Answers to Questions

Nick de Bois Excerpts
Wednesday 19th December 2012

(11 years, 11 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Lord Maude of Horsham Portrait Mr Maude
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The hon. Lady is quite simply wrong. Serco has had no involvement whatsoever. It will be involved in some of the regions in the forthcoming—[Interruption.] There seems to be a certain amount of interest in this. Serco is in a partnership with voluntary organisations and it is the lead organisation in a minority. Most of the regions are being led by voluntary and community sector organisations, two of them by consortia of further education colleges. I hope the hon. Lady will welcome that.

Nick de Bois Portrait Nick de Bois (Enfield North) (Con)
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5. What his policy is on streamlining the procurement process to enable more small and medium-sized enterprises to secure Government contracts.

Chloe Smith Portrait The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Miss Chloe Smith)
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It is this Government’s policy to dismantle the barriers facing small companies, charities and voluntary organisations to ensure they can compete for contracts on a level playing field. This helps to deliver economic growth through public procurement. As I have mentioned before, it is an ongoing process to reach our aspiration in this Parliament of 25% of central Government procurement spend being with SMEs.

Nick de Bois Portrait Nick de Bois
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I am grateful to the Minister for that answer. If bad practice continues, will she explain how my constituent SMEs can complain, and will her office undertake to ensure that investigation follows if bad practice exists?