Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Robert Neill and Anne Marie Morris

Monday 31st October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Anne Marie Morris (Newton Abbot) (Con)]

T6. Does the Minister agree that the key to opening up public sector procurement opportunities for small and micro-businesses is to ask local authorities to ensure that companies that are experts in their fields are not effectively excluded by the use of consolidated contracts that favour larger businesses that might be a jack of all trades but a master of none?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Robert Neill)]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising that important point, because this is precisely why we are working with the Local Government Association on its local procurement programme. The programme is looking in particular at what are sometimes described as micro-lots, which are used as a means of breaking up a large contract into smaller bundles, which are specifically designed to be more accessible to smaller firms and providers.