Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that public procurement processes are (a) accessible and (b) proportionate for organisations in the VCSE sector.

The Government is determined to ensure the £400 billion of public money spent on public procurement annually, delivers economic growth and supports small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) and Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprises (VCSEs).

Government departments are now required to set 2 year targets and action plans for direct spend with VCSEs and publish annual progress updates. Those falling behind will be expected to set out robust actions for improvement.

On the 26th March I announced wider reforms to improve procurements for VCSEs, including that we intend to introduce a new definition of social value, which will re-focus social value on local communities and businesses, such as SMEs and VCSEs.

Alongside this, we will introduce a new list of national and regional community schemes which will help these smaller suppliers contribute to identified social value priority areas without needing to establish their own programmes of work, and a social value Key Performance Indicator (KPI) which will improve transparency and mean suppliers and contracting authorities can be held accountable for achieving their social value goals.