Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, in relation to the social value elements of large procurement contracts by government departments or bodies wholly-owned by His Majesty's Government, to what extent they assess tenders by evaluating (1) the absolute number of social value programmes the successful bidder will undertake, and (2) the impact and effectiveness of the social value programme; and what assessment they have made of the relative impact of each form of evaluation.

The Social Value Act 2012 was designed to improve procurement practice and diversify suppliers to the government. Implementation is the responsibility of individual public service commissioners. The Social Value Model is the latest government intervention that is enabling the government to evaluate social value policy in the central government.

The Social Value Model launched in January 2021 (PPN 06/20), standardises the assessment of bidder’s proposals for delivering social value outcomes based on government’s priorities. The Model takes into account factors such as the number of local jobs or apprenticeships a contractor will provide, the number of SMEs involved in their wider supply chain and improving community integration.

Implementation of the Model across central government is underpinned by a detailed training programme, and central government departments are now required to report supplier social value commitments against Key Performance Indicators.