News

February 05, 2010

Government aims to boost small business access to public-sector contracts

The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) has launched a campaign to help more small businesses access public-sector contracts.

The OGC, an independent office of HM Treasury, is aiming to raise awareness of the availability of public-sector contract opportunities to small businesses.

“Support for small firms should be core to the make-up of public-sector procurement, and this new campaign will help in re-educating and re-engineering where it is needed,” said OGC chief executive, Nigel Smith.

“Spending taxpayers’ money on goods and services should be as effective and efficient as possible, but that can’t happen if we don’t ensure small firms are given every opportunity to contribute,” he added.

As part of the campaign, the OGC has published a guide for the public sector entitled Small Supplier, Big Opportunity: Flagging Your Contracts to SMEs explaining how government organisations can make it easier for small firms to identify contract opportunities. The organisation is also planning to launch workshops across the UK to ensure that procurers’ contracts are visible and accessible to small businesses.

The Government also recently launched a free online course for small firms on public-sector procurement. The Winning the Contract course offers guidance on finding contract opportunities, types of contracts and submitting responses.

The Federation of Small Businesses’ (FSB) national chairman, John Wright, welcomed any efforts to improve small firms’ access to contracts. “The recent course is good news for small firms,” he said. “Currently only 16 per cent of small businesses win government contracts, so anything to change this is a valued step forward.

“However, we want the Government to ensure that micro-firms, which make up the majority of businesses across the country and rarely win public-sector contracts, are made aware that this training is available,” he added.

“Our concern is that those small firms that need it most might not be able to access this training especially those based in rural areas, where so called ‘not spots’ prevent them from accessing fast broadband.”

According to the OGC, £220 billion of contract opportunities are awarded by the public sector each year.

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