Cabinet Office and Crown Commercial Service issue four procurement policy notes
The Cabinet Office and the Crown Commercial Service have issued four procurement policy notes, including on how to develop sustainable skills through major projects.
The policy notes cover:
Prompt payment and performance reporting
This note reflects the new reporting requirements on prompt payment announced in Budget 2015. It sets out what central government departments, including their Executive Agencies and Non Departmental Public Bodies, must do to comply with the requirements. It also restates the policy on prompt payment for central government (Policy Procurement Note 08/10).
Sustainable skills development through major projects
The Government requires public procurers of major construction and infrastructure projects, with a capital value over £50m, to use public procurement to increase investment in training and apprenticeships.
“Procurement decisions should always be made on a quality, cost and risk basis. However decisions can take into account qualitative long-term benefits on the supply side, eg appropriate investment in skills development, as long as they are consistent with the government’s overarching priority of value for money,” the Crown Commercial Service said.
“This policy aims to support growth by building a more skilled and productive workforce, reducing the risks of supply constraints and increased labour cost inflation.”
This note provides information on:
- government policy on open standards principles for software interoperability, data and document formats;
- open standards that have been selected for use across government;
- practical guidance on specifying one of the government’s selected standards, Open Document Format (ODF), within procurement for office productivity software.
It replaces Procurement Policy Note 09/11 on using open standards when specifying IT requirements.
Tax arrangements of appointees
This note provides guidance for departments, their Executive Agencies and Non Departmental Public Bodies to help them seek assurance about the tax arrangements for their public appointees. It replaces Policy Procurement Note 07/12: tax arrangements of public appointees issued on 24 August 2012.