Government consults on enabling power to help SMEs bid for public contracts

The Government has launched a consultation on a new enabling power intended to help small businesses gain better access to public sector contract opportunities.

The power is contained in the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill.

The Cabinet Office and the Crown Commercial Service said: “The intended enabling power would allow the Government to introduce a range of measures to make procurement simpler and reduce barriers as the need arises.

“These measures would be introduced through secondary legislation at a future date and would impose duties on procuring authorities.”

The consultation covers how the power could in particular be used to require procuring authorities to:

• Run an efficient and timely procurement process;
• Make available, free of charge, information or documents, or processes necessary for any potential supplier to bid for a contract opportunity;
• Accept electronic invoices.

“These measures will apply to ‘contracting authorities’ as defined in the Public Contracts Regulations 2006, with an exception for bodies whose functions are wholly or mainly devolved functions,” the consultation paper said.

It added that in the past small businesses had found bidding for public sector contracts “excessively, and sometimes prohibitively, bureaucratic, time-consuming and expensive”.

The consultation, which can be viewed here, runs until 9 am on 13 November 2014.