Oral Answers to Questions

Oliver Dowden Excerpts

Wednesday 28th March 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mike Wood (Dudley South) (Con)]

11. What steps his Department is taking to support the use of small businesses in Government procurement.

[The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Oliver Dowden)]

Small businesses are the engine of our economy and we are determined that they should get their fair share of Government contracts, which is why we have set an ambitious aspiration for a third of procurement spend to be with small and medium-sized enterprises by 2022. We will shortly announce further measures to help us to achieve that target.

[Rachel Maclean]

We understand that High Speed 2 will bring vast benefits to our economy in the west midlands, including £4 billion-worth of economic growth and 50,000 extra jobs, but small businesses in Redditch say to me that they are not sure how to bid for the contracts. What advice can the Minister give them?

[Oliver Dowden]

My hon. Friend raises an important point. Small businesses throughout the country create millions of jobs and it is important that they are able to access large contracts such as HS2. Public sector contracts are advertised on the Contracts Finder website, which is free and easy to use, and bidders can request information as they need it. I encourage businesses in my hon. Friend’s constituency and elsewhere to take advantage.

[Stephen Metcalfe]

As my hon. Friend will know, small businesses are the backbone of the UK economy. It is the Government’s responsibility to make sure that they can compete equally for public sector contracts. Will my hon. Friend tell the House what he is doing to level the playing field?

[Oliver Dowden]

We are constantly looking into new ways to reduce the barriers to small businesses working with the public sector, which is why we have already scrapped complex pre-qualification questionnaires for low-value contracts. We require public sector buyers to split contracts into accessible chunks for small businesses, and I am pleased to confirm that we will reopen the G-Cloud to new suppliers, which will further help small businesses.

[Mr Speaker]

We are very short of time. I sometimes think we have time for the questions but not always for the answers. We need to be pretty dextrous about this.

[Mike Wood]

Small businesses in Dudley South have shown that they can compete with the biggest names in the world. Will the Minister help them to compete for Government contracts by publishing all contracts worth more than £10,000 on the Contracts Finder website?

[Oliver Dowden]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and all contracts worth more than £10,000 are published on the Contracts Finder website. Indeed, more than 25,000 organisations are currently registered with Contracts Finder, of which 64% are small and medium-sized enterprises.

[Helen Goodman (Bishop Auckland) (Lab)]

Public procurement was meant to be one of the Brexit dividends, but it is not going very well with the Passport Office. Will the Minister tell us specifically what will change?

[Oliver Dowden]

I have to say to the hon. Lady that, as we leave Europe, it is important that we remain an open economy, and I have every confidence in the way in which that procurement was conducted. We should be sending a signal that, just as we expect foreign businesses to be able to bid for contracts here, we have an open system in this country.

[Derek Twigg (Halton) (Lab)]

I hear that the problem for small businesses is that they are often denied the chance to bid for work, because they are told by various people that it is down to Government procurement rules, so local businesses, in particular, are kept out. What more is the Minister doing to ensure that local businesses get local contracts?

[Oliver Dowden]

It is very important that local businesses can get local contracts. The first thing that the Cabinet Office is doing is ensuring that as we re-let contracts, we split them into small amounts so that they are easier for small businesses to bid for, and we have extensive engagement before we let the contract to ensure that as wide a range of businesses as possible can access it.

[Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab)]

In Brazil, 30% of food for school meals has to be sourced from local or family farms. France has just introduced a similar law on local, organic provision in public procurement. Why can we not do it here?

[Oliver Dowden]

I know the hon. Lady’s commitment to this cause. As a result of the changes made under this Government, we allow contracts to take into account factors such as the local sourcing of food, as long as it is provided to all businesses.

[Mr Gary Streeter (South West Devon) (Con)]

T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

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[Mr Streeter]

We live in a London-centric country. Can my right hon. Friend update the House on what he is doing to ensure that Government Departments are relocated to other parts of the United Kingdom, including, of course, the great south-west?

[The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Oliver Dowden)]

This Government are committed to locating economic activity outside London and the south-east. Since 2016, 12 new public bodies have been located outside London, and indeed in the south-west to which my hon. Friend refers. Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs has set up a regional centre in Bristol, which employs 1,600 people.

[Marsha De Cordova (Battersea) (Lab)]

T4. An RNIB report on the general election of 2017 shockingly found that one in four blind and partially sighted people were unable to vote independently and in secret. With just five weeks to go until the upcoming local elections, what steps are the Government taking to ensure that blind and partially sighted people can vote independently and in secret?

[Simon Hoare (North Dorset) (Con)]

T2. Perhaps an apt question for Spy Wednesday is: what more can be done to ensure cyber-security across our public sector?

[Oliver Dowden]

My hon. Friend raises a very important point. Cyber-security is a major priority for the whole of this Government, and our world-leading national cyber security strategy is supported by almost £2 billion of investment. It sets out measures to ensure that the public sector, and the wider economy, is cyber-secure.

[Layla Moran (Oxford West and Abingdon) (LD)]

T5. Yesterday, the Government called time on business in the House two hours early. Meanwhile, important Bills such as the draft Public Service Ombudsman Bill languishes in purgatory. My constituents are desperate for this Bill to be debated as it pertains to the AEA Technology pensions debacle. Will the Minister please push for this Bill to be sent to the Floor of the House?

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[Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab)]

T8. Will the Minister look at extending the balanced scorecard approach of public procurement to schools and hospitals?

[Oliver Dowden]

As the hon. Lady will be aware, we have invested in the balanced scorecard approach. Of course, we will look at extending it to whatever procurements are possible.

[Alex Norris (Nottingham North) (Lab/Co-op)]

Ministers talk a lot about voter fraud, even though there were only two convictions in 2016. Ministers do not talk about the 6 million people who are not on the electoral register. May I have a commitment from Ministers that, when it comes to strengthening our democracy, they will prioritise the many, not the few?