Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to page 134 of the Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to improve procurement tools to make public sector contracts more accessible for SMEs.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
We are continuing to improve the performance and functionality of the Contracts Finder web site, which allows users to view and search opportunities that are currently open to tender, pipelines of potential procurement activity and awarded contracts.
Contracts Finder has recently been enhanced to deliver improved search for suppliers, a better experience for buyers and accessibility improvements for all users. New supply chain functionality and registration processes have been added to improve visibility of opportunities available to SMEs in the supply chain. In addition, organisation identifiers for suppliers and buyers have been added to improve our Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) implementation. Further enhancements will be developed and deployed by March.
In addition, the Crown Commercial Service will improve its digital procurement platforms to make it easier for suppliers to do business with the government, for example through implementation of the Crown Marketplace purchasing platform.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the total cost to the public purse was of ministerial special advisors in the last financial year; and how much is projected to be so spent in the next financial year.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Information about the number, pay bands, and cost of special advisers will be published shortly in the normal way.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what Government property is located in Salford and Eccles constituency.
Answered by Matt Hancock
A list of properties located in the Salford and Eccles constituency drawn from the central database of Government properties and land across the UK, e-PIMS™ is attached. A copy of this will be placed in the Library of the House. Government owned property can be found at:www.gov.uk/find-government-property.
Information is only held centrally on the Central Civil Estate. Any information outside of this is held locally by departments.