Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the Procurement Bill on procurement opportunities for ethnic minority business owners.
The Procurement Bill contains proposals to simplify the procurement process and make it easier for all companies to bid rather than specific groups. The changes that are proposed are designed in particular to benefit businesses of all sizes throughout the whole economy, including ethnic minority businesses; this includes measures that will reduce barriers to entry including establishing a single transparency platform so that bidders only have to submit their core credentials once, and making reforms to procurement frameworks so that suppliers are not locked out.