News In Focus
29 April 2009
Government support for small businesses
The Scottish Government has taken steps to give small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) easier access to public procurement contracts.
Finance Secretary John Swinney has written to chief executives and procurement managers across the public sector, urging them to adopt "six simple steps" to improve access and support for smaller firms and third sector bodies to the £8 billion they spend each year on goods and services.
Among other actions Mr Swinney is urging them to:
- use the Public Contracts Scotland portal to advertise opportunities;
- review tenders on outcomes to allow for alternative solutions to be put forward;
- require in procurement deals that subcontractors are paid within 30 days of invoicing.
"In the current recession and with rising unemployment, public bodies have a duty to help SMEs compete for public sector contracts," he said.
"The public sector needs to build effective relationships with SMEs and ensure that suppliers can quickly and easily find out about these contracting opportunities.
"Our free Public Contracts Scotland portal – a single source of information for suppliers – has been live for six months. Already, almost 24,000 suppliers are registered and 3,000 contracts have been advertised. 108 public bodies have registered on the site, but I expect every public body to see the benefits and use Public Contracts Scotland."
The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) welcomed the move. Andy Willox, FSB Scottish Policy Convener, called for public bodies across Scotland to review their procurement practices accordingly, to ensure smaller enterprises were not excluded from important projects.