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Select committee: Science and Technology Committee

Public Procurement

Closed Opened 22 Oct 2010 Closed 22 Oct 2010

Science and Technology Committee Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗

Inquiry scope (the committee's words)
Call for Evidence The inquiry will focus in particular on the Department for Transport and its related public bodies, as a working example of the current procurement practices within departments. The inquiry seeks to investigate the extent to which the current procurement practices and processes in place are effective in encouraging innovation within industry and supporting the development and diffusion of innovations. A call for evidence inviting written submission on this inquiry was published on 22 October 2010. The deadline for submissions has been extended to 13 December 2010 .

Where it stands

The inquiry is closed, opened 22 October 2010.

The committee has published 1 report, most recently 1st Report - Public procurement as a tool to stimulate innovation on 25 May 2011.

The government's response

Published 12 September 2011.

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The Government welcomes the Committee's report and agrees that a fundamental culture change in public procurement is needed, while declining several specific structural recommendations.

  • On ministerial responsibility, the Government states it "does not therefore have any plans to assign a Minister overall responsibility for both procurement and innovation", and considers it "more appropriate for individual departments" to be responsible for their future needs.
  • On Innovation Procurement Plans, it has "decided to end the requirement for Departments to produce IPPs", citing variable quality of the Plans, as part of the wider reform of government procurement.
  • On departmental Chief Scientific Advisers, it agrees they have a role in encouraging innovation in procurement, but whether they hold responsibility or a more advisory role "will be for individual departments to determine".
  • It is developing a lean sourcing process for all central government procurements "for implementation from January 2012", currently being tested on departmental pathfinder projects.

Read the government's response ↗ Report an error

Reports

All reports

Recent activity

Reports

1 report