Business and Other Briefings
CO: The government has invited suppliers to help deliver its digital agenda through a new procurement framework. As part of an ambition to move away from legacy IT and big contracts with a few large systems integrators, this new framework will make it easier for smaller companies to bid for business.
The Digital Services Framework has been put together by Government Procurement Service (GPS) and the Government Digital Service (GDS) - working closely with departments. It will be offered as a managed service to central government departments, with all services under the framework procured centrally through GPS as the contracting authority. The framework will be open to applications until 7 August 2013.
BIS: Businesses & NGOs working in the mining, oil & gas industry joined forced with the government last week to mark the launch of the UK’s implementation of the Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI).
The Initiative, which was set up to increase transparency, improves the way revenues from oil, gas and minerals are managed and makes sure that people across the world share in the economic benefits of the natural resources in their country.
CEBR: The UK public sector’s procurement process is the most expensive in the European Union, according to new research from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). The average total cost of a competitive procurement process (or competition) is £45,200, with £8,000 of those costs falling on the public body seeking to attract bids.
This compares to an EU average cost of £23,900, meaning that public sector procurement processes in the UK are 90% more expensive than the EU mean. CEBR also studied the length of procurement processes. The UK public sector purchasing process was found to be one of the longest in Europe, a full 53 days longer than the EU average and some 20 days longer than the Italian process, the next longest.
CLG: 11 enterprise zones will benefit from a £150m boost from the government to create local jobs and secure growth across the country, Local Growth Minister Mark Prisk announced last week.
Tax avoidance using offshore entities - European Court's judgment in Paul Newey (trading as Ocean Finance).
Clarification of how VAT Tribunal ruling in Paymex Limited will apply in voluntary arrangements.
This brief explains how to deal with claims from persons to whom amounts have been wrongly charged as tax by their suppliers but who have not paid any tax to HMRC themselves.
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