Policy Statements and Initiatives
CO: In a move expected to save £3bn a year, Francis Maude has announced that the Government is making significant changes to the way it buys in categories of common goods and services such as stationery & office services. Small and medium enterprise (SME) action plans set out how each Government Department will seek to achieve the Government’s overall aspiration to do 25% of its business with SMEs.
The plans include the creation of one central team, Government Procurement, which will contract for widely used goods & services for the whole of Government at a single, better price, ending the signing of expensive deals by individual departments.
The move will end poor value contracts such as those where government departments & agencies paid between £350 & £2,000 for the same laptop and between £85 & £240 for the same printer cartridge from the same supplier. Central procurement of common items is expected to save more than £3bn a year by 2015 – 25% of the Government’s current annual spending on these items.
The move will end poor value contracts such as those where government departments & agencies paid between £350 & £2,000 for the same laptop and between £85 & £240 for the same printer cartridge from the same supplier. Central procurement of common items is expected to save more than £3bn a year by 2015 – 25% of the Government’s current annual spending on these items.
DCMS: Homes & businesses across Wiltshire, Norfolk, and Devon & Somerset will have access to superfast broadband connections as the Government’s drive to connect rural areas moves into the next phase. Each area will receive a £ms package, part of the Government’s £530m fund earmarked to support the roll-out of superfast broadband to areas that the market alone will not reach.
No local authority need lose out though, as this comes ahead of an announcement later this year on funding for every local authority in the country. The Government is committed to providing the best superfast broadband in Europe by 2015.
ScotGov: Energy Minister Fergus Ewing has commented on news that Germany is to phase out its nuclear power plants.
ScotGov: Scottish local authorities have been asked not to progress or bring forward new proposals to close any rural school for one year. A Commission on the Delivery of Rural Education will be established to consider the provision of education in rural communities and to take a comprehensive look at the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010, which includes a clear legislative presumption against the closure of such schools and the need for educational benefits to be the driving force in any proposed closure.
MoD: A new strategy programme is being developed to ensure value for money is achieved when delivering equipment & support to members of the Armed Forces. Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox has announced the new Materiel Strategy which is being led by Chief of Defence Materiel Bernard Gray.
The strategy is considering how Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) - the organisation that equips & supports the Armed Forces for current & future operations - can operate differently to become more effective & more efficient.
ScotGov: The heads of government of Northern Ireland, Wales & Scotland last week called for the UK Government to join them in a 'progress agenda' embracing social & economic, financial & constitutional and policy reform across the UK.
ScotGov: Scotland must capitalise on its competitive advantages and explore the huge economic opportunities available in global markets, Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment & Sustainable Growth, John Swinney said last week. In his first major speech to Parliament since being re-elected, he said a priority area for sustainable economic growth would be the internationalisation of Scottish businesses & the re-industrialisation of Scotland.
CO: The Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude published the Government’s new Construction Strategy last week, which ‘will reform the way in which government procures construction across all sectors, and in doing so will reduce costs by up to 20% by the end of this parliament, helping both the government and the construction sector’.
The Government’s Plan for Growth, published alongside Budget 2011, and the Infrastructure Cost Review Implementation Plan, published earlier this year, highlighted the critical importance of an efficient construction industry to the UK economy and the need for reform of public sector construction procurement to improve value for money to taxpayers and enable the construction industry to focus on bringing forward innovative solutions.
CLG: Local councils were last week updated on Government plans to secure a value for money transfer of the Audit Commission's in-house practice into the private sector. In a letter from the Department's Permanent Secretary, councils were told that Ministers' initial view is that the best value for money option is to outsource all the audits currently undertaken by the in-house practice to the private sector.
CLG: Housing Minister, Grant Shapps has called on communities to start laying the foundations for the future developments they would like to see in their area. Mr Shapps said that communities across the country should start looking at the opportunities that the new Community Right to Build proposals, currently before Parliament, could offer them.
To kick off the discussions within communities, Mr Shapps launched a new guide that gives people an idea about what the new powers could mean for their area, and encourages them to think about the sort of community-led development they want to see.
