Key Facts

• The amendment would add clause (3A) to clause 23 of the Procurement Bill [Lords].
• The contract for fleet solid support ships was awarded to a Spanish-led consortium, with no guarantees of job retention included in the contract.
• This decision supports 1,200 UK jobs and 800 jobs at Harland & Wolff in Belfast.
• A bid from British companies would have sustained more than 2,000 direct jobs and about 1,500 in the wider UK supply chain, supporting another 2,500 local community jobs.
• The shipbuilding industry has lost 80,000 jobs since the early 1980s.
• Rolls-Royce announced 200 new apprenticeships at its nuclear skills academy in Derby, and Leonardo offers an apprenticeship scheme in Yeovil.
• The amendment seeks to ensure advantage to UK-based suppliers for defence or security contracts.
• 90% of defence spend is already within the UK.
• Evans presses his amendment to a vote despite Minister's concerns.
• Award criteria must balance innovation with value for money.
• Social value is important but needs realistic targets.
• CBI supports the renewed focus on social value in public-private partnerships.
• Clause 26 sets out basic principles for excluding suppliers from contract awards.
• Clause 27 ensures that exclusions apply at the start of multi-stage procurement procedures.
• Clause 28 addresses the application of exclusion grounds to subcontractors in supply chains.
• The clauses deal with mandatory and discretionary grounds for excluding suppliers.
• Environmental misconduct is included as a discretionary exclusion ground.
• National security concerns are addressed but may need further clarity in the Bill.
• There is uncertainty about whether contracting authorities will exclude suppliers based on discretionary grounds or merely disregard their tenders.
• Amendment 15 proposes moving national security from discretionary exclusion grounds in Schedule 7 to mandatory exclusion grounds in Schedule 6.
• New clause 1 mandates establishing a committee chaired by the Minister for Resilience to consider national and cyber security within the Government’s supply chain, meeting at least once every three months.
• New clause 4 requires the Secretary of State to publish a plan within six months to reduce public bodies' dependence on goods and services from high-risk countries.
• Amendments 18 and 15 to 19 relate to moving the national security ground for exclusion from schedule 7 to schedule 6.
• Clause 29 provides that suppliers may be excluded on those grounds only with express permission of a Minister.
• The speaker supports new clause 1, which aims to establish a SAGE-style committee for public procurement specifically looking at national security.
• New clause 1 aims to establish a committee to consider threats from suppliers in supply chains.
• Schedule 7 of the Bill includes an exclusion ground for national security concerns.
• The Minister must be notified before excluding a supplier on national security grounds.
• Clause 60 allows investigation and potential debarment under clause 62.
• Clause 77 enables termination of contracts if security risks are identified.
• Procurement policy note 09/14 mandates adherence to Cyber Essentials scheme for certain contracts.
• Clause 30 concerns the exclusion of suppliers who behave improperly during the procurement process.
• Clause 31 sets the scope for modifying section 19 procurement terms, allowing non-substantial changes and requiring consideration of timeframes for supplier responses.
• The Department of Health and Social Care is involved in mediation to recover public money from fraudulent PPE contracts.
• Amendments 32 and 33 seek to ensure that provisions related to supported employers are applied widely.
• The current threshold for an employer to be considered supported is 30% of disabled or disadvantaged staff, proposed by amendments 94 to increase it to 50%.
• DDPOs have at least 75% management committee representation from deaf and disabled people and a staff makeup of at least 50% deaf and disabled people.
• Clause 32 aims to reserve procurement for supported employment providers.
• Organisations must have at least 30% of their workforce composed of disabled or disadvantaged individuals to qualify.
• Public service mutuals are organisations spun out from the public sector to deliver social services on a not-for-profit basis.
• Clause 33 gives contract authorities the ability to reserve certain light-touch contracts for public service mutuals.
• The Delegated Powers and Legislative Reform Committee expressed concern over the broad power given to Ministers regarding which kinds of contracts are subject to the 'light touch' regulatory regime.
• There are about 500 CPV codes, making it impractical to include all of them in the Bill.
• Clause 34 allows contracting authorities to award contracts under a competitive flexible procedure through dynamic markets.
• Subsection (1) of Clause 34 permits restricting procurements to suppliers that are members of the market.
• Clause 35 defines utilities dynamic markets and their rules for establishing arrangements.
• Clause 36 outlines conditions for supplier membership in dynamic markets, prohibiting certain requirements like annual audited accounts unless legally mandated.
• Clause 37 sets out criteria for removing suppliers from a dynamic market, including those on the debarment list.
• Clause 38 specifies when fees can be charged to suppliers participating in dynamic markets.
• Clause 39 mandates transparency requirements for notices related to dynamic markets and their establishment.
• The Local Government Association raised concerns over terms missing from the Procurement Bill, specifically regarding school transport procurement.
• Regulation 34(12) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 allows sub-central contracting authorities to set time limits for tender receipt by mutual agreement.
• Professor Richard Bonnar expressed concerns about Clause 37 and its handling of supplier exclusion from dynamic markets.