The Department recognises that SMEs are often well placed to deliver specialist services at extremely competitive rates. We will therefore continue to build on our work with SMEs, with the clear objective of improving the value for money to taxpayers.

The Department has published a Small and Medium enterprise (SME) procurement action plan which is available in the associated resources on this page.

Commercial focus

The Department is focused on delivering outstanding value from all of its commercial activity. This remains the ultimate test that all contractual arrangements must meet.

The Department channels almost 30 per cent of the overall procurement spend through SMEs. We expect to further enhance this good track record in working with SMEs, by increasing the number of SME consortia competing for Departmental contracts.

The Department’s commercial policy and best practice incorporates the actions announced by the Minister of the Cabinet Office in February 2011, November 2011 and March 2012.

  • From April 2012,  the Department will bi-annually publish a Prior Indicative Notice (PIN) in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) to allow SMEs time to form consortia or partner with larger suppliers.
  • The Department will continue the successful supplier open days for larger requirements, to encourage SMEs to form connections with larger suppliers, or to create consortia.

Making improvements

The Department will continue to;

  • ensure processes deliver value for money
  • ensure SMEs are not excluded because our processes are unnecessarily bureaucratic
  • ensure all procurement practices and methodologies are as SME friendly as possible.

We will:

  • make improvements to procurement and grant documents where appropriate - by obtaining and acting on supplier feedback
  • gather market intelligence - using it to provide an insight into the markets within which our grant recipients and suppliers operate.

We expect these measures to further enhance the Department’s good track record in working with SMEs by increasing the number of SME consortia competing for Departmental contracts. 

Evidence of our success with SMEs is contained in the case studies attached in the associated resources on this page.

We will also be looking for evidence of positive feedback from SMEs on the availability of Departmental contract opportunities.