Stronger focus on social value needed in Scottish commissioning

Governance | Jonathan Last | 7 Feb 2012

Social Enterprise Scotland has called for community benefit to be a priority in all of the country’s public procurement.

The call comes in response to an announcement made yesterday by Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure and Capital Investment Alex Neil, advising that more would be done to improve the procurement process for public service contracts.

Neil said that the Scottish government would attempt to push the Sustainable Procurement Bill, which would ensure training and employment opportunities through the inclusion of community benefit clauses, through Parliament prior to the next election.

But Social Enterprise Scotland’s acting chief executive Fraser Kelly put pressure on the Secretary to do more: “Public procurement reform is something that we have campaigned hard on for the past few years.

“We’re pleased that the Scottish government has taken on board our views, particularly with regards to community benefit clauses and access to and transparency of government contracts. We’re encouraged with progress, though there is still a lot of work to do to level the playing field further.

“The forthcoming Sustainable Procurement Bill must emphasise the innovative and central role of Scotland’s local social enterprises in delivering community benefit. More contracts should be awarded and delivered in Scotland, with social businesses working together to win a share of the annual £9bn a year in public procurement,” he said.

Social Enterprise Scotland also called for more local partnerships working to enable social enterprises to win contracts.

The Social Value Bill in England passed its second reading in the House of Lords at the end of January.

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