Minister for civil society Nick Hurd has said government will support a private member’s bill from Chris White MP which will require public sector contracts to factor in social outcomes alongside price and an organisation’s track record.

The Public Services (Social Enterprise and Social Value) Bill is having its second reading in the House of Commons tomorrow.

Hurd, who was speaking at a 3SC House of Commons reception on the future of public services this week, said government would support the Bill’s focus on public commissioners considering social and environment values when contracting:

“We want to send strong signals that this is the norm,” said Hurd. “If enough MPs are behind it we will support this part of it.”

White (pictured), who also spoke at the event, said he was very excited about debating the Bill on Friday:

“I hope it will create a more level playing field across civil society,” said White, “and provide a step forward to an open and diverse public services industry.”

He added that more needed to be done to make bidding for public contracts easier, such as e-contracting.

Hurd also said changes needed to be made to the contracting process of public services, focusing on prime contractors, who he admitted often got the bigger slice of the pie compared with sub-contractors lower down the food chain.

“The least of crumbs are often on the frontline,” said Hurd. “We want to address this. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has developed the Merlin standard and we would want to encourage this standard across Whitehall.”

The Merlin standard is a code of conduct for contractors and subcontractors delivering DWP programmes. If an organisation does not follow the code it risks seeing its contract revoked.