The Public Services (Social Value) Bill passed through the House of Commons on Friday without amendments which would have seen a greater role for civil society organisations in public service commissioning.

A series of amendments proposed by the shadow minister for civil society, Gareth Thomas, were withdrawn or not called in order to prevent a delay to the Bill, which Thomas's office says “would have effectively killed it”.

The amendments would have seen social value introduced throughout all government commissioning, and repeated a call for the publication of a document setting out a clear ‘national social enterprise strategy’. They also called for annual reports on the operation of the strategy to be made by the Secretary of State which would require prior consultation of the Charity Commission, the NCVO and Acevo in preparing the report.  

Despite the coalition holding a majority of over 80 MPs, there were not enough government backbenchers in Parliament on Friday to uphold the required quorum of 40 MPs in order to vote on the amendments.

Thomas expressed regret that the amendments could not pass: “This Bill could have achieved so much more; helping all government ministers and local councils to champion the expansion of the social enterprise sector," said Thomas, whose office advised it was “frankly astonishing that the government didn’t have enough members there to support one of the Prime Minister’s central themes, the Big Society”.

Peter Kyle, deputy chief executive of Acevo echoed this sentiment, saying he was "surprised that so few MP's were present at such a great opportunity to bolster the Big Society"

But a spokesman for Conservative MP Chris White, who put forward the Public Services (Social Value) Bill, said it was “somewhat naïve” to expect a high turnout for the passing of a Private Member's Bill, which must be read in the House of Commons on a Friday. Compromises, he said, were inevitable. “Fridays very traditionally have a very low turnout,” said the spokesman, “nearly every MP is in their constituency on a Friday… and if we pushed to get these amendments through it would have delayed the Bill passed the March deadline next year.”

White had previously put forward an amendment to set out a national social enterprise strategy but withdrew it after “it was very clear that government wanted strategies out and would have withdrawn their crucial support of the Bill”, said the spokesman. He added that while White would have liked to see social value introduced throughout all commissioning, as Thomas’ amendments requested, the government was “adamant” it only wanted it to apply to service delivery.

 

White was “very pleased at the big achievement” of passing the Bill through the Commons, the spokesman added, advising that White now has four months to get the Bill passed through the House of Lords in time for the March 2012 deadline.

All parties involved with the passing of the Bill have placed an emphasis on the time constraints involved with getting the Bill through Parliament. Peter Holbrook, chief executive of Social Enterprise UK, which has been a supporter of the Bill said: "This Bill has cross party support and is in safe hands with Lord Newby, who has a long standing relationship with the social enterprise movement. The only real danger is that the Bill may be timed out if it’s not made a top priority.

“The government must ensure the Bill gets the time it needs. It’s a critically important piece of legislation and if passed would help bring about social and economic recovery, and connect public spending with the real needs of communities at a time when Britain is in the financial doldrums."

NCVO would not comment on the specific amendments but repeated its support for the Bill saying: "We're pleased to see the level of political consensus that has emerged around placing social value at the heart of commissioning and hope to see the Bill progress into law."

Meanwhile, the Transition Institute, which launched six months ago to support new models of public services which maximise social value, has published is first publication, Social value ethos. The report, which was welcomed by the minister for civil society Nick Hurd, looks at ways social value is currently embedded in public service spin-outs.