smallbusiness.co.uk: Helping your business think big

The Government has pledged to help small businesses win a bigger share of public sector contracts.

The announcement follows findings from a report released by the Better Regulation Task Force and the Small Business Council, in May this year. The report, ‘Government: Supporter and Customer?’, found that small businesses face a mountain of paperwork and other bureaucratic obstacles when trying to compete for public sector business.

The Government has said it will:

- Develop one web portal advertising all lower value central government non-military contracts and urge local authorities to set up their own ‘Selling to the Council’ websites

- Provide support for small businesses to help them negotiate the public sector tender process

- Develop one common pre-qualification information document for lower value contracts, so that small businesses no longer have to fight their way through a mountain of paperwork every time they apply to be considered for a public sector contract.

Teresa Graham, deputy chair of the Task Force and a member of the Small Business Council, believes that small- and medium-sized companies can now look forward to a level playing field when public contracts are up for tender.

The Task Force and the Small Business Council has published a list of eleven recommendations to fulfil and trials of these are currently being run in Haringey and the West Midlands.

To find out more about the Government response and recommendations, go to the Better Regulation Task Force website, at www.brtf.gov.uk.

See our earlier story on preparing for public sector contracts.

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