Agenda item

This is the annual report of the Head of Procurement and Commercial Services to the Committee, concerning the Council’s procurement function, and provides assurances that the Council’s arrangements are up to date, fit for purpose, effectively communicated, and routinely complied with.

The annual report of the Head of Procurement and Commercial Services provided the Committee, with information in relation to the Council’s procurement function, and provided assurances that the Council’s arrangements are up to date, fit for purpose, effectively communicated, and routinely complied with.

The Head of Procurement and Commercial Service presented the report and highlighted the following points:

· The Council’s procurement arrangements are being reviewed to ensure that they are fit for purpose in the context of the Procurement Act 2023. Members were informed that since the publishing of the agenda, the Government had pushed back on the date for implementation of the new legislation until 24^th February 2025.

· It was noted that key points had been provided in Paragraph 4 of the submitted report.

· Appendix A of the report was highlighted setting out the Council’s processes for procurement.

· Members noted that as part of the Core Business Transformation programme work was ongoing in relation to ‘Source to Contract Review’. As part of this a review of the Council’s Contract Procedure Rules would be undertaken to look at simplifying them and take into consideration the new legislation in the Procurement Act 2023.

In response to questions from the Committee the following information was provided:

·  It was noted that as part of the procurement activity, social value is considered there is a requirement that all the Council’s contracts identify opportunities for social value. The focus is on support that can be provided by the service and is focused on contracts above £100,000, this is due to the amount of resource available. The service specifically looks at social value commitments from bidders and these are evaluated. If the commitments are not delivered the service does have the ability to go back and have conversations about why they have not been provided and look at other areas of social value that could be provided. Should social value not be delivered as promised the service can take a financial deduction from the contract to the value of the social value commitments made. It was noted that with contracts under £100,000 it was more difficult as the service has limited resources, but there is still a requirement for those contacts to consider social value as part of the Contract Procedure Rules. The submitted report had provided a snapshot of the level of social value put through by the service in the last 12-18 months. The Committee were informed that in the last 10 years the service has regularly reported on spend with local businesses and SMEs. It was noted that the spend for this had gone up marginally and was relatively strong in comparison to other authorities. The Committee acknowledged that 124 contracts was only a small number of the several thousand contracts that the Council has, and it was only those valued above £100,000.

·  Clarification was provided to the Committee on a ‘Standstill Letter’.

·  The Committee acknowledged that the procurement service had done well to have 15 years with no formal legal challenges.

·  Members noted that the development of an app solution for low value procurements would not be impacted by the change of date for the new legislation and the service would continue to progress this. However, they would not undertake the review of the Contract Procedure Rules until the legislation is brought in.

·  The service can do more in relation to SMEs and already engage with anchor organisations in the city and the voluntary sector. It was recognised that the Council’s documentation was complex, not only for organisations outside the Council but also for Council officers, so this was being reviewed to make it simpler, this will also make it simpler for SMEs to bid for contracts.

·  Members were informed that payments for small businesses was completed in 30 days, and this is reported on. 

·  It was noted that monitoring for procurement is undertaken by the Internal Audit team and there were discussions in progress in relation to the new systems and legislation and these will be taken into consideration going forward.

RESOLVED – To:

a) Consider and note the assurances provided in this report from the review, assessment and on-going monitoring carried out;

b) Note that the Head of Procurement and Commercial Services has reached the opinion that procurement policies and practices are up to date, fit for purpose, and effectively communicated; and

c) Note the ongoing Source to Contract Review and endorse the proposed approach to amendment of the Contracts Procedure Rules.