14 March 2011

BPIF lobbies Francis Maude on public print procurement

We wrote to Paymaster General Francis Maude MP earlier this month to propose improvements to public print procurement. The meeting follows a meeting with the Minister on 4 March during his visit to BPIF member company Foundry Press in Horsham, where he is constituency MP.

We told Mr Maude that the BPIF welcomes his recent statement that the Government is committed to scrapping unnecessary elements of pre-qualification questionnaires (PQQs). Our concern is that PQQs are often overly onerous in relation to both the complexity and amount of detail sought. PQQs should be designed to select out those suppliers who cannot meet tender requirements, and they should therefore focus on gathering information relating to capability. All too frequently though, they are primarily concerned with seeking detailed information on policies in areas such as training, corporate social responsibility, health and safety, accounts for the past five years and so on, rather than concentrating on asking key questions that are directly relevant to the performance of the contract. This creates an inherent bias against smaller businesses, since larger firms are more likely to have the management resources to enable them to respond to such enquiries, and it carries the attendant risk that undue weight will be given to scale or track record. Consistency is also a big concern here. Much time and money would be saved throughout the supply chain if a single, simplified standard PQQ for each product category were in use right across Government. We have said that the BPIF would be pleased to work with his officials in developing such a document and ensuring that it is fit for purpose. 

The issue we raised concerns aggregation of smaller suppliers, which Maude cited as one approach by which smaller firms might be able to work together to bid for public sector print work. This is particularly relevant in helping ensure that print is sourced locally whenever possible, thus reducing both delivery costs and carbon footprint, as well as supporting local employment. We told the Minister that the BPIF has been working on the development of a technology platform that would enable Government print buyers to interface with a network of high quality print suppliers offering competitive pricing.

The current pan-government Print Procurement Framework, developed and is managed by OGC Business Solutions, is now due for renewal. However the introduction of a new Print Framework is currently on hold following Sir Philip Green's report on public procurement last year. In correspondence with OGBCS over the past eighteen months, we have advocated some significant changes to the increasingly outdated procurement categories within the current Framework. Francis Maude has now charged HMRC with the task of reviewing this. We are in discussion with the HMRC Efficiency Reform Group, which is currently focused on developing a new cross-government Print Category Strategy, and we had a useful initial meeting with them on 7 March. They have assured us that they will be consulting with us throughout this project.

For more information call Andrew Brown on 020 7915 8378 or email [email protected]