Government greens its buying

Two muted cheers for long-awaited procurement action plan

It’s late, it’s limited, but at least it’s here - a Sustainable Procurement Action Plan to make the most of the multi-billion-pound buying power of central government.

This is a lesser beast than was recommended by the Task Force led by Sir Neville Simms last year. His report, Procuring the Future, proposed a comprehensive action plan across the whole public sector - not just the central government departments and agencies. But we’re still waiting - at least until the summer - for an announcement on local authorities, NHS trusts and schools, which together account for more than two-thirds of the total spend of some £150 billion.

Although much of what was announced this spring amounts to no more than a commitment to ‘further consultation’, this first action plan has its good points - notably that permanent secretaries will be held accountable for their own departmental performance.  Defra will lead on setting minimum sustainability standards for products, beyond those that already exist for things like energy efficient appliances and recycled paper, though it has not promised comprehensive coverage. Defra will also provide support on procurement, while the government’s procurement body, the OGC, will provide commercial guidance. It won’t adopt Simms’s recommended ‘flexible framework’ - the route map for setting targets and judging performance - but it has promised to come up with its own alternative.

Stuart Williams, who heads the sustainable procurement team at Forum for the Future, welcomes the OGC’s focus on collaboration. “Only joined up procurement can deliver the buying power to raise social and environmental standards and keep costs affordable”, he says. However, he adds, “this must be counterbalanced by pursuing the truly local supply opportunities that only SMEs and social enterprises can offer - food being the classic example.”

In the current Action Plan, says Williams, these issues - along with labour standards, regeneration and community benefits - are largely overlooked. Overall, in his view, “it appears to be little more than a stalling measure - an underwhelming response to the challenges set by the Task Force.” So he’s hoping that the plans for schools and the NHS, when they come, will do more to “reflect their duty to spend public money in the long term public interest”.

1 May 2007