Challenging Procurement Series: Transforming Public Procurement – does the Green Paper unleash the full potential for innovation?

In December 2020, the Cabinet office released a Green Paper “Transforming Public Procurement”, setting out consultation proposals for shaping UK public procurement post Brexit. They highlight the ambition for public procurement to become “a strategic lever to drive innovation”. Views have been invited on further “processes and elements” to help procurement foster innovation, beyond those currently included in the paper. These include pre-commercial procurement and the SBRI scheme.

In this webinar we are inviting experts in public procurement practice, legislation, and innovation policy to explore these additional elements. They will also give their views about the innovative potential of other proposed changes, especially in tendering procedures, award criteria, and accessibility for small companies.

The Catapult team will examine all the ideas raised during the webinar in preparing a response to the Green Paper.

Challenging Procurement Programme

Connected Places Catapult is the UK Centre of Excellence for Innovation in Mobility, Smart Cities and the Built Environment. It works with local and national government, academia and industry to accelerate the integration of innovations which boost physical, digital and social connectivity in our countries, cities, towns and communities.

CPC launched a new initiative, Challenging Procurement, in 2019. The objectives are to unleash the potential of public procurement to deliver innovative products and services, while engaging innovative providers, especially SMEs. We have been collecting information and engaging experts from across the ecosystem, bringing together place leaders, procurement professionals, commissioners and innovators in local services, to share experiences of public procurement and identify examples of pioneering practice.

CPC has established a dedicated internet forum, and have initiated a monthly webinar series to showcase the potential of public procurement to deliver innovative products and services. The webinar series will also include quarterly roundtable sessions to provide an avenue for exciting innovators to engage and share their experiences.

In May 2020, CPC published our first report, Radical Innovation for Places. The forum discussion was published on our web site.

The Challenging Procurement team also contributes to CPCs international outreach programmes. Recently publishing a review of innovation procurement strategies globally with the UK Government: Public Procurement of Innovation. This report was accompanied by a series of webinars organised by the UK Embassy in Brazil.