Smarter Spending: The power of public procurement to drive innovation and growth

With the roll out of the 2022 Procurement Bill presenting an unparalleled opportunity to change that culture now is the time for an open debate on the procurement of Innovation solutions.

Public sector bodies can make a vast positive impact on innovation and economic growth across the UK, in ways that no other organisations can. Public services should improve continually through adopting innovations, as so many private sector services do.

Achieving this depends on better public procurement practice, supported by expertise and an expectation that the public sector can and should be a major driver of innovation nationally. By using public procurement to buy new and innovative products and services, public sector organisations can ensure their staff have the best tools available, to deliver for citizens. Public procurement can even deliver wider impacts by helping cross the gap between research and market deployment of innovation, where the UK has long been considered to fall short. Better procurement can also make a very powerful contribution to levelling up.

Join us for a discussion about the need for improved public procurement practises with Sam Markey, ecosystem director at Connected Places Catapult, and Rikesh Shah, from PA Consulting (previously head of open innovations at Transport for London).