To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what guidance his Department issues on the use of local contractors in tendering processes.

The Ministry of Justice is mandated to encourage Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise (SME) engagement and the policy is set out by the Cabinet Office; this is a government wide agenda. SME participation is encouraged by removing barriers and making the procurement process faster and less complex. Most recently the government issued policy supporting a number of new reforms to make public procurement even more accessible to businesses, particularly SMEs. These new reforms take account of the wide consultation and engagement that the Government has undertaken with public bodies, small businesses and trade bodies over the last two years and in response to Lord Young’s recommendations to Government in his report ‘Growing Your Business’ (May 2013). These reforms are implemented in Part 4 of the new Public Contracts Regulations 2015, and have been embedded into MoJ procurement processes.

Secondly the Social Values Act must be taken into consideration. Thought must be given to the economic, social and environmental well being of the relevant areas and applied as appropriate to the procurement process.

The full policies can be found at the following links:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-policy-note-04-12-procurement-supporting-growth-supporting-material-for-departments

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-policy-note-0315-reforms-to-make-public-procurement-more-accessible-to-smes

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2012/3/enacted

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/61169/The_20Compact.pdf

The MoJ has exceeded the Government’s stated aspiration that 25 per cent of government procurement expenditure goes to SMEs. The MoJ is one of the top performing departments, with over £1.7bn (37 per cent) of procurement expenditure going to SMEs in 2013/14.