Cabinet Secretary vows to put social value at the heart of public contracts

In a speech to the think tank Reform, deputy prime minister David Lidington MP acknowledged the need to rebuild trust in the outsourcing market following the collapse of Carillion, and announced that he would be strengthening the requirement to take into account social value commitments within local government tenders.

The announcement was in line with previous CBI recommendations, including plans to create a new social value framework for central government contracts, a marked shift in approach that will ensure public sector contracting creates positive outcomes, and prevents a race-to-the-bottom approach.

“I can announce today that we will extend the requirement of the Social Value Act in central government to ensure that all major procurements explicitly evaluate social value, where appropriate, rather than just consider it.

We will also require all departments in central government to regularly report on the social impact of new procurements, and we will train all 4,000 of the government’s commercial buyers how to take account of social value and procure successfully from social enterprises.

By doing so, we will ensure that contracts are awarded on the basis of more than only value for money – important though that is - but a company’s values too, so that their actions in society are rightly recognised and rewarded.”

- David Lidington MP