Ministers have been urged to ditch the “pointless pantomime” of forcing firms to prove their “social value”, amid warnings major defence contracts take more than six years to award.
The Times writes that the co-chair of a caucus of pro-growth Labour MPs is backing a push to reform the way Whitehall procures goods and services worth about £400 billion every year.
The current system locks out smaller firms and does not always represent the best value for taxpayers, according to Chris Curtis, who runs the Labour Growth Group.
Concerns have been raised over the requirement of businesses to prove their “social value”, under legislation applied to all new procurement activity since 2021.
Contracts must give a minimum weighting of 10 per cent of marks for the contract, based on promises about social, economic and environmental additional benefits.
Date: 16 November