• New Procurement Bill will focus on making more government contracts open to small businesses, replacing 350 EU laws with a simple and flexible system
• The Bill was debated in Parliament on Wednesday and is expected to become law next year
• New figures show public sector spending with small businesses rose to a record £19.3 billion in 2021/22

New procurement rules which will level the playing field for SMEs and drive economic growth across the UK have moved a step closer to becoming law this week.

The Procurement Bill, which was debated at Second Reading in the Lords on Wednesday, is expected to become law next year. The Bill will tear up hundreds of complicated and bureaucratic EU rules and replace them with a single, simple and flexible framework for securing public sector contracts.

The reforms will slash costs and make it easier for businesses bidding for contracts, particularly smaller companies with less experience of procurement processes. This will result in more SMEs benefiting from contracts for everything from catering for public buildings to digital services and infrastructure projects.

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Steve Barclay visited the London offices of Manchester-based SME Informed Solutions on Thursday (26 May) to discuss how the changes will accelerate record levels of government spending with small businesses.

Informed Solutions, often at the forefront of developing new ideas and systems, will benefit from additional flexibility in procurement, with the Bill enabling public sector buyers to test innovative products and prototypes before making a contract decision.

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Steve Barclay said:

We are introducing reforms through our Procurement Bill that will do-away with bureaucratic rules that are both complicated and time-consuming for firms to navigate.

Our departure from the European Union means we are free to streamline these rules on who wins taxpayer contracts.

This will give small businesses a better chance of landing public sector contracts and allow the Government wider access to the first-class skills, innovation and ideas that many agile, creative smaller firms offer. In turn this will allow us to improve the services we provide to the public.

Brand new digital infrastructure will make it easier and cheaper for organisations of all sizes to bid for public contracts, with a single digital platform that will hold all of a supplier’s credentials.

Publishing pipelines of procurement opportunities will also allow small companies to make more competitive bids, including forming consortia, while a commitment to prompt payments for a wider range of contracts will level the playing field for SMEs and help reduce the reliance on the same group of large companies.

Liz Crowhurst, CBI Deputy Director for Policy, said:

Businesses are excited to seize the opportunities presented by this once-in-a-generation Procurement Bill.

From the streamlining of complex procurement processes, to the new digital supplier registration system that will slash the administrative burden facing suppliers, the Bill sets out proposals to cut red-tape, promote transparency, and encourage great public-private collaborations.

The new regulations will make working with government easier and more attractive to businesses of all sizes, and industry stands ready to help translate the benefits from paper into practice.

Elizabeth Vega, Group CEO of Informed Solutions said:

Transformational procurement reforms such as these haven’t been enacted in the UK in more than 50 years.

As a scaling business, we are excited and optimistic about how these changes will support the development and growth of our business.

They will make it easier to commercialise our innovative solutions and services, offer greater access and fewer barriers to public sector contracts, and facilitate our international ambitions because we can evidence the benefits, value, and success of our innovation.

The reforms are expected to accelerate government spending with SMEs, which new figures reveal increased for the fourth consecutive year to a record £19.3 billion in 2020/21.

Spending through SMEs grew by £3.7 billion on the previous year, with £10.2 billion of the total spent with SMEs directly and a further £9.1 billion through supply chains.

Notes to editors

• The changes outlined in this Bill will apply to all public sector bodies, including local authorities and central government departments. Read more about the Bill here.
• The new regime will maintain compliance with our international obligations including the World Trade Organisation’s Agreement on Government Procurement, which gives British businesses guaranteed access to £1.3 trillion in public procurement opportunities overseas.
• Data on SME spending can be found here. An SME is generally defined as an organisation with fewer than 250 (FTE) employees and a set limit for annual turnover or balance sheet totals on their company accounts.

We, the G7 Foreign Ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America, and the High Representative of the European Union, condemn in the strongest terms the test of yet another Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) conducted on May 25, 2022, by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Like a number of ballistic missile launches the DPRK has conducted since the beginning of 2022, this act constitutes a further blatant violation of relevant UN Security Council resolutions and undermines international peace and security as well as the global non-proliferation regime.

We are very concerned by the unprecedented series of ballistic missile tests with increasingly versatile systems across all ranges, building on ballistic missile tests conducted in 2021. Together with the evidence of ongoing nuclear activities, these acts underscore the DPRK’s determination to advance and diversify its nuclear capabilities. These reckless actions flagrantly breach the DPRK’s obligations under relevant UN Security Council resolutions, which the Security Council most recently reaffirmed in resolution 2397 (2017). They also pose a danger and unpredictable risk to international civil aviation and maritime navigation in the region.

We, the G7 Foreign Ministers and the High Representative of the European Union, reiterate our urgent call on the DPRK to abandon its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner and to fully comply with all legal obligations arising from the relevant Security Council resolutions.

We deeply regret that the Security Council has failed to adopt the draft resolution aimed at condemning the series of recent ballistic missile launches by the DPRK and strengthening measures against it despite support from 13 members. We urge all UN Member States, especially Security Council members, to join us in condemning the DPRK´s behaviour and reaffirm its obligation to abandon its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs. These acts demand a united response by the international community, including a united stance and further significant measures by the UN Security Council.

We reiterate our call on the DPRK to engage in diplomacy toward denuclearization and accept the repeated offers of dialogue put forward by the United States, the Republic of Korea and Japan. By diverting its resources into weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs the DPRK further aggravates the already dire humanitarian situation in the DPRK. We urge the DPRK to facilitate access for international humanitarian organizations and for independent assessment of humanitarian needs such as food and medicines as soon as possible.

We also call on all States to fully and effectively implement all relevant Security Council resolutions, and to address the risk of weapons of mass destruction proliferation from the DPRK as an urgent priority.

The G7 remain committed to working with all relevant partners towards the goal of peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and to upholding the rules-based international order.

A new laser-welding ‘robotic snake’ developed by the UK Atomic Energy Authority has demonstrated its capability to operate inside of fusion energy powerplant pipework and is now patented technology.

The novel trials at Culham Science Centre are another step forward on the roadmap to delivering safe, sustainable, low carbon fusion energy to the grid.

The £2.7 million, seven-year project by UKAEA’s RACE (Remote Applications in Challenging Environments) was delivered as part of EUROfusion’s flagship DEMO programme, expected to be ITER’s successor.

The DEMO snake will be deployed and operated remotely inside a hazardous environment without being touched by humans. It can also work effectively in pipes packed together, with little space for access.

Tristan Tremethick, Lead Mechanical Design Engineer, UKAEA, said: “In fusion machines, pipework has to be connected and disconnected remotely because of the hazardous environment. Pipework in DEMO is extra challenging because of the limited working space. We’ve been looking at different ways of tackling this and I’m delighted our new snake has passed its first set of trials.

“The bespoke laser welding tool takes a novel approach and operates inside of the pipework to make best use of the cramped space available. At RACE, we pride ourselves on providing complete solutions to enable operations and protect people in challenging environments, and this is another exciting result on our path to delivering fusion energy.”

The project also involved creating an ultrasonic sensor-system to move the snake up and down the pipe to identify each precise working location. A separate launch system gets it inside the pipework remotely.

The work shown in this video is the trial of the whole set of equipment working together for the first time.

Tristan Tremethick added: “Ultrasonic sensors enable the snake to find the correct position, where it then clamps to the pipe and performs the weld from the inside. After the weld, the tool retracts and is removed from the pipe where it can be redeployed.”

“Robots are a key part of our mission to deliver low carbon fusion energy, and we need to become skilled in controlling machines like this one remotely. That’s because they will be used to maintain fusion energy power plants. We won’t be able to send people in, robots will keep them running – it’s the future.”

RACE has also developed a laser cutting tool operating on the same principles as the snake and both can potentially be used for other industry applications.

EUROfusion consortium consists of experts, students and staff from across Europe collaborating to realise fusion energy, co-funded by the European Commission.

ITER is a fusion research mega-project, based in the south of France, to further demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy.