From May 2018:
‘Almost 80% of Scots public sector contract awards go to SMEs’
I wondered, and you won’t be surprised to hear it, how this compared with the situation in UK/England. Scotland/UK comparisons are, of course, disapproved of as ‘whitabootery’ by some Unionists like Brian Monteith at the Scotsman, but popular when they suit, at BBC Scotland. Nearly always, my searches find that something is better here than there and it looks that way on this issue too.
I was only able to make a direct comparison on the spend as opposed to the number of firms getting the work.
‘Nicola Sturgeon reveals eight out of ten public sector contracts go to SMEs as a result of Scottish Government legislation as she meets new Scots policy chair Andrew McRae at FSB’s spring reception. And she also told the gathering at the Fruitmarket Gallery how nearly eight out of ten public sector contracts in Scotland are now awarded to small and medium businesses as a result of Scottish Government legislation.’
https://www.insider.co.uk/news/andrew-mcrae-nicola-sturgeon-fsb-12583968
The situation in England, according to this FSB, August 2017, report (page 5), is:
‘Each year the UK public sector spends over £200 billion on procuring goods and services from third parties, but far too little of this is with small firms. Over the last 12 months, it is estimated that SMEs won just 19 per cent of directly awarded public sector contracts by value.’
https://www.fsb.org.uk/docs/default-source/fsb-org-uk/procurement-report-final-final.pdf?sfvrsn=0
Why does it matter that SMEs should be prominent in public-sector work? From the same report (page 5):
‘When small firms aren’t used effectively by Government, it is the economy as a whole which suffers. This is because small businesses are overwhelmingly the route by which people enter work from unemployment and because, as is widely recognised, small businesses are the challengers to incumbents and critical agents in the ‘gale of creative destruction’. Small businesses also create greater competition for public contracts, leading to better value for money and efficiencies for contracting authorities.’
I’ll leave readers to reflect on gales of creative destruction.
YET ANOTHER TOO WEE AN POOR SCOTTISH GOV
THAT COULDNAE TUN ITS OWN BUSINESS
MY ERSE
LET GET OUR OU TRY BACK AND START I PROVING OUR CITIZENS LIFESTYLE
IF WE WAIT FOR UNIONIST ENGLAND TO PROVIDE
“ OUR MONEY “ TO IMPROVE SCOTLAND WE WILL BE GOT WAITIN
LETS TAKE OUR FUTURE INTO OUR CONTROL
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Simples
The reason for such a low % of contracts to SME companies in England
Is it most difficult for the Tories and cohorts to invest personally or through
A tax avoidance set up
In small companies so the whole procurement system in England is rigged
So that full personal wealth and management can be undertaken all under
Their rules by being inside the Tent
After all how is one to trust a honest hard working company who conducts their affairs meeting their responsibilities to the society they operate in
Far too dangerous for the corrupt rats
Due to itbeing easily spotted as they feed
Whilst their vile urine is pissed upon us plebs and tax payers outside the tent
This is done by knowing what legislation is in the pipeline and changes to existing
All mostly done in the Gentleman’s clubs
Or a Subtle Nod & a Wink
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“Scotland First”. Lets see.—
In 2017 the Scottish Tories promised to “put Scotland first”. Of course they never did.
We have had *America First* with Trump.
We had “Britain First”–a right wing fascist party.
Now we have “Scotland First” with Dug Ross, who will, like Carlot before him—- jump, beg and roll over. He will do whatever Boris (His Masters Voice) tells him.
A bridge to Ireland? No probs.
New roads all over Scotland.
A rocket ship to Mars–Yes please!
Good Dug. Good Dug.—-Whose a GOOD doggie, then?
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Yes indeed insider dealings in the NHS in England do you remember the procurement manager at an NHS region in the south of England who thought it was a good idea to start a company in his name and then gave a whopping big contract to his new company to supply masks to his employer
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The Good Law project is interested in procurement of PPE in England.
https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/fight-for-transparency/
“We know from Treasury documents that Government has approved a staggering and unprecedented £15 billion for PPE procurement to protect frontline staff. But what we see is implausible counterparties, staggering sums of money, political connections, vast waste on duff product – and most of all a lack of transparency.
The law is clear, mandatory and unconditional: regulation 50 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 gives Government 30 days to publish details of contracts. But Government is routinely ignoring the law. ”
O/T
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All this brings to mind what I believe is referred to as a pantomime
The Government in Westminster
Oh no we do not
Audience
Oh yes you do
Except this is for real and for certain
The Scots in the audience upon casting of their votes
@ Holyrood 2021
Shall raise not their voices but their bottoms and make due haste for the exit
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“When small firms aren’t used effectively by Government, it is the economy as a whole which suffers.” Another significant benefit of involving small businesses is that they are generally locally based, so it’s the local economy that’s likely to benefit. Almost all large companies operating in Scotland nowadays are headquartered in England, so all profits earned in any local economy will vanish off to company HQ.
This also has an impact in GERS as the Corporation Tax due by the company in relation to the work done in Scotland will be counted entirely as English tax revenue. A similar distortion also occurs with VAT. Nobody knows the actual figure for VAT collected from businesses in Scottish as HMRC doesn’t collect that information. However VAT income for Scotland is estimated for inclusion in GERS by allocating a proportion of the total UK VAT-take based on population. Estimates of course are almost always inaccurate, so GERS (and the Scottish Gov’s budgeting) will always operate in arrears due to retrospective adjustments, making year-on-year comparisons become invalidated.
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More about UK government procurement.
https://bylinetimes.com/2020/09/02/government-awards-43-8-million-ppe-deal-to-dormant-firm/
“Just yesterday, Byline Times revealed that Boris Johnson’s administration has shelled out £364 million on protective overalls, yet has delivered just 432,000 to health and social care services. At £840 a pop, they were either manufactured by Gucci, or something has gone seriously wrong….
….An advisor to the Government’s Board of Trade, for example, brokered a deal for the firm Ayanda Capital to supply £252 million worth of face masks to the DHSC, yet roughly £150 million worth of these masks aren’t fit for use in the NHS, due to the ear fastenings not meeting safety standards. The other £100 million of masks, meanwhile, were still undergoing tests at the beginning of August.
Then there are the contracts doled out to Conservative insiders – including £1 million in deals handed to Public First, a company co-founded by a former colleague of Downing Street supremo Dominic Cummings and the co-author of the 2019 Conservative Manifesto.
This is in addition to the £3 million contract handed to Topham Guerin – the firm that ran the Conservatives’ social media operation during the 2019 General Election, the new managing director of which is the sister of a Conservative lord.
In total, it has been estimated that £180 million worth of PPE contracts have been handed to individuals with links to the Conservative Party.”
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