Small companies get access to public sector contract opportunities

A free trial starts this week to provide small companies with access to thousands of public sector contract opportunities.

From 1 May until 31 July 2008, the www.supply2.gov.uk website will allow new registrants to gain free access to public sector contracts valued under £100,000 for the UK and Northern Ireland.

Since it launched in June 2006, the site has published more than 79,000 contract notices with many under the value of £100,000 – making them particularly relevant to SMEs. Over 5,000 public sector buyers have registered including local government, health, education and housing authorities, emergency services and the Olympic Delivery Authority.

The free trial is part of the Department for Business’ Enterprise Strategy which was released in March, which outlined new measures to increase the amount of government business that is won by small firms.

More than 3,000 new contracts are available on www.supply2.gov.uk each month. The three month free trial, available to businesses registering for the first time, will provide access to contracts throughout the UK rather than in a nominated local area.

The Enterprise Strategy featured a range of measures to boost small firms competing for public procurement. An advisory committee, headed by Anne Glover, will look at ways to reduce barriers that small businesses face when competing for public sector contracts and the practicality of setting a goal for them to win 30 per cent of public sector business within five years.

The Strategy also included an announcement that the rules for government procurement will be changed to allow companies, particularly small firms, to use invoice financing to compete for public contracts.