A.125 Visibility and certainty of the pipeline - Building on the publication of forward procurement plans for construction, wider infrastructure, information and communications technology (ICT) and facilities management, the Government will publish medium-term plans setting out its procurement needs for other sectors by April 2012 to give suppliers the confidence to invest for the future and compete on a level playing field.
A.126 Partnership with industry - The Government will make better use of pre-procurement dialogue with suppliers to ensure procurement processes are well designed and quickly carried-out, as well as identifying capability gaps in the supply chain that need to be addressed to meet future demand and taking action to remove barriers to growth.
A.127 Reducing complexity - The Government will introduce a presumption against the use of the competitive dialogue procurement process unless it can be demonstrated that it delivers value for money.
A.128 Lean sourcing - The Government will complete all but the very biggest and most complex procurement processes within 120 working days through introducing the Lean sourcing process from January 2012, and training public sector procurers in application of this new approach.
A.129 Simplifying specifications - Terry Hill (Chair of the Arup Board of Trustees) will lead an industry standards group in the infrastructure sector to examine the simplification of procurement specifications and the removal of unnecessary technical standards, to report back to the Government on initial progress by spring 2012.
A.130 Supporting SMEs - The Government will ensure that the bundling of contract and sub-contract packages in procurement offers enhanced opportunities for SMEs.
A.131 Project Bank Accounts - The Government will extend the use of Project Bank Accounts (currently being piloted on construction projects) as a means of ensuring both certainty and speed of payment to SMEs.
A.132 Simplification of EU legislation - To reduce burdens on business, the Government will negotiate in the EU for a radical simplification of the Public Procurement Directives.