Small business opportunity
Small and medium-sized businesses in the UK have until the end of July to register for a three-month trial which provides free access to thousands of public sector contract opportunities. More than 87,500 contracts specifically aimed at smaller firms and offering tenders valued at £100,000 or less have been advertised on the database since it launched two years ago,.
Business Minister Shriti Vadera said, “Many smaller businesses are more innovative, have lower costs and present better value for taxpayers than larger firms. We need to ensure they have better access to government procurement to give them the opportunity to grow.”
The free trial started earlier this year and so far 86 per cent of new registrants attracted have less than 20 employees and 73 per cent have a turnover of less than £1 million.
The trial is part of the Department for Business and Enterprise Strategy, released in March, which outlines new measures to increase the amount of government business that is won by small firms,
Other measures included an independent review that is underway currently to identify how to improve accessibility for SMEs to public sector contracts
More than 3,000 new contracts are available on the database each month from nearly 5,500 public sector buyers
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