The UK General Election manifestos procurement promises: Labour

The Labour party manifesto is long and detailed, but the key points related to procurement are quite brief and lacking detail. Nonetheless, the overarching question is that it remains to be seen if those Labour proposals can be achieved without amending the Procurement Act, although I imagine it will be possible to  do so by simply adding more secondary legislation or guidance and calling it a day. Despite the headline of the manifesto being 'Change', actually there is not much changing in procurement and a tight lip on the expected PPP/PFI push.

“Procurement and trade policy will also be aligned with our industrial strategy priorities.”

I am always concerned when I see industrial policy or industrial strategy both in general terms and when procurement is shoehorned into it. After all the whole reason we have EU procurement rules is to stop Member states from using procurement as a discriminatory tool to favour national suppliers. There is some evidence industrial policy can work some times and in some places, but the list of those good examples is quite short. This paper has a nice compilation of them.

In regards to Labour ideas in this regard, I imagine that what the manifesto is hinting at is the National Procurement Policy Statement and adapting it to the party’s view. If that is the case then it will be business as usual with limited practical implications on a day-to-day basis. However, this may mean a more hands on approach to what contracting authorities should be buying and this may (or may not of course) clash with the TCA and GPA commitments.

“We will also simplify the procurement process to support innovation and reduce micromanagement with a mission-driven approach”

For this proposal I don’t see how Labour can simplify procurement process without changing the rules, and even then how? As things stand, the Procurement Act has enough inbuilt flexibility to allow for simplified procurement processes - although I remain sceptical that these will be achieved by means of routine or that they amount to true simplification for bidders at scale - so the only logical idea I can see here would be the creation of a specific procedure for ‘supporting innovation’ maybe using secondary legislation or guidance. As for the ‘reduction of micromanagement with a mission-driven approach’ this looks like an oxymoron. Imposing mission(s) if anything will increase micromanagement since the compliance/success of these missions will have to be reported and assessed. So I cannot see how adding missions where none exist will reduce micromanagement.

SMEs:“We will also reform procurement rules to give them greater access to government contracts.”

Like the Conservatives, Labour wants to improve SME access to public procurement. The wording here leaves little to imagination: the party wants to ‘reform procurement rules’ thus meaning a legislative change to the Procurement Act. While technically secondary legislation might account as reforming procurement rules, I see this as a much more significant commitment than something that could be built underneath the Procurement Act, especially as that would not be a reform of rules but, well, the creation of fresh new ones. And if the idea is guidance then, well, those are not rules. As ever, we are left to guess what is currently wrong with the (yet to come in force) rules and how Labour will achieve this aim.

Police: “The programme will set nation-wide standards for procurement and establish shared services and specialist functions to drive down costs."

"We will work with national policing bodies and police staff to standardise approaches to procurement, IT, professional standards and training."

For a manifesto so sparse with details it is surprising to see a proposal for a narrow sector such as police procurement. As with defense, police procurement is not really an area I have explored much in the past and in theory I see this as a move to centralise or aggregate procurement that is currently dispersed via various police forces. In general, it seems to make sense but this is a position I am happy to caveat and revisit in the future. As with the Conservatives, the second promise amounts to another best efforts clause and not a firm commitment to a specific outcome.

Healthcare: "we will develop an NHS innovation and adoption strategy in England. This will include a plan for procurement, giving a clearer route to get products into the NHS, coupled with reformed incentive structures to drive innovation and faster regulatory approval for new technology and medicines."

Now, this seems more ambitious and interesting than the previous proposals and a little bit more elaborate as well. I think what I like most about this proposal is the recognition that procurement is part of a wider workflow that also needs to improve instead of simply tweaking the procurement part of it. This does seem a step in the right direction of shortening the pipeline between innovation and deployment in the healthcare sector and procurement is a part of that,  but not the most important piece of the puzzle.

Defense: "We will prioritise UK businesses for defence investment and will reform procurement to reduce waste."

Finally, for defense some more reform of procurement but one imagines of procurement practice and not the rules themselves. Oh, and some more protectionism as well.

Overall, I was expecting more detailed ideas and ambitious proposals from Labour for procurement but these are not to be found in the manifesto.