Byatt Report - London Borough of Hillingdon

Annex II
(x)
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI), contractors’ representatives, the LGA,
the Employers’ Organisation (EO) and the three main unions have been working
together on workforce matters in procurement. The Social Partners are holding two
roadshows on the use of the new workforce provisions, at which the DTLR will
participate.
What Can Be Done Now?
In the meantime, there are examples of current good practice recommended by Byatt
which we urge all authorities to adopt, if they have not already done so. These include:
(i) the integration of procurement expertise into best value reviews (rec.1);
(ii) a strategic role for elected members and scrutiny of procurement processes (rec.10);
(iii) review of standing orders to promote efficient and effective procurement (rec.11);
(iv) increased use of simple forms of e-procurement such as purchasing cards and BACS
payments (rec.17).
In all, we recommend that authorities immediately act on the following Recommendations
in the report: 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 17, 25 and 38.
Suppliers are also encouraged make progress in implementing Recommendations 33 and 34
on open book accounting and the publication of performance data.
Suppliers and local authorities should already be following Recommendation 39 and
making the best use of statutory and non-statutory arrangements to protect staff interests.
In addition, some of the recommendations in the report touch on more advanced or
stretching good practice which not all authorities may feel able to tackle immediately. For
example:
(i) the production of a prospectus for suppliers (rec.21);
(ii) the rationalisation of procurement processes by using common documents and prequalification
processes (rec.27);
(iii) the development of evaluation criteria which incorporate quality and whole life costs
(rec.30).
It is our view that all authorities should ultimately implement these proposals for advanced
good practice. To support this, the DTLR and the LGA will commission and publish
detailed guidance on improving local authority procurement.
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