Report of Executive Director (Finance and Resources) attached

The Cabinet considered a report of the Executive Director (Finance and Resources) presenting the annual procurement plan for 2021/22 in terms of those procurements with a contract value in excess of £1m which require Cabinet approval prior to commencement.

Resolved:

1. That those procurements provided in the attached Appendix to the submitted report for 2021/22 (£1m+ contract value), be approved.

2. That the Council’s procurement procedures be amended (pending legal advice and for as long as the PPN remains in place) to allow use of PPN 11/20 and the reservation of below threshold contracts for ‘Local Suppliers’ (note that following legal advice ‘Local’ in the PPN is defined by County but under law Southend is defined as a County due to its Unitary status and so we can utilise the Borough boundary).

3. That thetiered approach to the delivery of the 2021-22 procurement plan, should the Council need to apply a flexible use of resource again to support the pandemic response and associated priorities, be approved.

4. That it be noted that the full procurement plan for 2021/22 (contracts with a value of £25k and above) will be listed at http://seattle/Pages/Contracts-Register.aspx by the end of March.

5. That it be noted that the capital projects approved by Cabinet as part of the capital programme and with a value of over £25k, will also form part of the final procurement plan for 2021/22.

6. That the development and contents of the corporate contracts register which is publicly available via the Council website at the above link, be noted.

7. That it be noted that the development of the 3 year procurement pipeline plan (2021-24) will be finalised by the end of March 2021 and hosted at the above web-link.

8. That the flexible approach taken to the delivery of the procurement plan during 2020-21 due to the pandemic, competing priorities and the need to re-distribute Council resources (for context 73 of the 320 Procurements/contracts on the plan were either extended or deferred to 2021/22), be noted.

9. That it be noted that the spend with local suppliers in 2019-20 was 35% (out of a spend of c£150m) and that this will continue to be monitored each financial year (the current spend during 2020-21 is detailed in Section 5 of the submitted report).

10. That the continued implementation of our Corporate Contract Management system, be noted.

11. That it be notedthat training to local suppliers on how to access and bid for Public Sector contracts will continue to be provided as spend across the sector is £290Bn per annum (versus c£150m by Southend).

12. That it be noted that, although Brexit has taken place, the Public Contract Regulations 2015 are still part of UK Law and there remains the requirement to award contracts in an open, fair and transparent way. The Council’s Contract Procedure Rules are already set to support local spend as far as the law allows and so the above PPN 11/20 is the other opportunity the Council  ...  view the full decision text for item 860

The Cabinet considered a report of the Executive Director (Finance and Resources) presenting the annual procurement plan for 2021/22 in terms of those procurements with a contract value in excess of £1m which require Cabinet approval prior to commencement.

Resolved:

1. That those procurements provided in the attached Appendix to the submitted report for 2021/22 (£1m+ contract value), be approved.

2. That the Council’s procurement procedures be amended (pending legal advice and for as long as the PPN remains in place) to allow use of PPN 11/20 and the reservation of below threshold contracts for ‘Local Suppliers’ (note that following legal advice ‘Local’ in the PPN is defined by County but under law Southend is defined as a County due to its Unitary status and so we can utilise the Borough boundary).

3. That thetiered approach to the delivery of the 2021-22 procurement plan, should the Council need to apply a flexible use of resource again to support the pandemic response and associated priorities, be approved.

4. That it be noted that the full procurement plan for 2021/22 (contracts with a value of £25k and above) will be listed at http://seattle/Pages/Contracts-Register.aspx by the end of March.

5. That it be noted that the capital projects approved by Cabinet as part of the capital programme and with a value of over £25k, will also form part of the final procurement plan for 2021/22.

6. That the development and contents of the corporate contracts register which is publicly available via the Council website at the above link, be noted.

7. That it be noted that the development of the 3 year procurement pipeline plan (2021-24) will be finalised by the end of March 2021 and hosted at the above web-link.

8. That the flexible approach taken to the delivery of the procurement plan during 2020-21 due to the pandemic, competing priorities and the need to re-distribute Council resources (for context 73 of the 320 Procurements/contracts on the plan were either extended or deferred to 2021/22), be noted.

9. That it be noted that the spend with local suppliers in 2019-20 was 35% (out of a spend of c£150m) and that this will continue to be monitored each financial year (the current spend during 2020-21 is detailed in Section 5 of the submitted report).

10. That the continued implementation of our Corporate Contract Management system, be noted.

11. That it be notedthat training to local suppliers on how to access and bid for Public Sector contracts will continue to be provided as spend across the sector is £290Bn per annum (versus c£150m by Southend).

12. That it be noted that, although Brexit has taken place, the Public Contract Regulations 2015 are still part of UK Law and there remains the requirement to award contracts in an open, fair and transparent way. The Council’s Contract Procedure Rules are already set to support local spend as far as the law allows and so the above PPN 11/20 is the other opportunity the Council  ...  view the full minutes text for item 860