Julian Blake of Stone King co-authors ‘The Art of the Possible in Public Procurement: New Horizons for Empowering Innovation’

Julian, a specialist public benefit lawyer at Stone King, has co-authored an Innovation Procurement Empowerment Centre (“IPEC”) report explaining how new procurement legislation can drive innovation. He worked with former MEP and Associate Director of the report’s publisher, Connected Places Catapult, Malcolm Harbour CBE, and Rebecca Rees of Trowers & Hamlins.

It follows and updates ‘The Art of the Possible in Public Procurement’ – co-authored by Julian and Frank Villeneuve-Smith in 2016 – which highlighted the facilitating nature of current procurement legislation, challenging prevailing process-driven practices.

Julian said: “Procurement law is not a barrier, risk averse implementation is. In public services, public value purpose and collaboration are key to innovation and transformation and that can be true also in commercial areas. The new Act’s emphasis on flexibility must be embraced”.

Speaking at a reception at the House of Lords to mark the publication of the report, Rikesh Shah, Head of the IPEC said:

“The Procurement Act 2023 reinforces the ability of public authorities to get better value for money by getting smarter with their spending. In recent years, technology has changed at such a rapid rate that new types of innovators are emerging. This is creating a huge opportunity for public authorities to unlock value.

“Every procurement made has the potential to support a new idea and generate new economic activity. By further empowering public authorities as they get smarter with spending, we can support more diverse suppliers and find more cost-effective, sometimes more localised, solutions to our biggest challenges.”

With approximately £300bn a year being spent on UK public procurement, public sector organisations have an indispensable role in fostering innovation and supporting ambitious small businesses. Local Government alone accounts for approximately £70bn of that spending, which has huge potential to level-up economic growth and productivity in the UK.

Malcolm Harbour, who was Chair of the European Parliament Internal Market Committee and involved in drafting the current procurement rules, said:

“We all want public money to be well spent. But to maximise the power of every pound we need everyone involved in public procurement to show relentless ambition to enhance the impact of what they spend. We also need to have the courage to try new ways of doing things, and challenge suppliers to respond to procurement processes with fresh thinking.”

The Procurement Act 2023 received royal assent on 26 October 2023 and will come into force in October 2024. In November, the Cabinet Office produced a guidance note ‘Transforming public procurement: our innovation ambition’, which outlined the intent that, “over time these developments will make public procurement into one of the most powerful levers to drive innovation nationally”. 

The authors of the new ‘The Art of the Possible’ set out ways in which this ambition can be achieved and how the new rules encourage more ways of engaging innovative companies during procurement processes. They highlight the importance of consulting innovative suppliers, cementing partnerships, ensuring transparency and value sharing, and transformative collaboration. 

The report brings principles to life through case studies of procurement best practice, including the Leicestershire Children’s Services Innovation Partnership, which Julian supported. 

Meanwhile, he and Malcolm Harbour expressed disappointment that the current ‘Innovation Partnership’ procedure is missing from the new legislation, because it was used only in a few cases. Their view is that this precisely illustrates the lack of ambition that needs to be overcome, since, in Julian’s experience, many seemingly positive conversations have ended with: “we are very interested in the idea, but we can’t do it, because no one has done it”. 

The Act has consolidated procurement processes into a single “competitive flexible procedure”, in which the essential word is “flexible” and which must be understood to be consistent with collaborative engagements.  There is a “wide palette of colours” with which innovative solutions may be designed, or, more appropriately given the need for expertise from outside public authorities, co-designed. 

The breadth extends to incorporating national, regional and local public policy priorities into particular service specifications, including through social value factors in the required “most advantageous tender” assessment and having regard to a statutory National Procurement Policy Statement. In this way, each procured service may integrate with the macro-economic missions of economic development, social equity, and responding to climate change.

Connected Places Catapult is the UK’s innovation accelerator for cities, transport, and place leadership.

The report can be downloaded here.