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Posted: Mon 19th Feb 2024
Legal entrepreneur Shirley Cooper has been appointed as the government's new Crown Representative for small businesses, a role aimed at improving small businesses' access to public sector contracts.
Taking over from Martin Traynor, who was in the role for five years, Cooper is focused on making sure the government gets best value from SMEs, and that they in turn have the best possible opportunity to work with the public sector.
In 2011, the entrepreneur co-founded start-up law firm Tapestry. She was also global procurement director of Impellam, board adviser to Lorien Resourcing, procurement and supply chain director of Computacenter, and president of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply.
In her new role, Cooper's key job is supporting ministers in increasing central government spend with small businesses.
The latest figures show SMEs won £21bn worth of work from government departments in 2021/22, an increase of £1.7bn on the previous year, but the proportion of contracts awarded to smaller firms declined from from 26.9% in 2020/21 to 26.5% in 2021/22.
Direct spending by government with SMEs also fell in 2021/22 from 14.2% to 12.3%, while indirect spend, when smaller businesses deliver work to a larger company with a public sector contract, increased from 12.7% to 14.1%.
Last year, the government's Procurement Act received Royal Assent. It aims to make it easier for small businesses to win public sector contracts.
Under the changes, which come into force in October this year, all departments and public bodies will be required to consider SMEs when designing their procurements.
Other features of the Act are:
a new central platform showing contracts by region
a single website for registration rather than the multiple sites firms currently have to use to bid for work
reduced insurance costs before a supplier has bid for a contract
strengthening of late payment rules so suppliers receive payment within 30 days
Shirley Cooper OBE said:
"I am delighted to take up this role and build on the work of my predecessor, Martin Traynor.
"I look forward to working with colleagues across government to make sure small businesses can seize the fantastic opportunities available to them in the public procurement process."
Parliamentary secretary Alex Burghart added:
"I am delighted to welcome Shirley to this role. Small businesses are vital to our economy and I look forward to working with her to make sure our procurement regime is fully accessible to them.
"Shirley's appointment comes at a critical time for small businesses with reforms of the Procurement Act, which will dismantle barriers to them competing for government contracts, coming into force later this year."
