Greening, social benefits and procurement?

Social benefits clauses have been the subject of much discussion over the past decade but in an interesting development today the UK government is said to have claimed they will award the new Crossrail contract taking into consideration the wider benefits to the UK.

Justine Greening, the Transport Secretary, claims:

"This includes a 'responsible procurement' requirement that means bidders will need to set out how they will provide opportunities for training, apprenticeships and for small and medium-size businesses."

I wonder if this is another case of Greening misinterpreting advice? We considered an earlier faux pas some weeks ago. Is it not the case that a non-UK bidder could deliver and possibly exceed the delivery of social benefits yet the beneficiaries may not be in the UK?  If that is the case Greening could find herself having to eat humble pie, again.

Of course, Greening could find wiggle room by saying that she really meant the procurement itself (Crossrail carriages) will benefit the UK and that earlier delivery, better functionality and lowest whole life costs were really all she intended to take into consideration at the award stage - they are certainly benefits to the UK.  I wonder will she?

Nevertheless, this will be worth watching as it is difficult to see how awarding a contract based on UK specific social benefits are not discriminatory and therefore in breach of the Public Contracts Regulations.

Either way, the contract will provide useful learning for the rest of us.  It would be useful though if

Fighting about Indian defence procurement

The world is certainly richer for discussions on Indian defence procurement.  Recently I tweeted a bizarre report from the BBC on significant delays to Indian defence procurement which were likely be the outcome of an unsuccessful challenge over the age of one of the generals.  Separately I questioned how the Eurofighter consortium, of which the UK is a part, could be readmitted to the bidding.

By way of an update, the UK are part of a consortium bidding to build 127 fighter jets.  The bid is worth £7-10bn (reports vary) and if the UK bid isn't successful a thousands of jobs are at stake.  At the start of the month it was reported that the French (Rafale) were the preferred bidder and the UK bid would progress no further.  Cameron wasn't happy, claiming that the Eurofighter bid was lowest, it was unfair that we were out.  Cameron planned to do all in his power to get the Eurofighter bid readmitted to the competition.  I questioned how that could happen and the potential political and procurement implications of the readmission.

Yesterday, it was reported that all is not well with the Indian negotiating team. It appears that two of the senior officials have now gone public stating