Decision details

Councillor Emily Smith returned to the meeting room and took the chair for the remainder of the meeting. 

Cabinet considered the head of finance’s report, which proposed a new procurement strategy.  This set out guidance on how the council should procure goods and services, whilst at the same time supported the council’s priorities and strategic themes. 

The Cabinet member for finance reported that the council had not had a procurement policy to date. The adoption of the strategy and action plan would give the council clear direction and guidance of matters to be considered and procedures to followed when purchasing goods, services and works.  In turn, this would help deliver the corporate plan objectives.  Additionally, it would minimise the risk of non-compliant procurements, which could be subject to challenge.  This would bring better value for money.  The strategy also included an ethical procurement statement setting out the standards the council would require of contractors and suppliers. 

Cabinet welcomed the new strategy, its ethical procurement statement and action plan, noting that these documents could be reviewed and updated in future. 

RESOLVED:to

(a)       approve the joint procurement strategy and the actions within it, as set out in Appendix 1 to the head of finance’s report to Cabinet on 1 October 2021;

(b)       approve the procurement action plan and the actions within it, as set out in Appendix 2 to the report; and

(c)        approve the ethical procurement statement and the actions within it, as set out in Appendix 3 to the report.