Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 2:15 pm on 29 June 2016.
Whilst we broadly support the SQuID procurement process it is fair to say that probably one of the reasons that only seven out of 22 local authorities are using it—the point that my colleague Mike Hedges made—was the fact that there is still a lot of bureaucracy and red tape involved with very small companies trying to actually tender for lots of works taking place within a local authority. How do you intend to work with our local authorities over this next term to ensure that we do keep the pound going around in our own localities and that we allow some of those small businesses who haven’t got the time or the resources to spend finding their way and navigating their way through this bureaucracy and red tape, so that they can actually have a piece of the action and some of the money for local jobs?