Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:44 pm on 26 September 2017.
I was wondering if we could have a statement on local government procurement criteria and strategy. I’m asking because I’ve had contact from a furniture company in Port Talbot that bid for contracts with Bridgend County Borough Council. They’ve put furniture in quite a lot of schools across Wales, but they weren’t even allowed to put in a bid to Bridgend County Borough Council, because they said they didn’t have the experience or criteria to be able to do so. Therefore, that contract went to a company in Yorkshire. We took evidence on the Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee last week from Mark Drakeford about community benefits, about trying to keep contracts in Wales where possible, and I’m not very happy to hear, for a company that I deem to be specialists, of that work going out of Wales. So, could we have a new statement issued on that community procurement? Do local authorities have a structure that they can follow, or does it change by local authority to local authority, which obviously puts those putting a bid in in a very difficult position?