Newsletter
October 2009
Mayor’s Responsible Procurement Progress Report ‘Delivering Value for London’ is launched
On 28th October the Mayor has published his Responsible Procurement Progress Report, which outlines how his annual £3 billion spending power is being used to deliver extra value for money for Londoners by encouraging contractors to provide increased economic, social and environmental benefits in the work they are awarded by the GLA Group.
The Mayor said: 'I salute all the companies that are engaging with the GLA’s responsible procurement initiative. They are helping us to use the GLA’s huge purchasing power to deliver extra benefits to London, from training up young apprentices to embracing energy-busting, green technology.'
Since the introduction of the Mayor’s Responsible Procurement Framework in April 2009 the GLA Group has seen:
- All GLA Group functional bodies recently achieved Gold Standard in London’s Green Procurement Code progress review;
- Nearly 80 per cent of invoices from small to medium sized businesses, working for the group, paid within 10 working days;
- GLA Group contracts (including sub-contract opportunities) are being advertised on CompeteFor, the online service allowing all businesses to compete for contract opportunities linked to the London 2012 Games and other major public and private sector projects;
- Over 100 organisations across London now paying a minimum of the Living Wage, with around 6,000 Londoners benefiting;
- More than 150 GLA Group suppliers registering with the Mayor’s Diversity Works for London programme to improve their equality and diversity practices.
The Mayor’s Responsible Procurement Progress Report is now available to download.
TfL Cycle Hire Scheme - Apprenticeship in contracts
As part of the Mayor’s commitment to provide more than 3,000 apprenticeships over the next three years, TfL is exploring plans with Serco to offer valuable apprenticeships as part of 140 jobs being created through the recently awarded London Cycle Hire contract. This was the first GLA Group tender to include new provisions to drive skills and employment outcomes through the supply chain. From summer 2010 the Cycle Hire contract will make available 6,000 hire bicycles across London’s zone one travel area which will help alleviate congestion across the capital.
All of the GLA Group family are working closely with existing and potential suppliers to encourage them to create apprenticeship schemes. Through this fresh approach to procurement, the GLA Group will create thousands of additional training opportunities across the capital over the coming years.
A further example of how the GLA Group is stimulating apprenticeship and employment opportunities through our supply chains is provided in the Highways Maintenance Contract case study in the Mayor’s Responsible Procurement Progress Report: ‘Delivering Value for London’.
News from City Hall procurement
GLA Procurement moves to TfL
As part of the Shared Services agenda the GLA Group is delegating the transaction of all finance and procurement functions to TfL. On the 7th September 2009 the GLA Group Procurement team moved across to Group to Group Procurement at TfL’s Windsor House in Victoria, which will provide strategic direction, support and advice on the sourcing of all goods and services that the GLA Group needs to carry out its day-to-day business.
Events
London Fire Brigade supplier event
Over the summer the London Fire Brigade invited several suppliers to introduce them to the Mayors Vision on Responsible Procurement and LFB’s commitment to the RP Programme. As part of this initiative the brigade presented the GLA Group Supplier Charter which aims to encourage suppliers to work with the brigade to develop an RP Action Plan.
A number of presentations were delivered by senior managers at the LFB as well as several representatives from other organisations from specific support programmes, including ‘ISO14001’ delivered by Will Drysdale from AssetCo; Shahid Bashir from Diversity Works for London gave examples of how to ‘Drive performance through Equality and Diversity’; Tim Herbert introduced ‘Skills and Employment at TfL’ and Graham Randles from London Remade delivered an update on the Mayor of London’s Green Procurement Code.
To access all the presentations from the day, please check the Responsible Procurement website events page.
Procura+ Seminar 2009 ‘Tackling Climate Change through Sustainable Procurement’
ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability and the City of Zürich hosted the Procura+ Seminar over a two day event in October to discuss the harmonisation of sustainability criteria, including energy efficiency standards; how to embed life-cycle costing of CO2 emissions in procurement processes; market availability of highly energy efficient products and how to best promote low-emission new buildings and renovation.
Collan Murray from the Central Responsible Procurement Team presented ‘Responsible Procurement for a Green London’.
More information on the event, speakers and presentations is available at the Procura+ website.
Awards
Mayor of London’s Green Procurement Code
This year all the GLA Group functional bodies achieved Gold Standard in the Mayor of London’s Green Procurement Code. The progress review identified that over 500,000 tonnes of waste has been diverted from landfill through GLA Group recycling projects and nearly 40 tonnes of CO2 has been saved through the purchase and use of energy efficient equipment.
At the awards ceremony on 26 October TfL, the Metropolitan Police Service and the London Fire Brigade each won an award for excellence in responsible purchasing at the annual Green Procurement Code event. The GLA, TfL and LFB were also highly commended. For more information on the Mayor of London’s Green Procurement Code and to access a full list of winners and pictures from the ceremony log on to the Green Procurement Code website.
