Social Value and Ethics in Procurement

Benali Hamdache AM moved, and Gareth Roberts AM seconded the following motion: 

“This Assembly welcomes the Prime Minister’s commitment to use public procurement to support British businesses and ensure that eligible public contracts are subject to proper social value weighting.

As Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said: “For too long, UK public procurement policy has been based on chasing cut-price deals around the world rather than helping our own British-based suppliers become more stable and competitive.”

This Assembly believes that in London, major public contracts involving sensitive data and critical public services should also reflect high standards of ethics, transparency, accountability and social value, rather than being determined by cost alone.

It further notes that the House of Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee described Palantir’s increasing presence across the public sector as an ‘unacceptable point of weakness’ and recommended that the Government exercise the February 2027 break clause in the NHS contract.

This Assembly also notes MOPAC’s decision not to approve a proposed contract between the Metropolitan Police and Palantir following concerns about the procurement process, and the subsequent legal action brought by Palantir against MOPAC.

This Assembly believes that London should champion a procurement model which supports British innovation, delivers social value, protects the public interest and avoids excessive dependence on individual technology suppliers.

The Assembly calls on the Mayor to:

1. Write to the Government welcoming its commitment to back British businesses through public procurement and urging it to apply those principles to major public-sector technology and data contracts.
2. Urge the Government to act on the recommendations of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee when considering the February 2027 break clause in the NHS Federated Data Platform contract.
3. Support greater investment in British-based alternatives to major overseas technology suppliers.
4. Review Greater London Authority (GLA) Group procurement processes to ensure that major technology and data contracts give appropriate weight to ethics, transparency, social value, competition and the long-term public interest.”

Following debate and upon being put to a vote, the motion was agreed with 11 votes being cast in favour, and 8 votes cast against.