The co-chair of the New Suppliers to Government panel has resigned his post, while casting doubt on the government’s claim that procurement from SMEs has doubled to £6bn over the last year. Noting that the last government didn’t hold strong data on SME procurement, Sirius Open Source chief executive Mark Taylor said that “it then becomes difficult to assert there has been a 100 per cent increase reported. How would you know?”
Speaking in Parliament, Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude said: “If Mark Taylor had come to any meetings of the SME panel over the past six months, he’d have been more up to speed with the considerable progress that’s being made.”