Procurement

You asked

1. Do you have a procurement compliance function (department or responsible person)?

2. How do you undertake analysis of the Council’s spend – using your financial management system or third party spend analytical tool?

3. How often do you use that
   a. Monthly
   b. Quarterly
   c. Annually
   d. Other, please specify

4. How many suppliers did you make a payment to within the periods;
   a. 2012/13
   b. 2013/14
   c. 2014/15

5. What % of suppliers accounts for 80% of your spend (period covering 1 Apr 13 to 31 Mar 14)

6. Does this spend analysis form part of Management Information presented / considered by a formal management group / procurement board?

7. What’s the approval mechanism for spend;
   a. above £500
   i. budget holder
   ii. specific board
   b. £10,000
   i. budget holder
   ii. specific board
   c. £25,000
   i. budget holder
   ii. specific board
   d. £100,000
   i. budget holder
   ii. specific board
   e. £1,000,000
   i. budget holder
   ii. specific board

8. What is the level of early market engagement undertaken by your organisation. Is it carried out based on;
   a. Value threshold, if so what
   b. Risk
   c. Value and Risk
   d. Other, please specify

9. Approximately, as a % of all procurements undertaken, what % involve early market engagement?
   a. less than 25%,
   b. 25%
   c. 50%
   d. 75%
   e. don’t know

10. On what basis are you engaging with the market, as part of your early market engagement activitiy; tick all that apply
    a. Pricing models
    b. length of contracts
    c. service specification
    d. outcomes
    e. new technology / products
    f. contract packaging / lots
    g. other, please specify

11. Do you have a formal process for the consideration of the following procurement processes and can you evidence this i.e. sample reports, documents, minutes etc.?
    a. Use of in-house service
    b. Use of existing contract
    c. Use of wider frameworks / collaborative arrangements
    d. Shared services with another body
    e. other delivery model
    i. Joint Ventures
    ii. Local Authority owned Company
    iii. Teckel arrangement
    iv. Social Enterprise
    f. Decommissioning
    g. Demand management
    h. Facilitating sub-contract / consortium / partnerships

We said

1. Do you have a procurement compliance function?
   

   • Yes, we have a central procurement unit function

2. How do you undertake analysis of the Council's spend?
   

   • We are not a council. The Office for National Statistics is an "Arm's Length Body", independent from government, which is responsible to the UK Statistics Authority. All spend is collected via an Oracle financial system which is interrogated on a regular basis

3. How often do you use that (financial management system)?
   

   • The system is used everyday

4. How many suppliers did you make a payment to within the periods;
   2012/13 - 871
   2013/14 - 829
   2014/15 - 821

5. What % of suppliers accounts for 80% of your spend? (13/14)
   

   • 3.49%

6. Does this spend analysis form part of Management information presented / considered by a formal management group / procurement board?
   

   • Financial analysis is undertaking by a number of boards at ONS. This includes the Executive group and various project/programme broads for spend related to their project

7. What is the approval mechanism for spend;
   

   • Above £500 but less than £10,000 by fully trained "Delegated Purchasing Officers"
     
   • £10,000 to £100,000 by the central Procurement Unit
     
   • over £100,000 is reviewed by the Business Investment Group who make recommendations to Portfolio Scrutiny Committee.
     
   • over £1,000,000 by the Portfolio Scrutiny Committee, a senior management board created to examine projects value for money

8. What is the level of early market engagement undertaken by your organisation. Is it carried out based on?
   

   • Value and risk

9. Approximately, as a % of all procurements undertaken, what % involve early market engagement?
   

   • Less than 25%

10. On what basis are you engaging with the market?
    

    • Pricing models
      
    • Length of contracts
      
    • Service specification
      
    • Outcomes
      
    • New technology / products
      
    • Contract packaging / lots

11. Do you have a formal process for the consideration of the following procurement processes and can you evidence this?
    

    • Each procurement will assess the merits of the procurement process at the time. There are various procurements that cover most of those listed. For example on the Crime Stats procurement ONS did an in-house internal bid alongside external suppliers or on the IT services procurement ONS brought some services back in-house form the external service provider.