EU Commission proposes new regulation for sustainable batteries
Apr 9, 2021
In December 2020, the European Commission published its proposal for a new Sustainable Batteries Regulation (“Regulation“), as part of its wider strategy for a climate-neutral, resource-efficient EU economy. The draft legislative proposal aims to ensure that all batteries placed on the EU...
How to Calculate FTE Work Hours in a Year
Apr 4, 2021
Some tips for how to use time in a person year for contracts
Not all government contracting work is able to be initially measured by the number of products a company will supply — for those offering services to the government, it becomes a bit more sticky. Because the contract must be drawn up...
European Commission presents actions to boost organic production
Mar 26, 2021
The European Commission has presented an Action Plan for the development of organic production which is designed to provide the fast-growing organic sector with the tools it needs to achieve a target of 25% of agricultural land under organic farming by 2030. The plan puts forward 23 actions...
UK releases guidelines to help governments accelerate ‘trusted’ AI deployments
Mar 12, 2021
“The UK is a global leader in AI and I am pleased we are working with the World Economic Forum (WEF) and international partners to develop guidelines to ensure its safe and ethical deployment,” said Caroline Dinenage, Digital Minister of the United Kingdom.
This comment comes when the UK has...
Free training to help SMEs secure more future contracts
Feb 12, 2021
UK big transport firms, HS2, Highways England, Network Rail and Transport for London, have joined forces in encouraging SMEs to register for free training courses designed to improve their prospects of meeting equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) supply chain requirements and help them secure...
Transparency International releases latest Corruption Perceptions Index
Feb 5, 2021
2020’s Corruption Perceptions Index is out. The index ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople using a scale of zero to 100, where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.
While most countries have...
EIF attracts €300m to support the innovation and growth of European SME space technology companies
Jan 29, 2021
The European Investment Fund (EIF) is partnering with the European Commission to announce €300 million of investments into the EU space sector, supporting ground-breaking innovation in the industry. The innovation and growth of European smaller and medium-sized space technology companies is on...
Scottish Environment Protection Agency loses data to cyber criminals
Jan 22, 2021
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has revealed that it was held to ransom by ‘serious and organised’ cyber criminals. Sources, including the BBC, reported that cyber criminals stole thousands of digital files belonging to the environmental regulator, amounting to about 1.2GB of...
NHS Wales to join the drive for adoption of GS1 standards
Jan 15, 2021
GS1 UK is a community of more than 42,000 members working in areas such as retail, foodservice and healthcare. It is one of 115 independent, not-for-profit GS1 organisations operating across 150 countries worldwide. It helps everyone involved in making, moving and trading goods to automate and...
Roadmap lays out public sector AI priorities
Jan 15, 2021
The AI Council, an independent expert committee set up by the UK Government, says the public sector should be a priority area for AI innovation, which could be harnessed to improve services and policy making. In its new AI Roadmap report, it urges the UK Government to give civil servants a central...
How to Bid on Government Contracts: Reviewing Government Solicitations
Jan 13, 2021
Unless you have a small army of business development professionals on your payroll, you can’t pursue all the government solicitations that match your capabilities. You need to make smart decisions about where to invest your limited resources to give your company the best chance to succeed without...
Why the public sector should use frameworks to comply with IR35
Jan 11, 2021
This guest post comes from Romy Hughes, director at Brightman.
Some aspects of the public sector, particularly those running IT transformation projects which rely so heavily on the flexibility of contractors, have been frustrated by the perceived block on this flexibility by IR35. But they...
Policies and Regulations
It’s no surprise President Trump has been systematically dismantling President Obama’s executive orders, since taking office. Obama himself knew it was a possibility: Frustrated by …
Past performance is an important step in being successful as a federal government contractor. Once firms get into the mid-tier range, they normally have amassed …
A few months back, we published several articles about the very interesting – and somewhat shocking – court case around the UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning …
Perspectives and Insights
I have been interested in the question of getting successful commercial companies, especially tech companies, to sell to the government from the time I was …
The Contractor Accountability and Transparency Act of 2017 (S. 651), introduced by Sens. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Jon Tester, D-Mont., is yet another example of a …
Think you know all about public sector owned professional buying organisations (PBOs) and what they do? Here are ten interesting facts that might just surprise …