Public Procurement

GMB has a long history of working on Public Procurement through two revisions of these Directives at EU level, both in 2004 and in 2014.

GMB has major concerns about the hasty and poor UK implementation of the 2014 Public Procurement Directive, which ignores or undermines key advances made in the EU text in terms of social/employment and environmental procurement.

We are actively working with the Scottish Parliament to ensure a more socially progressive implementation there.

GMB has been at the forefront of emphasising that public authorities have the right to deliver services in-house, but that when they do we would expect tax-payers' money to be used to promote good jobs, pay and conditions, ensure compliance with social and labour standards and environmental protections, promote the living wage, ensure the quality of public services, works and supplies, and recognise that the lowest price rarely delivers this.

GMB also emphasises that blacklisting is a clear grounds for exclusion to public contracts.

For more information, see our GMB responses to various UK government and EU level public consultations on this issue, as well as articles, in the Additional Resources below.