Organisation: The Government Outcomes Lab
Facing severe social and environmental challenges, we demand great things from our public procurement systems. Increasingly, social and environmental outcomes are pursued through government contracts at all levels of government. This session explored practical opportunities and challenges of implementing wider policy goals through contracts, including recent experiences of procurement professionals working to mitigate climate change.
We kicked off a discussion on practical opportunities and challenges of implementing wider policy goals through contracts, in particular recent experiences of procurement professionals working to mitigating climate change. Jo Mitchell from the Scottish Government talked about Scotland’s journey of achieving sustainable procurement outcomes. Prof Tom Hale of the Blavatnik School looked at the broader rise of net zero regulation and how procurement could play an interesting role to drive higher social value. Prof Anne Davies (Oxford Law Faculty) shared that “accountability is key, and key to accountability is transparency.” She emphasised the need to think about accountability across many levels - in the contract, among procurement officials, and the broader accountability of government in the policy of social value.