Guidance on Public Procurement for SMEs provides practical advice in the public procurement framework for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The obligations of EU member states are discussed in respect of the free movement of goods, freedom of establishment, and the freedom to provide services – despite Brexit, the UK will still have to take account of EU laws and practices in the short term.

The principles deriving therefrom –- such as equal treatment, non-discrimination, mutual recognition, proportionality, transparency, and the UK’s role within the EU and its requirement to transpose EU Directives into National Laws -– are also covered.

Guidance on Public Procurement for SMEs:

• discusses Lord Young’s Reforms and incorporation within Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and how these relate to the construction industry


• highlights the positive and negative actions of the economic operator as the contracting authority


• identifies the common mistakes that contracting authorities make and the disadvantages suffered by economic operators


• includes examples of procurement challenges that strengthen SMEs.

This thorough guide is essential reading for all owners, directors, and senior professionals of SMEs as well as public sector organisations, including bid managers and co-ordinators.

Richard Houghton works as a specialist management consultant to agencies in marketing services, focusing on growth. He spent the first 25 years of his career working in public relations consultancies in the UK and Europe, holding senior management and managing director positions in three top ten agencies. He also ran his own technology agency for a decade. During his career he has dealt with a very wide range of management challenges including merging three agencies to create a new firm, divisional and agency turn rounds, and the launch of an agency. A columnist for PR Week, he writes on the business of public relations in the monthly Agency Doctor column. A past president of the International Communications Consultants Organisation, Richard sits on its Board of Management and is a former Chairman and founding Fellow of the PRCA.