I'm disappointed to hear that there is no real guarantee of any lower price. I understand that the idea of the system is to try to produce that, but I have to say that for purchasing out of the catalogue—and this is anecdotal and comes from my own experience as an MP—whether it is Staples or Grand & Toy, I'm often better off going to Staples myself, purchasing something, and then getting reimbursed for my MOB, because the government contracts under which you'd think bulk purchasing would produce cost benefits actually don't. I'm better off as Joe Customer off the street in Staples in terms of my MOB than I am ordering through the government catalogue.
I think it's unfortunate that the ask seems to be to have faith that, at the back end of this process, government negotiation is going to secure lower prices. I would have thought that if we're going to reduce competition and make it more difficult for SMEs to access bidding on these jobs, there would be a guarantee at the outset, from the people remaining on the list, that you would see lower prices for the services rendered. Am I right that I'm not hearing that in what you're saying?
I do hear that the hope is that this new process will generate some savings, but I'm not hearing that it's been negotiated at the outset, as a condition of being on this limited list, that those suppliers have agreed to produce any guaranteed cost savings.