Forward Commitment Procurement
Forward Commitment Procurement (FCP) is a new approach for Government to procure services and products, effectively harnessing innovation to improve public services. Meeting the public sector’s service objectives often requires new and innovative solutions, including ones that aren’t actually yet available on the market. FCP seeks to encourage industry to develop products to meet identified needs by providing the potential supply chain with confidence that a market will exist for products that meet the needs at specified quality and performance levels and price.
Initially developed in partnership with the Office of Government Commerce to address the particular barriers to market faced by environmental innovations, the approach is also suitable for the procurement of innovative solutions in other markets, such as sustainable development, healthcare and construction. It is recommended in the OGC/DIUS publication 'Finding and Procuring Innovative Solutions'.
FCP has been highlighted by the UK Government's Sustainable Procurement Action Plan (March 2007) and Building a low carbon economy: unlocking innovation and skills (May 2008) issued in response to the report of the Commission on Environmental Markets and Economic Performance.
Innovation for Sustainability Competition
DIUS (now BIS) launched an Innovation for Sustainability Competition, in November 2008, with the aim of increasing awareness of FCP and supporting a select number of innovative flagship projects. A number of projects were selected and are receiving support and advice to define and implement an 'Innovation for Sustainability' FCP project and develop in-house FCP capability. Completion of these procurement projects is expected in 2011.
