Government departments have received guidance from the Cabinet Office on awarding contracts under £100 million in a bid to increase SME participation.

The guidance is intended to reduce risks from outsourcing to a single supplier while increasing competition.The guidance provided states that of open source and open standards should be employed and that designs, code and templates should be reused.

Francis Maude, Cabinet Office minister, said: “We will end the practice of attempting to cover every requirement in great detail and cover every legal eventuality in every project and contract, thereby increasing the procurement cost and timescales to all parties to unacceptable levels”.