Which of the following encourages social and environmental criteria in public sector contracting in the UK?

The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 is the correct legislation. It requires public bodies in the UK to consider how the services they commission and procure might improve the economic, social, and environmental well-being of the relevant area. This Act places a duty on commissioners to think about the wider positive outcomes that can be achieved through procurement before the process starts. It encourages a focus on the collective benefit to a community from a contract, beyond just the direct purchase of goods or services, thereby embedding social and environmental criteria into public contracting.

A. The Social Action, Responsibility and Heroism Act 2015 concerns protecting individuals from litigation when they act for the benefit of society, not public procurement contracts.

C. The Children and Social Work Act 2017 focuses on reforming services for child protection and support for looked-after children, not general public sector contracting.

D. Supply and Appropriation Acts are routine parliamentary mechanisms that authorise government expenditure; they do not set the policy or criteria for how contracts are awarded.

1. The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012

c. 3. Section 1

Paragraph 3 states: "The authority must consider... how what is proposed to be procured might improve the economic

social and environmental well-being of the relevant area". (Source: legislation.gov.uk

an official UK government source).

2. Cabinet Office. (2012). The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012: A short guide. Page 3 explains that the Act requires commissioners "to think about how they can secure wider social

economic and environmental benefits" when procuring services. (Source: gov.uk

official UK government guidance).

3. Flynn

A. (2015). The Social Value Act 2012: A new dawn for public procurement? Public Money & Management

35(5)

333-334. The article's abstract states the Act "requires public bodies to have regard to economic

social and environmental well-being in connection with public services contracts". (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09540962.2015.1062129).