Buying Social Justice Through Procurement

buying social justice through procurement is a 2 year esrc research project exploring the use of social procurement by public bodies to promote equality within the uk construction industry. the uk public sector spends £284 billion a year on procuring goods, works and services from the private sector. there is growing interest from policy makers in using this public spending power to acheive additional social ends - known as social procurement. the construction sector has low numbers of women and ethnic minority workers, and social procurement can be a way of increasing workforce diversity, for example by setting targets for jobs or apprenticeships for members of under-represented groups on a pubicly-finded housing project. the project objectives are: * to provide new evidence on the use of social procurement by public authorities to advance equality in employment; * to compare the use and impact of social procurement in england, wales and scotland; * to produce guidance on incre