22 April 2020 
Ashley Shelbrooke, HEPA and Project Specialist
Andrea Marshall at BUFDG has written a policy paper which is with Universities UK, and has been shared with HMRC as well. The paper details the tax costs for both the NHS and Universities which can arise through some of the activities occurring as a result of the coronavirus response. The paper makes recommendations for temporary concessions to mitigate these costs. All of the content in the paper is relevant to the procurement community, but of particular importance is the ‘supplies of goods’ section (page 4).
As always, keep an eye on our news section of the website for future updates.
As promised, and as a follow-up to our first webinar held earlier in the month, we are pleased to announce the second instalment of our ‘time to talk’ series which will cover construction contracts. The webinar will be held with Julie Morrissy of Clyde & Co. this Friday 24 April 2020 via Microsoft Teams. Bookings are open and you can reserve your place here; please feel free to share this invite with your colleagues in Estates.
We plan to cover furlough in the next ‘time to talk’ which will be held on Monday 4 May. To help us shape the content, please could you get in touch if this is an issue that is impacting you from a procurement perspective?
Bookings are now open to all UK Universities Purchasing Consortia members for the LUPC & SUPC Conference which is taking place digitally next week on 30 April 2020. More information, the full programme and booking details are available here.
Finally, colleagues at SUMS last week released a very interesting Silver Linings Playbook which you can download here, and is well worth a read. The document includes thought-provoking insights on where universities sit along the spectrum from crisis management to business recovery and is an affirming piece that speaks to the positive response from the sector as a whole, but does highlight where we will need to maximise opportunities going forward.
