- [Nicole] Hello, everyone, thanks for coming back. So this module now, we're gonna be looking at government and public sector contracts. So the aims of this section, just to introduce the main websites for government and public sector contracts that we use, Corporate Watch, and to give a little practical example of how to use them to get the information you need. So these are really handy and I'm just gonna go through them one by one. 

I'm not gonna look at every single website but you'll have this in your PDF that you can download, so you'll be able to kind of experiment and look at all of these in your own time. So the first one is UK Contracts Finder. So this is a government website that helps you find contracts for different state contracts. It's really useful. So what we're gonna do is I'm gonna show you. So this is UK Contracts Finder. So you just type in your keyword here. You can search by region, by postcode, and you can see if you want something that's already been awarded, or is just a future opportunity. All I did was I just typed "weapon" in. I didn't put anything else in, I didn't change anything else, and you can see what's come up. So Project ABEL, Ministry of Defense, serious money. Go down, some sort of Harpoon in Bristol, There's Project ABEL, Refurbishment of Ammunition Containers and Packaging. So let's have a look at you in more detail, you might search for something else. Let's search for "prison". Apologies if this takes ages. Okay, so prison things have come up. So prison education, healthcare commissioning, social services, accommodation. Okay, but, for example, if I wanted to kind of research, like prison expansion, I might look at something that's already been awarded. and so I might look at something... 

Let's just see what's already been awarded. It'll probably be a lot of things. Yeah, 573 contracts. So what I did when I was writing the Prison Ireland Report, about prison expansion, was I looked through here to find the contracts I needed, to find the contracts with the companies that were building the prison. So yeah, it's a really useful website. I would encourage you to like really play around with the sidebar here. So you can do like advanced searches as well. You can look at like open, closed, awarded, notice type. Yeah, this sector stuff. So public sector or supply chain. So there, there you have these things called CPV codes. So it's like a category of the particular codes. You've got agriculture, clothing. And it's really useful to look at an old contract, like a prison construction contract and to know what that CPV code is. 'Cause that will help you just narrow down potentially hundreds of results. And the date range. Again, it's really useful if you're overwhelmed, you might wanna just look at something from a particular year to kind of narrow it down for you. So yeah. It's super, super useful. So we've clicked on our Project ABEL. So, where are you? Okay, so this doesn't have that much information on it but other contracts, they will have like PDFs that you can download, project reports that you can download. If you go to one that's like already been awarded, so for example, this was from 2017. Let's have a look and see if it's got more information. So we can see that... 

Yeah, for example, attachments, it's got the tender notice, it's got some downloads, and we can see that this was awarded to the Prison Advice and Care Trust. So we've got their address here, and yeah, it can really help you see like how much a contract's been awarded. So we can see that these people got 690,000 pounds. So yeah, it's very useful. And sometimes it's just a notice, so it's just advertising a new project that's coming up. And I might not be able to know much about this Project ABLE, but I might then be able to google that, I could google that and do a PDF search and that could bring up more things. So yeah, the Contracts Finder is really useful. And then there's a European version here which is on the PowerPoint. So you'll have links to all of these in the PowerPoint. And yeah, again, I just got to the main page, I just put "weapon" in, just that interest and you can see different things have come up. So we've got repair and maintenance services of weapons in Poland, in Croatia. We've got stuff in the UK, Norway. And yeah, this is like interesting way to find out something about... Yeah, stuff on a different level. and I actually use this site maybe more than the UK one. I don't know if it's got a different search engine or something but it tends to bring up the things I'm looking for, fastest. 

So again, like have a play with the side here, they'll have CPV codes. And you can choose the country specifically. You can see if the contract's already been awarded. I found the site really useful for funding for things in Ireland. You know, any country that's kind of getting European union funding, it's definitely gonna be on here. Okay. So yeah, have a play and experiment with those in your own time, and I will show you some other websites. So we've got the... Yeah, European Tenders Electronic Daily that I've just introduced to you. Sorry, I'm just gonna go to full screen instead. So we've just done that one. And then we've got similar Contracts Finder in Scotland. So just click on their website. You can look at different contracts in Scotland, contracts that have been awarded. You know, some of the sites, you might have to create some sort of account or have some sort of company. But generally, they're very easy to search as an individual and you don't often have to register. Contracts Finder in Wales, Northern Ireland, Ireland. And there's also contracts like the National Health Service. So there's a procurement portal. So for example, I'm recording this in the midst of the pandemic and it's like very useful to know which companies are potentially profiting from PPE sales, or vaccine sales, or whatever. So the NHS will-- They'll share a lot of their opportunities on here. Public-Private Partnerships Forum. This is if you're interested in private finance, private finance contracts, kind of the big waves of privatization we've seen. This is like a really good site to help find contracts that have been awarded. 

Construction, so this is one where you do have to be a member but it's a really good portal to show you who's been awarded, certain contracts. You know, like, which big construction major, construction companies that just got big government contracts, for example. Yeah, and finally, I just wanted to give an example of how we've used this in Corporate Watch. So you can click on this link and it'll take you to an article about Brook House detention centre. I don't know, I should've uploaded this earlier. Let's see how long it takes to load. Here we go. So yeah, this was a couple of years ago now, but Corporate Watch reported on new revelations of brutality in Brook House. So this was a detention centre run by G4S for profit. And yeah, it was an interesting article 'cause it kind of explains like some of the contract dynamics, like how much companies were awarded. For example, here G4S reveals like someone is fined 10,000 pounds when someone kills himself which is, yeah, just outrageous. But you know that's how these companies roll and that's why we're organizing against them, and that's why we're trying to create a different world. Again, it's interesting to know how these things work. So yeah, there's a lot of like analysis here about performance measures, you know, what the companies are kind of making the most money from and, you know, how will they make detention centres even more profitable? So yeah. Take a look at that in your own leisure. If you are researching a company or a particular state project, now is the time to practice your research skills. So please have a look at some of the examples from the PowerPoint. Have a play, have an experiment, just see what you're interested in. And yeah, see what you can find. They're really, really useful tools.