Public Procurement Regulations
Public sector procurement law
Public procurement law regulates the buying by public sector bodies and some utility sector organisations of contracts for goods, works or services. It was created to free up the EU's public procurement market to free competition, allow the movement of goods and services across Europe and to prevent nations buying their own for patriotic reasons.
There used to be three different regulations in the UK which applied depending upon whether goods, works or services were being procured. These laws were stuck together in one act of legislation which was enacted on 31 January 2006:
-
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland: the Public Contracts Regulations 2006
-
In Scotland: the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2006.
They integrated into UK law the EC’s Consolidated Directive on public procurement (2004/18/ EC)
When do they apply?
The Regulations usually apply when these pre-conditions are met:
-
The procuring organisation is a ‘contracting authority’ as set out in the rules.
-
The contract is a public works, services or supplies contract.
-
The estimated worth of the contract including VAT equals or is more than a certain financial threshold.
The present thresholds are:
-
£3,927,260 for the procurement of public works
-
£101,323 of for the procurement of supplies and Part A services by government organisations
-
£156,442 for the procurement of supplies and Part A services by other public sector organisations
If these pre conditions are satisfied than an authority is required usually to advertise the contract in the Official Journal of the EU and abide by the procedural laws in the Regulations.
The Regulations separate services into Part A or priority services and Part B or residual services. Part A services are fully caught by the Regulations, while Part B services are in by a lesser regime, with only a small number of the detailed rules of the Regulations being applicable.
Usually Part B services are considered by the EU to mostly be of interest only to bidders which are in the Member State where the contract was to be carried out.
Part A services include:
Part B services include:
Contracts below financial threshold
Though below the threshold contracts aren’t caught by the Regulations, there is case rule to say that where the contract is of 'certain interest' to suppliers located in other UE countries, authorities that are contracting must still procure them in accordance with the TFEU principles of no discrimination, equal treatment, transparency, proportionality and mutual recognition. This is the same with Part B services. In practice this means that the contract has to be appropriately advertised and fair competition run afterwards. The range and type of the advertisement depends on the type of contract and who is or is probably interested in it.
Contracts liable for the Regulations have to be advertised by an OJEU notice.
All about small business lenders
In the UK there are currently many hundreds of thousands of small businesses, making a vast contribution to the overall economy of the country.
Commercial banking and you
Commercial banking is a vitally important part of the economy of the United Kingdom, and a strong and stable commercial banking system is required.
Corporate finance - our guide
Corporate finance is a generic term which refers to the way in which large companies manage their financial affairs, and can be extremely complex.