The Government has announced that the new Procurement Regulations will come into force in the UK on 26 February. The new Regulations will make some important to changes to public procurement in the UK. It will be important for all of our contracting authority clients (which include Registered Providers and Local Authorities) to understand how the current regime will change, and what these changes will mean for them in practice.
Key changes that the new Regulations will bring in include:
- The abolition of the distinction between Part A and Part B Services, and the new “light touch” regime for certain types of services including social, care, legal, health and catering services;
- The introduction of new and more flexible procurement procedures including the “competitive procedure with negotiation” and the “innovative partnership” procedure;
- Changes to procurement procedure timescales;
- Measures to promote SME involvement in public procurement including new rules on minimum turnover requirements and division of contracts into “Lots”;
- The changes to the grounds for exclusion of suppliers at the PQQ stage, including the new “persistent poor performance” ground;
- The new rules on contract variations and dealing with post-tender contractor insolvency; and
- Clarification of the rules on “intra-group” contracts and “in house” awards.
We are holding a seminar on the new Regulations at our offices on 19 March in conjunction with Monckton Chambers and Hyde Housing Group.
For further information on the new Regulations please contact Kris Kelliher on 020 7880 4372.
