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United Kingdom : PUBLIC PROCUREMENT reforms become effective in BRITAIN
Publish Date : 03-Mar-2015
New rules under which public bodies in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are required to change how they purchase goods and services have become effective. The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 adopt the European Union's Public Sector Procurement Directive which was finalized in 2014. A majority of the new Regulation's provisions entered force on 26th February and apply to all new tender procedures started on or after that date.
Certain reforms included in the new Regulations, like those that support the transition to electronic procurement processes, will not become effective until 2018. The EU reforms are being adopted separately in Scotland. Public procurement law expert Jennifer Robinson of Pinsent Masons, the law company behind Out-Law.com, said the reforms provide the government and other public bodies with new opportunities to encourage innovation through the procurement process.
Robinson said : "Innovative partnerships' offer an alternative procedure for public authorities to follow to the procurement frameworks they may already be familiar with, such as the open procedure, restricted procedure, competitive dialogue, and competitive procedure with negotiation. Innovation partnerships are geared at enabling both the development and subsequent purchase from the same supplier or suppliers of an 'innovative' work, service or product. The idea is that project proposals are submitted during the competitive tender process and the solutions developed post-award of the contract. This is in contrast to the competitive dialogue where discussion with prospective suppliers is required to continue until the authority identifies the solution that best meets its needs."
She added : "There is scope to appoint more than one innovation partner but also for partners' contracts to be terminated as the development progresses post-appointment. The procedure, however, raises so-far unanswered questions and there are a number of restrictions that apply, including to the innovation partnership contract, which might put some authorities off. That said, it is potentially a great door-opening opportunity for suppliers and a new avenue for authorities to explore who are interested in working with the private sector to commercialise new products and services. Innovation partnerships look set to be a cross-roads for procurement, state aid and competition issues."
