Timescales for Public Procurement Reform

By Jo Frost
28th January 2021

Following the UK’s extradition from the EU there have been some changes to The Public Contracts Regulations that govern procurement processes in the UK public sector and there will be some more to come. Below you will find a summary of the changes, proposed changes and key dates.

15 December 2020	Cabinet Office publishes a Green Paper on its proposals for future reform of public procurement and seeks responses to it consultation questions.
1st January 2021	Find a Tender Service replaces Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) Find a Tender Services is the new UK e-notification service where notices for procurements are now required to be published. The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 continue to apply to all procurements above certain thresholds.
10 March 2021	Cabinet Office Green Paper consultation closes.
Mid March to June 2021	Cabinet Office to formulate response to Green Paper consultation.
July 2021	Cabinet Office publishes response to Green Paper.
Dec 2021- Nov 2022	Bill laid before Parliament.
May 2022 – Sep 2022	Statutory Instrument in Parliament
Sep 2022 – Sep 2023	Training and embedding of new public procurement regulations.
Sep 2023	Statutory Instrument in force (new public procurement regulations commence).

Consultation Workshops on the future of Public Procurement post Brexit

By Pat Condon
6th January 2021

CPL Group is providing training to CPC members at no cost covering the proposals recently issued by Cabinet Office in the Green Paper to consider the future of procurement regulations in the UK. A number of sessions have been diarised with a maximum of 15 per session delivered over Microsoft Teams. To book your place, please click here and please ensure to include your name and email address.

All registrations must be received 48 hours in advance of the session you select to enable our team to forward you the relevant link to the workshop.

Brexit Update: New UK Find a Tender Service

By Jo Frost
24th November 2020

The Cabinet Office have now published a Procurement Policy Note introducing the new Find a Tender Service that will replace OJEU from 1 January 2021.

Find a Tender Service is the new UK e-notification service where notices for new procurements are required to be published in place of the Official Journal of the European Union’s Tenders Electronic Daily (OJEU/TED), from the end of the Transition Period. The PPN applies to all contracting authorities (including schools, academies and colleges) and means whilst the framework and principles underlying the public procurement regime (the procurement procedures, financial thresholds, etc.) will not substantially change, contracting authorities will be required to publish public procurement notices for new procurements to the new UK e-notification service, Find a Tender (FTS): https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk instead of OJEU. All legal and policy requirements to advertise on other platforms such as Contracts Finder will not be affected by these changes.

For more information on the financial thresholds at which the public procurement regime require the publication of procurement notices, please see guidance on felp.ac.uk or contact your CPC Regional Procurement Advisor. If you choose to use a framework agreement established by a central purchasing body, such as CPC, you do not have to publish a procurement notice on the new FTS, even if your procurement is over the financial thresholds.

FTS will be available for public use from 23:00 on 31 December 2020.

What action should I take?

1. Contracting authorities that are currently working with a third party provider (‘eSender’) to submit notices to OJEU/TED will be able to continue to use them provided that the eSender successfully completes integration work to post notices to FTS. You should check with your eSender if they have completed this integration work. Elcom (previously ADB UK Ltd), who provide CPC Sourcing Cloud have successfully completed this integration.
2. Contracting authorities that need to publish directly to FTS will need a Supplier Registration Service (SRS) account:
• Existing Contracts Finder users will be enabled to publish to FTS automatically and need take no action.
• Contracting authorities that do not have a Contracts Finder or a Supplier Registration Service account will need to register as a buyer at https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/organisation/register and apply to post notices.
• Contracting authorities that do have an SRS account, but not a Contracts Finder account will need to go to Contracts Finder and sign in with their SRS credentials at https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/login and then apply to post notices.

What do I do if I have a procurement in progress at the end of the Transition Period?

In respect of procurements which are launched before 23:00 on 31 December 2020 and which have not yet been finalised by that date, the current requirement to publish notices to OJEU/TED will continue to apply after the end of the transition period.

For more information please see the Procurement Policy Notes PPN 08/20 and PPN 10/20 that includes Frequently Asked Questions and FTS end of transition work chart.

Don’t panic! No change to public procurement imminent

By Jo Frost
9th October 2019

We may have said goodbye to the European Union but the EU Public Procurement Directives and UK Public Procurement Regulations will continue to apply during the transition period from 31 January 2020 until 31 December 2020.

What happens after this period is, at this stage, unknown and will largely be dependant on the details of the ‘deal’ reached with Europe during the transition period and the desire of the UK Government for regulatory reform.

So for now at least its business as usual! We will be keeping an eye on the progress of negotiations between the EU and the UK and will keep you informed of developments as they happen.

Update on the new UK e-notification service in a no deal Brexit

By Jo Frost
9th October 2019

As advised in previous blog articles for the most part the legal framework for public procurement and, in particular, the different procedures available to contracting authorities (schools, academies, colleges, etc) will remain exactly the same in a No Deal Brexit. One key difference for contracting authorities will be the need to send notices to a new UK e-notification service instead of the EU Publications Office.

Contracting authorities have a legal obligation to publish public procurement notices. In a no deal scenario, contracting authorities may no longer have access to the EU Publications Office and the online supplement to the Official Journal of the EU (OJEU) dedicated to European public procurement (i.e. Tenders Electronic Daily (TED)). Therefore, the government has amended current legislation to instead require UK contracting authorities to publish public procurement notices to a new UK e-notification service. The new service is called Find a Tender (FTS).

Find a Tender will be deployed at 11pm GMT on 31st October in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

An updated list of e-Senders who are prepared for the new Find a Tender service can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/public-sector-procurement-after-a-no-deal-brexit#history.

CPC / Tenet Support

Elcom, the provider of CPC Sourcing Cloud, is ready to switch to Find a Tender, so those who have purchased the Tender Module within CPC Sourcing Cloud to run their own tenders above the EU Threshold need not worry.

Likewise, those institutions who make use of Tenet Education Services On Demand Tender Support or Managed Procurement Services, need not worry as Tenet’s e-sender is also Elcom.

(No publication to the Find a Tender is necessary for those institutions that utilise a CPC framework as opposed to running their own above EU threshold tender processes).

Cabinet Office issue FAQ on procurements in a no deal Brexit

By Jo Frost
12th April 2019

The Cabinet Office has supplemented their guidance in relation to the procurement regulations in both a deal and no deal Brexit scenario with an FAQ on no deal Brexit procurement regulations. The message remains the same, if we leave the EU with a no deal, contracting authorities will no longer have access to OJEU and will instead need to submit notices to a new UK e-notification service. The majority of the other procurement regulations will remain unchanged.

Please refer to our previous article which was published on 14th February if you would like more information or contact your CPC Regional Procurement Advisor.

Deal or no deal - Brexit procurement impacts

By Jo Frost
14th February 2019

The Cabinet Office have issued guidance on the outcome for public procurement policy in an EU exit deal vs no deal scenario.

Deal
Should the UK leave the EU with a deal, the public procurement regulations will remain broadly unchanged during the implementation period. The implementation period will run from 11pm on 29th March 2019 to 31st December 2020. The process for new procurement procedures during the implementation period will not change and the existing regulatory regime will continue for any procurements until they are awarded.

No deal
Should the UK leave the EU without a deal, the public procurement regulations will remain broadly unchanged after EU exit at 11pm on 29 March 2019, however there will be some amendments to ensure they remain operable and functional on exit. The majority of the procurement regulations and in particular the different procedures available to contracting authorities and entities, will remain exactly the same. The key difference for contracting authorities would be the need to send notices to a new UK e-notification service instead of the EU Publications Office (OJEU).

Should there be a no deal scenario, contracting authorities may no longer have access to the EU Publications Office and the online supplement to the Official Journal of the EU dedicated to European public procurement (Tenders Electronic Daily). Therefore the Government will be amending current legislation to instead require UK contracting authorities to publish public procurement notices to a new UK e-notification service. The new UK e-notification service will be ready for use by Exit Day. The requirement to advertise in Contracts Finder will remain unchanged.

Should a procurement have commenced before 11pm on 29th March 2019 (i.e. they have been advertised in OJEU already) contracting authorities will need to comply with the new regulations from Exit Day, by posting subsequent contract award notices on the new UK e-notification service instead of OJEU. However, the effect of the former rules will be preserved in some circumstances to maintain fairness throughout the procurement.

Full details of proposed changes to the procurement regulations in a no deal scenario are laid out in a draft Statutory Instrument - The Public Procurement (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (The EU Exit SI).

What you need to do now
Should your institution use an e-tendering system to send notices to OJEU, you should contact your e-tendering system provider and check they are completing the integration work to post notices to the new UK e-notification service. The guidance note provides a list of e-senders who have already told the Cabinet Office that they intend to integrate their services with the new UK e-notification service in early 2019.

Should your institution use a consultant to conduct above EU threshold tenders on your behalf, you should check that the e-sender your consultant uses is completing the integration work to post notices to the new UK e-notification service.

CPC / Tenet support
Elcom, the provider of CPC Sourcing Cloud, is already completing the integration work to post notices to the new UK e-notification service, so those who have purchased the Tender Module within CPC Sourcing Cloud to run their own tenders above the EU Threshold need not worry.

Likewise, those institutions who make use of Tenet Education Services On Demand Tender Support or Managed Procurement Services, need not worry as Tenet’s e-sender is also Elcom.

No publication to the new UK e-notification service is necessary for those institutions that utilise a CPC framework as opposed to running their own above EU threshold tender processes.

Should you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact the CPC Helpdesk on 0800 066 2188.

Deal or no deal

By Jo Frost
9th November 2018

During September the Government issued guidance on the impact a ‘no deal’ Brexit would have on public sector procurement. Should the UK withdraw from the EU without a deal it is highly likely we will lose access to the Open Journal of the European Union (OJEU). Should this be the case the Government has confirmed that a UK-specific e-notification service will be made available to UK businesses and individuals if OJEU access arrangements are not finalised before the 29 March 2019. The Government has also confirmed that changes to the procurement rules will be made via amendments to existing legislation to ensure continued operability.

Given the electronic communication regulations now in place, you will no doubt be using a e-tendering system to publish notices directly on OJEU, and it’s advisable, (closer to the time), to contact your e-tendering system provider to make sure they have been informed of the new arrangements and are capable of complying.

Whilst the guidance may address one question about the practical implications of the procurement regime post-Brexit, there remain many unanswered questions - expect further technical notes to come!

Brexit's Effect on Procurement Directives

By Julie-Ann Garton
17th October 2016

In a recent article published in Supply Management, a procurement lawyer has stated that it will be "business as usual" for procurement after Brexit. He believes that even if we exit the European Union it's doubtful that the first priority for the government will be to change or update procurement legislation. However, buyers should start to familiarise themselves with other regulatory environments including the World Trade Organisation agreements. Ultimately the names of certain things might change but the demand for consistency, transparency and non-discrimination will remain.

A recent survey was carried out where a total of 134 buyers across the UK were surveyed. According to the results around 58% of respondents said they would prefer to see procurement directives reformed rather than completely eliminated.

EU Referendum Result and Procurement Practices

By Peter Brewer
28th June 2016

The result of the Referendum of the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union has without doubt cast uncertainty for many of us and understandably there will be concerns about the impact on public sector procurement.  The purpose of this communication is to address any early concerns about the effect on how you do procurement and share the information that is currently available.

The UK's withdrawal from the European Union should have less of an impact on how the UK conducts its public sector procurement than it will in other areas, the OJEU regime is based on a system designed and managed by the EU.  The UK will still require a robust system to ensure that tax payer's money is spent appropriately on public sector contracts and even though the UK may leave the current EU regulatory system, the procurement principles are already enshrined in UK legislation and are UK law. It is also important to note that the UK played a major role in the development of the Procurement Directives and the subsequent Public Contracts Regulations so it is unlikely that any changes would be material.

The general consensus of procurement publications and procurement legal specialists is that it is unlikely that the UK would remove public procurement rules altogether. Public procurement is, at its core, there to prevent corruption and enable open and fair treatment and that driver would remain. The UK is a party to the World Trade Organisation's Government Procurement Agreement and as such, it is highly likely that those rules will continue to apply in some form. You can read more about the Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) here. We do not know if or when any changes will take place and what they will look like, although it is likely that at some point the Government will issue a schedule of review for legislation that is impacted by the result.

In the short term nothing should change (at least for the next couple of years), the Public Contracts Regulations will continue to apply to public sector bodies, including CPC and it's members.

In the long term, the current regime may continue or a new set of similar rules will be drafted and introduced.  This could take several years to produce and implement and it is reasonable to assume that this set of Regulations will not be a priority for the UK, taking into account other key areas of legislation that must be addressed first.

The CPC business model is committed to being agile and responsive, this approach is embedded into everything that we do. Whatever the future looks like we will ensure that we position ourselves to continue to be the consortium of choice for you, our members. 

We will continue to provide you with information on how this impacts public sector procurement as the situation develops. If you have any specific queries or concerns please address them via your Regional Procurement Advisor who will pass them to our procurement experts.