Published
This PPN provides consolidated guidance that reminds public bodies of the requirements of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCRs 2015) to publish information about opportunities and awards over certain low value thresholds on Contracts Finder (CFS).
This guidance has been re-issued to reflect changes following the end of the transition period and to provide further clarity to enable in-scope organisations to meet their transparency obligations.
What are the Contracts Finder Publication Requirements?
The PCRs 2015 require the majority of above threshold* contract opportunities to be advertised across the UK on Find a Tender (FTS), the UK’s new e-notification service, and also on Contracts Finder.
*currently £189,330 for goods and services, £4,733,252 for works and £663,540 for social and other specific services.
Procurement opportunities that exceed £25,000 are required to be published on Contracts Finder if you advertise the opportunity, for example on another website. Where you are satisfied it is lawful not to advertise an opportunity and you choose not to advertise the opportunity at all, (e.g. where quotations are sought, single tender action is being considered, a framework agreement or DPS is used, etc), the requirement to publish an opportunity notice on Contracts Finder does not apply to that procurement.
You should consider whether the contract would have cross border interest, before concluding that an opportunity does not need to be advertised. This should be documented as part of the procurement records.Once a contract that exceeds £25,000 has been awarded as a result of a procurement process, contracting authorities must also publish information on Contracts Finder about the awarded contract.
What information should be published on Contracts Finder about contract awards?
Once a contract has been awarded (whether by open competition or otherwise) you are required to publish at least the following information on Contracts Finder:
The full company name of the winning contractor;
The date on which the contract was entered into (award date);
The total value of the contract in pounds sterling; and
Details of who has won the contract, including indicating whether the contractor is a small/medium sized enterprise (SME) or a voluntary, community or social enterprise (VCSE)
What do I have to do if I use a framework agreement?
You do not need to publish the contract opportunity on Find a Tender (FTS) or on Contracts Finder if you use a framework agreement.
However if you use a framework agreement for procurement opportunities that exceed £25,000, you do need to publish a contract award notice on Contracts Finder once the contract has been awarded.
A reminder of who is exempt from the Contracts Finder Regulations
Schools, academies and sixth form colleges are exempt from the Contracts Finder publication requirements, as are contracting authorities in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Please refer to PPN 07/12 for further detail and information on timings of publications.
Should you have any queries about the procurement regulations, please do not hesitate to contact your CPC Regional Procurement Advisor or read the guidance on your go to procurement resource provided by CPL Group – Further Education Library of Procurement – www.felp.ac.uk.