Deep impact

It is almost three years to the day that we launched Local Government Lawyer and since then the procurement section has consistently been one of the most well read parts of the site.

But this should have come as no surprise because then, just one month in, the new Remedies Directive was transposed into UK law, bringing with it such major changes as amended procedures for starting legal proceedings, automatic suspensions of the contract award procedure where legal proceedings are brought and the new remedy of declarations of ineffectiveness.

There followed a steady stream of important court rulings for practitioners to get to grips with. Indeed, the number of decided cases is estimated to have risen by 20% between 2009 and 2011.  

At the same time we have seen a host of Government decisions and initiatives have an impact on the field. The Comprehensive Spending Review in 2010 imposed deep cuts to local authority funding, putting more pressure than ever on procurement teams to secure deals that deliver savings and yet also allow their organisations to maintain their services at as high a level as possible.

The Cabinet Office Minister, Francis Maude, has sought to “bust a few myths” around supplier engagement pre-procurement, urged public sector employees to set up mutuals and demanded that contracting authorities improve the ability of small and medium-sized enterprises to win a share of the contract opportunities on offer.

Together with leading law firm Bevan Brittan, we decided to find out from procurement lawyers and other professionals what impact these developments were having. More than 100 took part in the survey and the results make for fascinating reading.

For example, more than 80% said the procurement rules were an obstacle to the introduction of innovative structures for delivering services, whether through outsourcing, joint ventures, local asset-backed vehicles and the like. There was then a real divergence of opinion about just how difficult this hurdle is to overcome.

When it came to legal challenges to procurement processes, meanwhile, more than half of respondents reported that their organisations had seen an increase over the past three years.

This supplement covers these and other findings from the survey and includes articles from Bevan Brittan looking in depth at a number of the key issues raised. We hope you enjoy it.

Philip Hoult, Editor, Local Government Lawyer