The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 arrive
With the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 coming into force this week, Ruth Connorton and Hannah Chapelhow provide a reminder of some of the key obligations that this brings and issues procurement professionals should be on top of.
Availability of documents
From today (26 February) all authorities must offer unrestricted and full direct access, via the internet, to the "procurement documents" from the date a contract notice or a PIN acting as a call for competition is published in OJEU. The internet address where they can be found must be included in the notice.
Procurement Documents are defined as: "any document produced or referred to by the contracting authority to describe or determine elements of the procurement or the procedure, including the contract notice, the prior information notice where it is used as a means of calling for competition, the technical specification, the descriptive document, proposed conditions of contract, formats for the presentation of documents by candidates and tenderers, information on generally applicable obligations and any additional documents".
FAQ guidance from the Crown Commercial Service states that it "should cover the second stage documents; there ought not to be an impediment in principle to making these available from the start". Authorities will therefore need to have all their usual procurement process documents available at the point at which the contract notice is published including the PQQ (where being used) and the ITT/ ITPD (including evaluation criteria and methodology and all of the relevant contractual supporting documents).
Using Contracts Finder
From today all authorities "which perform their functions on behalf of the Crown" must publish any contract notice on Contracts Finder within 24 hours of the notice being published in OJEU - they cannot be published before the notice is made available on OJEU so this will require monitoring of publication dates. Contract award notices and details of contracts awarded under frameworks must also be published on Contracts Finder "within a reasonable time" but again, not before publication in the OJEU. The requirement to publish information on Contracts Finder also applies to certain below threshold contracts.
Other authorities (except academies, maintained schools and in respect of healthcare services under the NHS Patient Choice Regulations) have until 1 April 2015 to comply.
30 day payments
Authorities must make payment of valid undisputed invoices within 30 days and have an obligation to report any non-compliance with this obligation annually.
Record keeping
Authorities must keep copies of contracts (for at least the duration of contract) over the following thresholds €1m for service or supply contracts and €10m for works contracts and grant access to them, subject to data protection issues.
Reporting
Authorities must create a written report in relation to each contract and framework agreement awarded and every DPS established (subject to some exclusions) which includes the following information:
- value of the contract;
- the name of the winning bidder;
- the reasons why any tenders were found to be abnormally low;
- the reasons why the winning tender was selected; and
- any conflicts of interest detected and subsequent measures taken.
Authorities must also document the progress of all procurement procedures and, to that end, keep documentation to "justify decisions taken in all stages of the procurement procedure" including documentation on internal deliberations and selection and award criteria.
Ruth Connorton is a Partner and Head of Procurement Law and Hannah Chapelhow is a Solicitor at DAC Beachcroft. Ruth can be contacted on 0191 404 4130 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., while Hannah can be reached on 0191 404 4121 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
