Latest blogs on procurement law

One of the questions we are regularly asked is about the operation of the equal treatment principle in a situation where an incumbent provider is taking part in the re-procurement of a contract.

With all the excitement it is perhaps not surprising that the latest determination by a judge of what Regulation 69 requires a Contracting Authority to do (or not do) passed by without comment from this blog.

The government has just published a tranche of papers outlining the potential impact of a no deal Brexit.

This firm recently successfully defended the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care against a claim by DHL Supply Chain Limited for summary judgment in connection with the procurement of a new logistics contract.

We recently had a decision in a case concerning child and adolescent mental health services in Lancashire.

The Public Contracts Regulations prescribe 3 potential remedies for bidders but these do not include a power to order an Authority to enter into a contract with a bidder who has been successful in proceedings. However the Regulations do not fetter other powers of the Court and so in principle it is possible to ask the court to order that the Authority must enter into a contract with a bidder following the outcome of legal proceedings.

The scope of the PPN continues to include Central Government Departments their Executive Agencies and Non Departmental Public Bodies with other public bodies being advised to follow it given that they are also subject to the GDPR and Data Protection Act obligations.

The Government has confirmed that the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will be the regulator for any State aid regime which is adopted for the UK post Brexit.

A new Procurement Policy Note (PPN) from the Crown Commercial Service requires in-scope organisations to take action to update their terms and conditions to include new obligations on suppliers relating to supply chain visibility.