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Scottish Government response to the Changes to the Public Procurement Rules in Scotland Consultation

The Scottish Government’s formal response to the consultation on ‘Changes to the public procurement rules in Scotland’ was published today (18^th December 2015).  It outlines their intended approach, for improving public procurement, by simplifying the process further, supporting wider public policy aims and improving supplier access to public contracts.

The response is available to view at Scottish Government - Publications

CONSULTATION BACKGROUND

The new EU Procurement Directives introduced both mandatory and discretionary elements.  These discretionary elements and the plans to implement these were the main focus of a public consultation that ran from 9 February 2015 until 30 April 2015.

The changes to the public procurement rules arise as a result of:

The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014

• EU Directive 2014/24/EU on Directive on public sector contracts, replacing Directive 2004/18/EU;


• EU Directive 2014/25/EU on utility contracts, replacing Directive 2004/17/EU; and


• EU Directive 2014/23/EU on the award of concession contracts, which does not directly replace any previous Directive.

The three EU Procurement Directives, which came into force in April 2014, give Member States a number of decisions on implementing particular provisions into national law and must be implemented into new Scottish Regulations by 18 April 2016.

The responses to the consultation helped inform the development of secondary legislation implementing the new Directives as well as secondary legislation and statutory guidance arising from the Act. The non-confidential responses to the public consultation along with a report analysing those responses were published on 10 August 2015.

The Supplier Development Programme provides free tender training workshops for Scottish SMe’s. These workshops will include details of the changes, to find an event near you or an online webinar please visit www.sdpscotland.co.uk .