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Tim Heywood and Patrick Parkin assess the significance of SMEs in procurement policy while a contracting authority is not prohibited from using multiple contracts for a single requirement, it may not do so when the intention is to ensure a contract value is below the threshold at which the procurement directives apply.Here in the UK, …
Continue reading "Policy: Big Society, small players"
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Julie Scottoanalyses the first steps of the Green Investment Bank Once established, the bank is meant to operate at arm’s length from the government despite the government being the sole shareholder.Speaking at the world energy ministers’ climate summit in London in late April, David Cameron said: When I became Prime Minister, I said that Britain …
Continue reading "Finance: Banking on the future"
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Jack Hayward reports on new opportunities for practitioners ‘When challenging public procurement awards, the remedies are usually found within reg 47 of the Public Contract Regulations 2006’I attended the procurement law day at Bangor University in North Wales on the 30th March held by the Institute for Competition and Procurement Studies. I chaired the session …
Continue reading "Update: Raising the bar"
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Patrick Mitchell and Matthew Warren discuss recent trends and developments in the UK infrastructure sector ‘The NIP 2011 provides a cross-sector view of the UK infrastructure market, and identifies a pipeline of over 500 new infrastructure projects for development throughout the UK “over the next decade and beyond”.’Despite the recent downturn and uncertainty in the …
Continue reading "Infrastructure: Investing in the UK’s future"
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Christopher Brennan considers the impact of the proposed EC Directives ‘Purchasers will need to comply with the general principles of equal treatment and transparency, and have regard to certain qualitative aspects when awarding contracts for those services.’Public procurement law is set to change following proposed new directives issued by the European Commission in December. Updating …
Continue reading "Legislation: Illuminating light regulation"
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Nathan Searle looks at what the fans and the critics say about the Common European Sales Law ‘The concept of “good faith and fair dealing” is one of the central principles of the CESL. This is defined as “a standard of conduct characterised by honesty, openness and consideration for the interests of the other party …
Continue reading "European Law: Too taxing"
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Marc Anson and Richard Lane examine the potential of shared services and the community right to challenge under the Localism Act ‘The community right to challenge is likely to be useful to authorities as they will be forced to look at new, innovative ways of reducing costs and increasing efficiencies.’The need to increase efficiencies and …
Continue reading "Localism Act: Power to the people"
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David Sawtell assesses recent case law on restricting the liability of service purchasers ‘In effect, the service purchaser has a duty to ensure that care is taken, rather than merely to take care.’When a company or public body contracts out a function, the duties and responsibilities of the service provider and the service purchaser are …
Continue reading "Contracting: Passing the buck"
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Catherine Wolfenden and Jorren Knibbe assess the relationship between confidentiality and the procurement process ‘The public body will be obliged to provide information requested under FOIA unless one of the statutory exceptions applies. There are statutory exceptions for confidential and commercially sensitive information, but the protection they provide is less than perfect.’Tendering for public sector …
Continue reading "Tendering: Ask no questions, tell no lies"
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Joanne McDowall reviews the new UK procurement regulations ‘The administrative burden on all parties may reduce significantly as a result of provisions designed to reduce the documentation requirements of procurement processes.’During the course of the next couple of years we will have yet another new set of procurement regulations in the UK, this time in …
Continue reading "Legislation: Top ten changes"
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