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Scottish procurement regulations can help SMEs win public contracts, says expert

16 Mar 2016, 10:29 am

SMEs should find it easier to win lower value public contracts in Scotland as a result of reforms to procurement rules due to come into force in April, an expert has said.

The Procurement (Scotland) Regulations 2016 (20-page / 114KB PDF) will have effect from 18 April 2016 at the same time as a range of other public procurement rules also come into force in Scotland.

Public procurement specialist Christopher Murray of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that the new Regulations will effectively extend some parts of new EU public procurement laws to contracts of lower value.

"The Regulations are just one part of a myriad of new procurement rules coming into force in Scotland on 18 April. They will sit alongside the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015, the Utilities Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2016 and the Concession Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2016 which will each implement EU reforms to procurement laws from 2014."

"In addition, many of the substantive provisions of the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 will also come into force on 18 April. The provisions in that Act and in the new Procurement (Scotland) Regulations 2016 reflect the Scottish Government's decision to focus on some of the EU reforms and apply them to lower value contracts which are not currently subject to formal regulation" he said.

Contracting authorities will be subject to the EU-driven reforms when their contracts have a value above the EU thresholds. However, public works contracts valued between £2 million and the EU threshold (£4,104,394) and public supplies/services contract valued between £50,000 and the EU threshold (£106,047 for central authorities and £164,176 for sub-central authorities) will be subject to the 2014 Act and new Procurement (Scotland) Regulations 2016.

"The Act and the latest raft of reforms set out in the new Procurement (Scotland) Regulations apply stiffer procurement rules to lower value contracts that would fall outside of the EU regime," Murray said. "It includes protections such as a remedies framework for when contracting authorities fail to follow the new procurement rules when awarding lower value contracts. The measures are designed to drive competition for those contracts and should help smaller businesses win a larger share of that business."