Initial comments on the UK's Procurement Bill: A lukewarm assessment

Having read the Procurement Bill, its Impact Assessment and the Explanatory Notes, I have some initial comments, which I have tried to articulate in a working paper.

In the paper I offer some initial comments on the Bill and related documents, including: (i) the economic justification in its impact assessment; (ii) some general comments on legislative technique and the quality of the Bill and its Explanatory Notes; (iii) some observations on what may have not been carried over from the Transforming Public Procurement consultation and government response; (iv) a mapping of important aspects of procurement regulation that the Bill does not cover and will thus have to wait for secondary legislation and/or guidance; (v) some general considerations on the unclear impact of different wording for ‘terms of art’, including their interpretation; and (vi) fifty selected issues I have spotted in my first reading of the Bill. I close with some considerations on the difficulty of ensuring a sufficient fix along the legislative process.

In case of interest, the paper can be dowloaded here: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4114141.

More than ever, this is work in progress and I would be grateful for any feedback or discussion: a.sanchez-graells@bristol.ac.uk.

Not a hot take on the UK's Procurement Bill

As anticipated, the UK Government has moved at tremendous speed to introduce the Procurement Bill for Parliamentary passage. The text of the Bill as introduced, and information on the Parliamentary process, are available here.

The Procurement Bill comprises 116 sections and 11 schedules, and it will take some careful reading to identify how the Bill:

  • meets the UK’s international commitments under the WTO GPA, the EU-UK TCA, and other FTAs with procurement chapters;

  • deviates from the current EU-derived Public Contracts Regulations 2015, and the rest of the regulations transposing EU procurement law;

  • embeds the key changes resulting from the Transforming Public Procurement consultation — which will also largely depend on secondary legislation and guidance yet to be published;

  • generates potential interpretative issues that could be ironed out through the Parliamentary procedure; and

  • is likely to work out in practice to deliver the ambitious goals of the UK Government.

So this is not material suitable for a hot take. Sorry to disappoint! I will try to publish a more considered view by the end of the month, although it may take longer… For now, happy reading of the Bill.