Contract notices under Reg. 49 Public Contracts Regulations 2015

Reg. 49 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR2015) transposes only half of the content of Article 49 of Directive 2014/24 and establishes that contract notices shall contain the information set out in part C of Annex 5 to Dir 2014/24 and shall be sent for publication in accordance with reg.51 PCR2015.

The missing bit that reg.49 PCR2015 fails to transpose is that contract notices shall be used as a means of calling for competition in respect of all procedures, without prejudice to the second sub-paragraph of Art 26(5) Dir 2014/24 [reg.26(9) and (10) PCR2015] on the possibility for that sub-central contracting authorities or specific categories thereof to make the call for competition by means of a prior information notice [reg.48 PCR2015, see here and here], and Art 32 Dir 2014/24 [reg.32 PCR2015] on the use of the negotiated procedure without prior publication, which obviously does not require a contract notice.

In my view, given the repetition of the content of the omitted part, which simply includes cross-referrals to special rules, there is not much lost in terms of legal certainty due to the economical approach taken in reg.49 PCR2015. Pedro's comments, pretty much along the same lines, are here.