We outline the key highlights from the responses.
In December 2020 the Cabinet Office set out proposals for shaping the future of public procurement with the publication of a green paper “Transforming Public Procurement” (the “Green Paper”). The general thrust of the Green Paper was seeking views as to how the Government could improve public procurement as a result of new-found freedoms following our exit from the European Union. On 6 December 2020 the Cabinet Office released its response to the consultation exercise. Set out below are highlights from that consultation paper.
Key highlights from the responses include:
We can see that a small but important part of how these new changes will be implemented will not be by way of specific legislation, but by way of guidance issued by the Cabinet Office. Given recent case law, the importance of this type of guidance can’t be overestimated. Procurement professionals will need to be very aware of what these say and the Cabinet Office will need to ensure the robustness of these guidance notes.
There are significant changes to how bidder exclusion will work, the specific exclusion criteria will be reworked to try and ensure that there is more power to exclude bidders who are a genuine risk to the good order of public procurement. Exclusion for poor past performance often vexes contracting authorities, here the response extends the situations to also include failure to adhere to rectification plan type situations. Further clarity is given to the proposals around a central debarment list. In particular how bidders find themselves on the list and the mechanisms for getting off it.
Substantive modifications provide fertile ground for concern for contracting authorities. The proposals around greater clarity and upfront transparency in the Green Paper will be adopted. This will include obligations around transparency pre-change and more clarity with the current safe harbours. In answer to responses received the Cabinet Office are considering how best to address amendments in long-term complex contracts with the potential for a new safe harbour.
The ambition in the Green Paper to improve the remedies aspect of procurement remains key. However, while some of the more radical parts of the Green Paper have been dropped, it is going to continue to explore options around changes to the Civil Procedure Rules and the TCC Guide to deliver the needed improvement, reduce costs and speed up litigation. Importantly, the Cabinet Office have specifically said that legislation will change the current test for the lifting of the automatic suspension, moving away from the current three-part American Cyanamid test. The proposals around the cap on damages will not be taken forward. It will still try and ensure that greater emphasis is given on pre-award rectification by way of a quicker remedy system, but will not be seeking to legislatively state pre-contract remedies have primacy over post contract ones. There is speculation among procurement practitioners that judicial review claims in public procurement will become more prevalent due to the significant references to public policy throughout the forthcoming Procurement Bill. The introductions of public policy through the procurement regime will inevitably add a layer of complexity that could lead to an increase in challenges based on public law issues.
Finally, the response continues to emphasise the importance of transparency and will seek to deliver this in the forthcoming Procurement Bill. Whilst standstill letters in their current form will no longer be required, more award information will be made available publicly at the point of award. Additionally, specific information will made available to the unsuccessful bidders, including certain evaluation documentation which is potentially beyond the current obligations. This is potentially more complicated and it will be very important for contracting authorities to be alive to. They will need to ensure that processes will deliver the required level of information and clarity over their decision making.
Law firm Browne Jacobson has collaborated with Wiltshire Council and Christ Church Business School on the launch event of The Council Company Best Practice and Innovation Network, a platform which brings together academic experts and senior local authority leaders, allowing them to share best practice in relation to council companies.
In the Autumn Statement delivered on 17 November, rises to the National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage rates were announced, to take effect from 1 April 2023.
Announced in September but scrapped on 17 November the investment zone proposals were very short lived. The proposal has now morphed into the proposal for a smaller number of clustered zones earmarked for investment.
Settlement agreements are commonplace in an employment context and are ordinarily used to provide the parties to the agreement with certainty following the conclusion of an employment relationship.
On 2 November 2022, the Supreme Court handed down its judgment in the much awaiting case of Hillside Parks Ltd v Snowdonia National Park Authority [2022] UKSC 30. The Court’s judgment suggests that the long established practice of using drop-in applications is in fact much more restricted than previously thought. This judgment therefore has significant implications for both the developers and local planning authorities.
In ‘failure to remove’ claims, the claimant alleges abuse in the family home and asserts that the local authority should have known about the abuse and/or that they should have removed the claimant from the family home and into care earlier.
Across the UK, homelessness is an urgent crisis, and one that is set to grow amid the rising cost of living. Local authorities are at the forefront of responding to this crisis, but with a lack of properties that are suitable for social housing across the UK, vulnerable individuals and families are often housed in temporary accommodation.
Updates include UK Shared Prosperity Fund, contracts, Subsidy Control Bill, data controller liability, Government Covid-19 procurement and Highway Code revisions.
The complex and rather nebulous transitional subsidy control regime set out in the UK-EU Trade and Co-operation Agreement and the UK’s wider international commitments has made it difficult for public authorities and those working with them to proceed with certainty where subsidies are involved.
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Created at the end of the Brexit transition period, Retained EU Law is a category of domestic law that consists of EU-derived legislation retained in our domestic legal framework by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. This was never intended to be a permanent arrangement as parliament promised to deal with retained EU law through the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill (the “Bill”).
It is clear that the digital landscape, often termed cyberspace, is a man-made environment, in which human behaviour dominates and where technology both influences and aids our role in it — through the internet, telecoms and networked computer systems, which are often interdependent. The extent to which any organisation is potentially vulnerable to cyber-attack depends on how well these elements are aligned.
Three months on from the commencement of the new statutory Integrated Care Systems (ICS) Anja Beriro and Gerrard Hanratty reflect on the main themes and issues that have come from the new relationship between local government and health.
The Procurement Bill (the Bill) has now been with us for about four months, during which time there have been a huge number of amendments proposed in the House of Lords (circa 320). Lately, there has been less mention of it — unsurprising, really, given everything else going on in politics recently — but here’s a summary of some of the key issues and themes so far.
Browne Jacobson has been named as a supplier on Crown Commercial Service’s (CCS) Public Sector Legal Services Framework on Lot 1a – full-service provision (England and Wales) and Lot 2a – general service provision (England and Wales).
Browne Jacobson has been ranked as a Top Tier law firm in 25 key practice areas in Legal 500 UK 2023, the independent directory of comparative law firm performance. The firm also continues to underpin its status as one of the leading law firms in the East Midlands region with 16 Tier 1 rankings.
