Readers of our blog will be aware of the large scale reform of procurement law that has been in the pipeline for some time now, with an EU proposal for three new directives on public procurement, utilities procurement and concessions contracts.
Today the final step in the legislative process was completed when the European Parliament adopted the three new Directives the final form texts of which will be available shortly.
The UK will have a period of 24 months in which to translate the new Directives into national law but in practice the Cabinet Office is working to an expedited timetable aiming to introduce regulations to replace The Public Contracts Regulations 2006 towards the end of 2014. In the meantime it is issuing discussion papers by way of informal consultation on those new measures where the UK has some flexibility or choice in how it implements the new rules.
The press release from the European Parliament is available here; it includes a useful high level summary of the major changes we can expect to see this year. Also useful is this memo of FAQs on the reforms.
Once the final form texts are available we will blog on the details and in particular on whether there have been any significant changes since the penultimate drafts of July 2013.