As our regular readers will know, the next couple of years will see a significant reform of the public procurement law regime, with new EU Directives in the pipeline in relation to public procurement, utilities procurement, and service concessions.
The new legislative package has been slowly winding its way through the European legislative machine for some time, but we are now entering the closing stages. On Wednesday of this week, the Committee of Permanent Representatives endorsed the reform package, thus paving the way for the process of formal adoption by the European Parliament and European Council, now expected to start in October of this year. Once these draft Directives become law, the UK will then have two years in which to implement them, by regulations which will presumably amend (or replace) The Public Contracts Regulations 2006 and The Utilities Contracts Regulations 2006.
The new Directives represent a far-reaching reform of the regime. For example, there will be a shift to full e-procurement, and the introduction of new procurement procedures. Here at Mills & Reeve LLP, the procurement team is busy analysing the new legislation and getting ready for the changes; we will update readers of this blog with details of our forthcoming publications and training on the new Directives. You may also like to subscribe to our quarterly newsletter Public Procurement Newsbites which will also contain details of all the training and briefings we are offering on the topic.