REUTERS | Rick Wilking
25/02/2015

Top 10 tips for new procurement regulations

  • by John Bennett
  • Co-author of the looseleaf encyclopedia, EU Public Procurement Law and Practice

The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/102) (PCR 2015) come into force tomorrow. In this post, John Bennett, co-author of the loose-leaf encyclopedia EU Public Procurement: Law and Practice suggests how practitioners can keep on top of the changes arising from the new regulations.

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REUTERS | Juan Carlos Ulate
24/02/2015

Public children law digest (January – February 2015)

This is the first public children law digest, designed to give readers a snapshot of the important cases, issues and developments in this area of law from January to February 2015. Please feel free to submit a comment below or send us an Ask query if you have any views on the cases, issues, or legal development that are covered or if you think we have missed something that should be brought to the attention of public children law practitioners.

In this post, we look at the following:

  • Evidence requirements.
  • Speed of actions.
  • Court translation services.
  • Local offers.
  • Female genital mutilation guidance.

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REUTERS | Ina Fassbender
18/02/2015

Random Effects of Scoring Price in a Tender Evaluation

One of the key features of public procurement law and practice is that the system is designed to produce predictable and transparent outcomes.  The expectation is that the stated tender evaluation system should generate an answer in a manner that is protected from inappropriate interference and should be seen as predictable by bidders.  It should also be possible for those wanting to contract to understand in advance how the choice of one evaluation model or another would affect the sort of offer that is likely to be accepted.  It is strange, therefore, that systems commonly applied should so often operate unpredictably.  It is also rather strange that this is the subject of so little comment given that the problems are quite well known.

In this post, Michael Bowsher QC considers two problems arising from the use of a common formula for evaluating price.

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REUTERS | Russell Boyce
11/02/2015

Revising local authority standing orders to reflect the Public Contracts Regulations 2015

The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/102) (PCR 2015) will come into force on 26 February 2015 (see Legal update, Public Contracts Regulations 2015 published) and any contract advertised on or after that date will be subject to the new rules.

Local authorities will therefore be working hard on their standing orders or contract procedure rules (Standing Orders) to ensure they reflect the requirements of the PCR 2015.

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REUTERS | Dani Cardona
03/02/2015

Public procurement case digest (January 2015)

January’s case digest includes a High Court judgment considering if a bidder can be prevented from claiming damages due to a failure to challenge before the end of the standstill period.

Please feel free to submit a comment below or send us an Ask query if you have any views on the cases covered, or think that we have missed a case that should be brought to the attention of public procurement practitioners. Continue reading →

REUTERS | David Bebber
02/02/2015

Legal aid is to help the vulnerable – really?

The government has seen many challenges to the way that legal aid is administered in the past year. From the successful challenge to the proposed residence test, to the guidance around exceptional case funding and the unsuccessful challenge to the evidence requirements for domestic violence victims, the end result appears to be that fewer people will be granted the required public funding to get professional legal advice to understand the law and have their case properly put before the court without fear and humiliation. The government cites austerity cuts to justify its potential breaches of the right for every person to a fair trial under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights and is becoming increasingly inflexible when applying its rules. Continue reading →