Simon Hills & Tom Metcalfe report on the implications of the new public procurement regime when setting up a mutual
On 11 February 2014, the Council of the European Union adopted three new directives on public procurement. Directive 2014/24/EU replaces Directive 2004/18/EC; Directive 2014/25/EU replaces Directive 2004/17/EC; and Directive 2014/23/EU was adopted on concession contracts. The directives came into force 20 working days after publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
While the UK government has two years in which to integrate the directives into national law, the Cabinet Office has already announced plans to implement the new directive within much shorter timescales (Cabinet Office guidance: Transposing EU procurement directives (16 May 2014). The rationale for this is clear: to allow contracting authorities to make use of the additional flexibilities in the new directives as quickly as possible. Last year, Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude claims, commercial and procurement reforms saved taxpayers £3.8bn. This was achieved by departments collaboratively buying goods and services and enforcing sensible controls on recruitment and
