NLJ this week: Towards a more balanced procurement process

In the second part of a series in NLJ on the Act, Fleur Turrington, partner and head of Thames Valley dispute resolution & litigation at Shoosmiths, looks at one of its key principles. This is that contracts will be awarded according to the ‘most advantageous tender’ rather than the most economically attractive.

Turrington explains what this entails and what records must be kept. She highlights the advantages for suppliers in terms of greater transparency. The Act, she writes, will assist ‘a more balanced approach where other criteria, such as those relating to environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns, have real and substantial influence on tender outcomes, although contracting authorities will still decide criteria and how much weighting to place on each so we expect the focus on price to vary from procurement to procurement’.