Tendering For Care

There is some confusion over whether or not a purchaser MUST tender for particular services contracts. The position is as follows:

The European Directive, 2004/18/EC, and subsequently the UK Public Contracts Regulations (2006) set out a clear set of requirements for purchasers. However, both sets of legislation allow a "light touch" approach to the procurement of certain services. These are known as PartB services. The legislation is not totally irrelevant to this group of services. For example, all tenders must be "adequately advertised". 

Underpinning the legislation are the requirements of the Treaties of Maastricht and Lisbon. Here Articles 81 and 82 are relevant. The Treaties and UK competion law require that nothing be done which in any way prevents, restricts or distorts competition.

Therefore, although a contract may be for services which fall under Part B of procurement legislation, it is likely that it will be caught by the Treaty requirements and thus tendering for the services to be purchased becomes necessary.

The attached documents set out exactly which services fall under the Part A and Part B of the legislation. They are identified precisely by CPV Code. To gain an even clearer picture,  we suggest ding an internet search for "CPV codes " , download the full list of codes and then match those listed under part B to the overall list.