Registered Social Landlords are 'contracting authorities' for the purposes of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2012. When awarding a public contract - what happens next? The Regulations apply to:

- works contracts with a value of £4,322,012 or more;

- supplies and services contracts with a value of £172,514 or more.

Contracting authorities must ensure that when advertising public contracts in excess of these thresholds, evaluating bids and selecting the successful party, they follow the rules set out in the Regulations.

Having identified a contractual requirement and gone through the various stages of a compliant procurement process (pre-qualification questionnaire, invitation to tender and evaluating tenders) it is only natural to breathe a sigh of relief when getting over that final hurdle: identifying the winning bid. However, this is not the final step in this often arduous and time consuming process.

Obligation to Notify

The Regulations provide that a contracting authority must inform all tenderers of its decision to award a contract as soon as possible after that decision has been made. This notice must include:

• The award criteria
• The score obtained by the unsuccessful and successful parties
• The name of the successful party
• A summary of the reasons why the bidder was unsuccessful
• The characteristics and relative advantages of the successful bid
• Reference to the standstill period

The Standstill Period

Contracting authorities must allow a standstill period of at least 10 days to elapse before entering into the contract.

Further information

Within 15 days of the date of receipt of a request from an unsuccessful bidder, a contracting authority must:

• Inform that bidder of the reasons why it was unsuccessful, including that the bidder did not meet any technical specifications set down in the tender documents
• Where it has not already done so, inform that bidder of the characteristics and relative advantages of the successful bid and the name of the successful bidder

Reasons should be clear, specific to the tender, refer to the award criteria and general, vague or personal comments of scorers should be avoided.

Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014

The Act creates a statutory regime similar to that in the Regulations for 'below threshold' contracts. Once the Act comes into force, a failure to comply will lead to statutory sanctions which are similar to those in the Regulations. The Act will come into force together with a new set of procurement regulations which will transpose the new EU Procurement Directive into Scots law. We will keep you informed of these changes as they happen.

For more information or advice on awarding a public contract, please contact our procurement team.