Hempsons

This Practice Note addresses protecting confidential information in relation to a public procurement process. This includes protecting information, disclosure obligations, legal protections, duty of confidence, confidentiality breach, and the circumstances to consider in an application for disclosure.

This Practice Note considers the exemptions that apply under sections 42 and 35 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in respect of communications linked with the obtaining of legal advice, including the particular constitutional position of Law Officers and information relating to provision of advice and requests for the provision of advice to the government.

This Practice Note explains the grounds for using the negotiated procedure without a notice which are set out in regulation 32 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. Specifically, it covers the absence of tenders ground, the one possible provider ground, the extreme urgency ground, the R&D ground, the incompatibility ground, the commodity market ground, the fire sale ground, the design contest ground and the repetition of works or services ground in detail.

This Practice Note provides an introduction into the difference between the selection and award criteria, which is used by contracting authorities when procuring public contracts subject to the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. There is a focus on the award criteria, in particular the more commonly used ‘most economically advantageous tender’ (MEAT). This Practice Note also provides an overview of scoring and evaluation criteria. It also explains the general procurement principles and potential outcomes of incorrectly evaluated bids.