Brexit 'No-Deal' Procurement Guidance

We look at what this guidance means in practice from April 2019 for procurement officers, finance and legal teams who are responsible for conducting procurement processes and managing procurement strategy.

From exit day, the current procurement regulations, as set out in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, the Concession Contracts Regulations 2016 and the Utilities Regulations 2016 will continue to apply, with only minor amendments if the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

Draft legislation was recently published setting out those minor amendments which will be required to the procurement legislation to ensure it can operate effectively in a domestic context. So new procurement notices (contract notices, award notices etc.) will need to be published on a new UK e-notification service instead of the Official Journal of the European Union. Powers currently exercised by the European Commission will, after exit day, become the responsibility of the Minister for the Cabinet Office. Further information can be found in the Public Procurement (Amendment etc.)(EU Exit) Regulations 2019.

We anticipate that in the short term it should be "business as usual" for in-flight procurement procedures and any impact upon procurement processes is likely to be minimal.

Further guidance for the transition to the new UK domestic procurement rules is expected to be published in March.

 For more information, please contact Stephanie Rickard in our Procurement team on 0117 314 5675, or complete the form below.