Latest news
The Scottish Procurement Directorate has published the following Scottish Procurement Policy Notes.
SPPN 05/2008 summarises amendments to the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 and the Utilities Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2006.
These amendments relate principally to the procedure for amending threshold values, the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the European Union and the need for contracting authorities to ensure a degree of advertising sufficient to enable open competition and comply with the EC Treaty principles of equal treatment, non-discrimination and transparency.
SPPN 06/2008 provides information on the new European Remedies Directive (2007/66/EC) which introduces changes to the legal remedies available to suppliers for breaches of EU procurement law.
SPPN 07/2008 relates to the OFT Statement of Objections concerning alleged anti-competitive behaviour in the construction industry.
SPPN 08/2008 indicates the Scottish Government's intention to consult on its approach to implementing the EU Remedies Directive (Directive 2007/66/EC). Consultees are invited to provide feedback on the approach to implementing the Directive into Scots law. The full consultation document has been published on the Scottish Government's website.
SPPN 09/2008 refers to guidance jointly released by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) and HM Treasury on the competitive dialogue procedure which is available 'where a contracting authority wishes to award a particularly complex contract and considers that the use of the open or restricted procedure will not allow the award of that contract.
SPPN 10/2008 clarifies the application of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 to social care procurement/contracts. The Annex provides advice on the requirement to advertise social care contracts which should be awarded through open and fair competition. SPPN 10/2008 should be read in conjunction with SPPN 3/2006.
SPPN 11/2008 provides information on the revised Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV) codes which come into effect on 15 September 2008. CPV coding is a single classification system for public procurement aimed at standardising the references used by contracting authorities to describe the subject of public contracts. The European Commission has revised these codes to take account of developments in the market and users' needs, to improve the text of the CPV and to make the CPV a more efficient tool for electronic public procurement.
You will find find a full list of Scottish Procurement Directive Policy Notes on the website of the Scottish Procurement Directive.