The government of the United Kingdom is seeking comments on its plans to transpose the new EU Procurement Directive into the country's laws and regulations. On 19 September, it opened a consultation on implementing the 2014 EU Procurement Directives in the UK.

The new measures include those aimed at ensuring that small businesses have better access to public sector contracts. "The consultation continues our ongoing programme of engaging UK stakeholders to modernise the EU procurement rules", the UK government writes.

Introducing the proposals, the UK government writes that it has negotiated in Brussels to simplify and modernise the existing framework of EU procurement directives. It wants to make public procurement "faster, less costly and enable better value outcomes for government,industry, and the wider public sector."

The UK's proposals include rules on electronic means of communication, centrally managed online catalogues and the use of electronic signatures, formats and certificates. The UK government suggests keeping its options flexible in these two areas. "We should not make mandatory the use of electronic communications", the government writes. It intends to leave the choice to the procuring government bodies.

Immediate implementation

The consultation document focusses on the new Public Sector Directive. This replaces the previous one, introduced in 2004. The overhaul of the procurement directive started in 2011. The EU's new rules on public procurement were published in March, and entered into force on 17 April. Member States have 24 months to implement the provisions into national law.

The UK government aims to implement the new Directive for all procurements as soon as possible, it writes. "This will enable us to take advantage of the new flexibilities."

The deadline for submitting comments on the UK's transposition proposals is midnight, on 17 October 2014.

More information:

Open consultation, Transposing the 2014 EU Procurement Directives
Consultation Document (PDF)
Public Technology.net news item
EC's Public Procurement portal