Public Procurement Lawyers
Content
The law relating to public procurement can be complex and feel at times as though it is mired in ‘red tape’. Our team of expert advisors can help you navigate safely through the web of rules and regulations in this area in sectors including Health and Social Care, Education and Local Government, delivering a compliant procurement that obtains best value for money for your organisation. This in particular in the context of the upcoming Procurement Act 2023, due to be implemented in October 2024, and the Provider Selection Regime which came into force earlier in 2024. Where procurement challenges arise, we can provide tactical and strategic advice to deal with these reducing your risks and costs.
How we can advise you
Most sectors of the economy are affected in some way by the law relating to public procurement and, as such, we are likely to have experience of the issues pertinent to your requirement however obscure it may at first seem. We are able to provide as much or as little input into your procurement needs to suit your individual requirements and budget. We will always attempt to approach procurement matters in a pro-active way, given that they are frequently time sensitive. Our multi-disciplinary procurement team comprised of commercial, employment, property, disputes lawyers strives to provide concise and pragmatic advice, with a focus on delivering the best possible outcome for you within the commercial parameters of the matter in hand.
With the upcoming Procurement Act 2023 due to come into force from October 2024, we can advise you on your obligations as a public sector organisation like the NHS or supplier to the public sector that you need to know about. In particular:
- Issues of transparency in public sector procurement
- What process changes are taking place, and what this means for your organisation
- The place of robust decision making.
We can provide you with full service advice at all stages of a procurement process with our many years’ worth of experience in advising both contracting authorities running procurement exercises, and bidders who are participating within them. Notably our procurement advisers are all commercial contract specialists in addition to their public procurement expertise.
Beyond the routine legislative and strategic advice, our team can assist you with procurement challenges - whether this is advising a bidder wishing to defend rights it considers have been infringed, or acting for a contracting authority which feels it has been the subject of vexatious correspondence, or in court proceedings relating to a procurement that it has concluded. We understand the intricacies of procurement disputes – the time pressures, requirements of standstill period, early disclosure, confidentiality rings and the applications to lift the automatic suspension. Our tactical advice means that you are in the driving seat when faced with a procurement challenge. The unique cross-disciplinary team’s capacity to take on high profile, complex procurement challenges – high media interest, injunctions and subsequent litigation is very well established.
As experienced PFI advisors, we are well aware of the challenges for the public sector involved in successfully managing PFI contracts. Their size and complexity, together with the necessity of maintaining relationships with the PFI contractor and other interested parties, can seem daunting. Even in the most successful projects, the prospect of the expiry of your PFI contract and achieving successful hand back will also inevitably present new challenges. Our team of experts can help to support you throughout the remaining lifetime of your PFI contract, and beyond, to ensure that your PFI contract operates as intended, protects continuity of services for the safety of your staff and patients, and achieves maximum value for money.
Areas of expertise include:
- healthcare sector
- local government
- higher education
- utilities
- transport
- telecoms
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How our team will work with you
Our integrated approach involving commercial and dispute lawyers means that you can be confident in receiving the very best end-to-end advice.
For public sector clients we can assist with:
- preparing compliant procurement strategies
- undertake pre-market engagement
- designing effective evaluation methodology
- drafting contract notices and prior information notices
- drafting/reviewing procurement documentation (pre-qualification and tender)
- responding to clarification queries
- drafting award decision notices
- post-contract modifications
- defending procurement challenges
- auditing and reviewing procurement processes
- advising on grant-funding arrangements
- training and support on procurement issues
For private sector clients, we can assist with:
- challenging procurement awards, decisions and processes
- advising on the novation/assignment of public sector contracts
- advising on bidding strategy and tender documents
- training and support on procurement issues
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Our clients
We work on a daily basis with public procurement professionals but also others involved at all levels of the supply chain.
We have advised public, private and third sector organisations (Local authorities, government bodies, NHS trusts, private sector suppliers of goods and services) of all types and sizes on matters of public procurement.
In addition to providing legal advice the team regularly provides training on the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, Utilities Contracts Regulations 2016 and Concession Contracts Regulations 2016.
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Our experience
- Successfully acting for an NHS ICB in defending a procurement challenge brought by a supplier of adult community health services – allegations of failure to ensure compliance with the principles of transparency and equal treatment made - Central Surrey Health Limited -v- NHS Surrey Downs ICB [2018] EWHC 3499 (TCC) (17 October 2018)
- Acting for NHSE in two sets of proceedings against its largest clinical waste supplier, SRCL Ltd. Successfully defending a procurement challenge in the High Court after a five day trial - SRCL -v- The National Health Service Commissioning Board (NHS England) [2018] EWHC 1985 (TCC)
- Providing strategic advice to an NHS body on a £ multi-million procurement which involved a threatened challenge which caused a re-evaluation exercise to be undertaken. Structuring the procurement and the ultimate contractual model formed a large part of the advisory work required
- Advising a number of local authorities on telecoms projects involving Local Full Fibre Network (LFFN) Challenge Fund funded by DCMS (Waves 1,2 and 3) across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland
- Advising on a number of complex IT solution procurements
- Advising a social housing provider on IT outsourcing, structural procurement work, training and commercial contracting generally
- Successfully acting for an NHS ICB in defending a procurement challenge brought by a supplier of adult community health services – allegations of failure to ensure compliance with the principles of transparency and equal treatment made
- Acting for NHSE in two sets of proceedings against its largest clinical waste supplier, SRCL Ltd. Successfully defending a procurement challenge in the High Court after a five day trial
- Advising a leading logistics company on a public procurement challenge to a tender process run by HM Revenue & Customs with a contract value of >£65 million. We assisted with initial correspondence to interrogate certain aspects of the process and its outcome
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