More small recruiters to gain access to public sector contracts
31 March 2015
Smaller public sector recruiters are among the main beneficiaries of changes to rules aimed at easing UK businesses’ access to public sector contracts, employment lawyers have said.
Tue, 31 Mar 2015
Smaller public sector recruiters are among the main beneficiaries of changes to rules aimed at easing UK businesses’ access to public sector contracts, employment lawyers have said.
Changes to the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, announced last week (27 March), open the door to more small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), including smaller recruitment agencies, to bid for public sector contracts, Catherine Wolfenden, partner at law firm Osborne Clarke, told Recruiter.
She explained: “At the selection stage, public bodies can only set a criteria for turnover of a company at a maximum of two times the contract value, whereas previously some public bodies have used much higher minimum turnover values which excluded a lot of SMEs from contracts that they could easily perform.”
The changes also mean organisations will no longer have to fill out lengthy pre-qualifying questionnaires to assess whether they meet minimum qualification criteria to land contracts worth less than £120,000 for central government and £170,000 for local authorities, Wolfenden added.
Smaller recruiters could also benefit, Wolfenden says, from measures requiring greater transparency around how contracts are constructed.
“Public bodies must consider dividing large contracts into lots. Although it is not mandatory, if they don’t use lots, then they need to be able to explain why,” she said.
“So it is worth recruiters, if they are concerned that contracts are too large and have not been divided into lots, to push the public body by making a Freedom of Information Act request for the written justification as to why lots were not used.”
All recruiters, regardless of size, that are bidding for public sector business will benefit from some of the measures around greater transparency, said Ruth Connorton, head of procurement law at lawyers DAC Beachcroft.
She told Recruiter: “Where contracts are below the threshold for full EU procurement compliance (£111,676 for central government bodies and £172,514 for sub-central), all contracts over £10k for central government and £25k for sub-central must now be publicised (from 1 April 2015) on Contracts Finder.”
Changes to the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, announced last week (27 March), open the door to more small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), including smaller recruitment agencies, to bid for public sector contracts, Catherine Wolfenden, partner at law firm Osborne Clarke, told Recruiter.
She explained: “At the selection stage, public bodies can only set a criteria for turnover of a company at a maximum of two times the contract value, whereas previously some public bodies have used much higher minimum turnover values which excluded a lot of SMEs from contracts that they could easily perform.”
The changes also mean organisations will no longer have to fill out lengthy pre-qualifying questionnaires to assess whether they meet minimum qualification criteria to land contracts worth less than £120,000 for central government and £170,000 for local authorities, Wolfenden added.
Smaller recruiters could also benefit, Wolfenden says, from measures requiring greater transparency around how contracts are constructed.
“Public bodies must consider dividing large contracts into lots. Although it is not mandatory, if they don’t use lots, then they need to be able to explain why,” she said.
“So it is worth recruiters, if they are concerned that contracts are too large and have not been divided into lots, to push the public body by making a Freedom of Information Act request for the written justification as to why lots were not used.”
All recruiters, regardless of size, that are bidding for public sector business will benefit from some of the measures around greater transparency, said Ruth Connorton, head of procurement law at lawyers DAC Beachcroft.
She told Recruiter: “Where contracts are below the threshold for full EU procurement compliance (£111,676 for central government bodies and £172,514 for sub-central), all contracts over £10k for central government and £25k for sub-central must now be publicised (from 1 April 2015) on Contracts Finder.”
