The Public Services Contracts Regulations 1993

Interpretation

2.—(1) In these Regulations—

“to award” means to accept an offer made in relation to a proposed contract;

“the Commission” means the Commssion of the Communities;

“contract documents” means the invitation to tender for or to negotiate the contract, the proposed conditions of contract, the specifications or descriptions of the services required by the contracting authority and all documents supplementary thereto;

“contracting authority” has the meaning ascribed to it by regulation 3;

“contract notice” means a notice sent to the Official Journal in accordance with regulations 11(2), 12(2) or 13(2);

“design contest” means a competition particularly in the fields of planning, architecture, civil engineering and data processing—

(a)

which is conducted by a contracting authority and in which it invites the entry of plans and designs;

(b)

under the rules of which the plans or designs will be judged by a jury;

(c)

under which prizes may or may not be awarded; and

(d)

which enables the contracting authority to acquire the use or ownership of plans or designs selected by the jury;

“ECU” means the European Currency Unit as defined in Council Regulation (EEC) No. 3180/78(1);

“established” means the same as it does for the purposes of the Community Treaties;

“financial year” means the period of 12 months ending on 31st march in any year or, in relation to any person whose accounts are prepared in respect of a different 12 month period, that period of 12 months;

“government department” includes a Northern Ireland department or the head of such department;

“Minister of the Crown” means the holder of an office in Her Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom, and includes the Treasury;

“national of a member State” means, in the case of a person who is not an individual, a person formed in accordance with the laws of a member State and which has its registered office, central administration or principal place of business in a member State;

“negotiated procedure” means a procedure leading to the award of a contract whereby the contracting authority negotiates the terms of the contract with one or more persons selected by it;

“Official Journal” means the Official Journal of the Communities;

“open procedure” means a procedure leading to the award of a contract whereby all interested persons may tender for the contract;

“prior information notice” means a notice sent to the Official Journal in accordance with regulation 9;

“public services contract” means a contract in writing for consideration (whatever the nature of the consideration) under which a contracting authority engages a person to provide services but does not include—

(a)

a contract of employment or other contract of services;

(b)

a public works contract within the meaning of the Public Works Contracts Regulations 1991(2);

(c)

a public supply contract within the meaning of the Public Supply Contracts Regulations 1991(3);

(d)

any contract where the contracting authority is a utility within the meaning of regulation 3 of the Utilities Supply and Works Contracts Regulations 1992(4) and the services are to be provided under it for the purposes of carrying out an activity specified in the Part of Schedule 1 of those Regulations in which the utility is specified; or

(e)

a contract under which a contracting authority engages a person to provide services to the public lying within its responsibility and under which the consideration given by the contracting authority consisits of or includes the right to exploit the provision of the services.

“restricted procedure” means a procedure leading to the award of a contract whereby only persons selected by the contracting authority may submit yenders for the contract;

“services provider” has the meaning ascibed to it by regulation 4;

“working day” means a day other than a Saturday, Sunday or Bank Holiday within the meaning of the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971(5); and

“year” means a calendar year.

(2) For the purposes of these regulations—

(a) “a part A services contract” is a contract under which services specified in Part A of Schedule 1 are to be provided;

(b) “a Part B services contract” is a contract under which services in PArt B of Schedule 1 are to be provided,

and, where services specified in both Parts A and B are to be provided under a single contract, then—

(i) the contract shall be treated as a Part A services contract if the value of the consideration attributable to the services specified in Part A is greater than that attributable to those specified in Part B; and

(ii) the contract shall be treated as a Part B services contract if the value of the consideration attributable to the services speciifed in Part B is equal to or greater than that attributable to those specified in Part A.

(3) The value in the currency of any member State of any amount expressed in these Regulations in ECU shall be determined by reference to the rate for the time being applying for the purposes of Council Directive 92/50/EEC(6) as published from time to time in the Official Journal(7).

(4) Where a thing is required to be done under these Regulations—

(a) within a period after an action is taken, the day on which that action was taken shall not be counted in the calculation of that period.

(b) within a certain period, that period must include 2 working days;

(c) within a period and the last day of that period is not a working day, the period shall be extended to include the following working day.

(5) References in these Regulations to a regulation are references to a regulation in these Regulations and references to a Schedule are references to a Schedule to these Regulations.

(1)

OJ No. L379, 30.12.78, p.1, as amended by Council Regulation (EC) No. 2626/84 (OJ No. L247, 16.9.84, p.1) and Council Regulation EEC No. 1971/89 (OJ No. L189, 4.7.89, p.1).

(2)

S. I. 1991/2680 as amended by S. I. 1992/2379.

(3)

S. I. 1991/2679 as amended by S. I. 1992/3279.

(4)

S. I. 1992/3279 as amended by S. I. 1993/3227.

(5)

1971 c. 80.

(6)

OJ No. L209, 24.7.92, p.1.

(7)

The rates are determined for each successive period of two years by calculating the average of the daily exchange rates between each currently and the ECU in a period of 24 months preceding the determination.