The Utilities Contracts Regulations 2006

Call for competition

16.—(1) Subject to regulation 17, for the purposes of seeking offers in relation to a proposed contract a utility shall make a call for competition.

(2) The requirement under paragraph (1) to make a call for competition is satisfied—

(a) in the case of a contract to be awarded using the restricted procedure or the negotiated procedure—

(i) if the intention to award the contract has been indicated in a periodic indicative notice and the requirements referred to in paragraph (3) are satisfied in relation to the contract; or

(ii) if a notice indicating the existence of a qualification system for economic operators has been sent to the Official Journal in accordance with regulation 25(17) and the requirement referred to in paragraph (5) is satisfied; or

(b) in any case by sending to the Official Journal a contract notice in the form of Annex V to Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1564/2005 and containing the information therein specified in respect of the contract.

(3) The requirements referred to in paragraph (2)(a)(i) are that—

(a) the periodic indicative notice refers specifically to the goods, works or services which are to be the subject of the proposed contract;

(b) the notice states that offers are to be sought using the restricted procedure or the negotiated procedure without further publication of a notice calling for competition and invites economic operators to express their interest in writing;

(c) the utility sends to all economic operators which express an interest, detailed information, including the information described in paragraph (4), on the contract concerned and before beginning the selection of economic operators invites them to confirm their wish to be selected to tender for or to negotiate the contract; and

(d) the notice referred to in sub-paragraph (b) was published not more than 12 months before the date on which the invitation is sent out in accordance with sub-paragraph (b).

(4) The information referred to in paragraph (3)(b) shall include—

(a) the nature and quantity or extent of the goods, work, works or services to be supplied under the contract;

(b) any options for further supplies, work, works or services and, if known, an estimate of the timing when such options may be exercised;

(c) in the case of recurring contracts for goods, work, works or services, their nature and quantity or extent, and, if known, the estimated date of the subsequent calls for competition for the goods to be supplied, the work or works to be carried out or the services to be provided;

(d) a statement of whether the contract is to be awarded using the restricted procedure or the negotiated procedure;

(e) any date for beginning or completing the delivery of goods or for the carrying out of work or works or for providing services;

(f) the address to which and the date by which an application to be invited to tender must be submitted and the one or more languages in which it must be submitted;

(g) the address of the utility and any information needed to obtain specifications and other documents relating to the proposed contract;

(h) any economic and technical requirements, financial guarantees and information required from economic operators;

(i) the amount to be paid for and the terms of payment in respect of the documents relating to the proposed contract;

(j) a statement of whether the utility is inviting offers for purchase, lease, rental or hire-purchase or involving more than one of these methods; and

(k) the contract award criteria and their weighting in accordance with regulation 30(3) and 30(4) or the descending order of importance of such criteria in accordance with regulation 30(5), if this information is not specified in the periodic indicative notice or the contract documents.

(5) The requirement referred to in paragraph (2)(a)(ii) is that the economic operators selected to tender for or to negotiate the contract are selected from the candidates which qualify in accordance with the system.