Procurement Act 2023

41 Direct award in special cases

(1) If a direct award justification applies, a contracting authority may award a public contract directly—

(a) to a supplier that is not an excluded supplier, or

(b) in accordance with subsection (2).

(2) A contracting authority may award a contract to a supplier that is an excluded supplier if the contracting authority considers that there is an overriding public interest in awarding the contract to that supplier.

(3) A contracting authority may carry out a selection process or take such other preliminary steps as it considers appropriate for the purpose of awarding a contract under this section.

(4) Before awarding a contract to a supplier under this section, a contracting authority must consider whether the supplier is an excludable supplier.

(5) There is an overriding public interest in awarding a public contract to an excluded supplier if—

(a) it is necessary in order to construct, maintain or operate critical national infrastructure,

(b) it is necessary in order to ensure the proper functioning of a sector on which the defence, security or economic stability of the United Kingdom relies,

(c) failure to do so would prejudice the conduct of military or security operations, or the effective operation of the armed forces or intelligence services, or

(d) the contract is being awarded by reference to paragraph 13 of Schedule 5 (extreme and unavoidable urgency) and cannot be awarded to, or performed by, a supplier that is not an excluded supplier within the necessary time frame.

(6) The direct award justifications are set out in Schedule 5.

(7) In this section, “intelligence services” means the Security Service, the Secret Intelligence Service and the Government Communications Headquarters.