(1)Before publishing a tender or transparency notice in relation to a covered procurement, a contracting authority must prepare a conflicts assessment in relation to the procurement.
(2)Before publishing a dynamic market notice in relation to the establishment of a dynamic market, a contracting authority must prepare a conflicts assessment in relation to the establishment.
(3)A conflicts assessment must include details of—
(a)conflicts or potential conflicts of interest identified in accordance with section 81 (duty to identify), and
(b)any steps the contracting authority has taken or will take for the purposes of section 82 (duty to mitigate).
(4)If a contracting authority is aware of circumstances that it considers are likely to cause a reasonable person to wrongly believe there to be a conflict or potential conflict of interest, a conflicts assessment must also include details of any steps the contracting authority has taken or will take to demonstrate that no such conflict or potential conflict exists.
(5)A contracting authority must—
(a)keep any conflicts assessment under review,
(b)revise the assessment as necessary, and
(c)when publishing any relevant notice, confirm that a conflicts assessment has been prepared and revised in accordance with this section.
(6)Subsection (5) does not apply after—
(a)a contracting authority has given notice of its decision not to award the contract (under section 55),
(b)a contract termination notice is published in relation to the procurement, or
(c)a dynamic market notice is published in relation to the market ceasing to operate.
(7)In the case of a contracting authority that is a private utility—
(a)the reference in this section to notice of a decision not to award a contract is a reference to the decision;
(b)the reference in this section to a contract termination notice being published in relation to a procurement is a reference to the contract being terminated;
(c)the reference in this section to a dynamic market notice being published in relation to a market ceasing to operate is a reference to the market ceasing to operate.
(8)In this section—
“conflict of interest” has the meaning given in section 81;
“relevant notice” means—
a tender notice,
a transparency notice,
a dynamic market notice in relation to the establishment of a dynamic market,
a contract details notice relating to a public contract, or
a contract change notice;
“terminated” is to be understood by reference to section 80(3).