The Public Services Contracts Regulations 1993

PART V THE AWARD OF A PUBLIC SERVICES CONTRACT

Criteria for the award of a public servics contract

21.—(1) Subject to paragraphs (5), (6) and (7) below, a contracting authority shall award a public services contract on the basis of the offer which—

(a) is the most economically advantageous to the contracting authority, or

(b) offers the lowest price.

(2) The criteria which a contracting authority may use to determine that an offer is the most economically advantageous include period from completion or delivery, quality, aesthetic and functional characteristics, technical merit, after sales service, technical assistance and price.

(3) Where a contracting authority intends to award a public services contract on the basis of the offer which is the most economically advantageous it shall state the criteria on which it intends to base its decision, where possible in descending order of importance, in the contract notice or in the contract documents.

(4) Where a contracting authority awards a public services contract on the basis of the offer which is the most economically advantageous, it may take account of offers which offer variations on the requirements specified in the contract documents if—

(a) the offer meets the minimum requirements on the contracting authority, and

(b) it has stated those minimum requirements and any specific requirements for the presentation of an offer offering variations in the contract documents,

but if the contracting authority will not take account of offers which offer such variations it shall state that fact in the contract notice.

(5) A contracting authority may not reject an offer which offers variations on the requirements specified in the contract documents on the ground that it would lead to the award of a public supply contract within the meaning of the Public Supply Contracts Regulations 1991(1).

(6) A contracting authority may not reject an offer on the ground that the technical specifications in the offer have been defined by reference to European specifications (within the meaning of regulation 8(1)) or to the national technical specifications specified in regulation 8(7)(a) and (b).

(7) If an offer for a public services contract is abnormally low the contracting authority may reject that offer but only if it has requested in writing an explanation of the offer or of those parts which it considers contribute to the offer being abnormally low and has—

(a) if awarding the public services contract on the basis of the offer which offers the lowest price, examined the details of all the offers made, taking into account any explanations given to it of the abnormally low tender, before awarding the contract, or

(b) if awarding the public services contract on the basis of the offer which is the most economically advantageous, taken any such explanation into account in assessing which is the most economically advantageous offer,

and, in considering that explanation, the contracting authority may take into account explanations which justify the offer on objective grounds including the economy of the method of providing the services, the technical solutions suggested by the services provider or the exceptionally favourable conditions available to the services provider for the provision of the services or the originality of the services proposed by the services provider.

(8) If a contracting authority which rejects an abnormally low offer is awarding the public services contract on the basis of the offer which offers the lowest price, it shall send a report justifying the rejection to the Treasury for onward transmission to the Commission.

(9) For the purposes of this regulation “offer” includes a bid by one part of a contracting authority to provide services to another part of the contracting authority when the former part is invited by the latter part to compete with the offers sought from other persons.

Contract award notice

22.—(1) A contracting authority which has awarded a Part A or Part B services contract shall, no later than 48 days after the award, send to the Offical Journal a notice, substantially corresponding to the form set out in part E of schedule 2 and, subject to paragraph (20 below, including the information therein specified.

(2) Any of the information specified in Part E of Schedule 2 to be included in the contract award notice may be omitted in a particular case where to publish such information would impede law enforcement, would otherwisr be contrary to the public interest, would prejudice the legitimate commercial interest of any person or might prejudice fair competition between services providers.

(3) A contracting authority which has awarded a Part B services contract shall state in the contract award notice whether or not it agrees to its publication.

Information about contract award procedures

23.—(1) A contracting authority shall, within 15 days of the date on which it receives a written request from any services provider who was unsuccessful (whether pursuant to regulation 11(8), 12(4), 12(5), 13(7), 13(8) or (21), inform that services provider of the reasons why he was unsuccessful and, if the services provider was unsuccessful as a result of the evaluation of offers made in accordance with regulation 21, the name of the person awarded the public services contract.

(2) A contracting authority shall prepare a record in relation to each public services contract awarded by it specifying—

(a) the name and address of the contracting authority;

(b) the services to be provided under the public services contract and the value of the consideration to be given under it;

(c) the names of the persons whose offers were evaluated in accordance with regulation 21 and, where the contracting authority has used the restricted or negotiated procedure, the reasons for their selection;

(d) the names of the persons who were unsuccessful pursuant to regulation 11(8), 12(4), 12(5), 13(7) or 13(8) and the reasons why they were not successful;

(e) the name of the person to whom the public services contract was awarded and the reasons for having awarded the contract to him;

(f) if known to the contracting authority, the services under the public services contract which the person to whom the contract has been awarded intends to sub-contract to another person;

(g) in the case of a contracting authority which used the negotiated procedure, which of the circumstances specified in regulation 10(2) constituted grounds for using that procedure.

(3) If the Treasury requests a report containing the information specified in paragraph (2) above in relation to public services contract, the contracting authority shall send a written report containing that information, or the main features of it, to the Treasury for onward transmission to the Commission.

(4) Where a contracting authority decides not to award a public services contract in respect of which a contract notice was published nor to seek offers in relation to another contract for the same purposes it shall inform the Official Journal of that decision and shall, if so requested in writing by any services provider who submitted an offer or who applied to be included amongest the persons to be selcted to tender for or to negotiate the contract, inform him of the reasons for its decision.

(1)

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