Updated list of Central Government Authorities enters into force
We have blogged previously about a series of legislative amendments that have been made this year to the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, which underpin the public procurement regime in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
As part of this series of amendments, a new Schedule 1 to the Regulations comes into force today, 16th August.
This is a key schedule which sets out a list of named “central government contracting authorities”.
Central government contracting authorities are subject to a lower threshold for supplies and services contracts (£122,976, as opposed to sub-central authorities, which are not expressly listed in Schedule 1 and for whom that threshold is £189,330).
The threshold for works contracts of £4,733,252 is the same for all public bodies.
Hitherto, Schedule 1 had not been updated for some time.
The new list of central government authorities has been divided into two parts – Part 1 lists those authorities which are listed in the plurilateral Government Procurement Agreement and Part 2 lists those which are not.
All the authorities listed in both parts 1 and 2 are central government authorities for the purposes of the Regulations.
The change is particularly relevant to NHS Foundation Trusts and the NHS Commissioning Board (more commonly known as ‘NHS England’), both of whom have historically have regarded themselves as sub-central authorities but which are now listed in the new Schedule 1 as central government authorities.
The lower threshold will therefore apply to NHS Foundation Trusts from today, 16th August.
Other authorities, particularly those that consider themselves to be sub-central, may like to check the new list here, to confirm whether this remains the case, as failure to observe the lower of the two thresholds where this is now required would potentially be a significant breach of the Regulations.
