Procurement and contracting transparency requirements: guidance

Guidance PROCUREMENT AND CONTRACTING TRANSPARENCY REQUIREMENTS: GUIDANCE Guidance to assist departments in meeting the procurement and contracting transparency requirements and ensure a

consistent approach. Get emails about this page DOCUMENTS CONTRACTS FINDER PDF, 1.01 MB, 4 pages This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology. Request an accessible

format. If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email [email protected].

Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use. [WITHDRAWN ]PUBLICATION OF CENTRAL GOVERNMENT TENDERS AND CONTRACTS PDF, 224 KB, 27 pages

This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology. Request an accessible format. If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document

in a more accessible format, please email [email protected]. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

[WITHDRAWN] SUPPLIERS FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS PDF, 88.8 KB, 3 pages This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology. Request an accessible format. If you use assistive

technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email [email protected]. Please tell us what format you

need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use. DETAILS The Cabinet Office has produced guidance to assist departments in meeting the procurement and contracting

transparency requirements and ensure a consistent approach. TRANSPARENCY IN PROCUREMENT AND CONTRACTING TRANSPARENCY IN PROCUREMENT The government is committed to greater transparency across

its operations to enable the public to hold public bodies and politicians to account. This includes commitments relating to public procurement. LEGAL REQUIREMENTS TO PUBLISH Legal

requirements to publish All in-scope bodies must, as a minimum, follow the legal requirements to publish advertised opportunities and awards on Contracts Finder covered by the Public

Contracts Regulations 2015. The Regulations require in-scope bodies to publish all advertised UK public sector procurement opportunities and contract awards above certain thresholds on

Contracts Finder. The thresholds are: * £10,000 for central government bodies and * £25,000 for wider public sector bodies CENTRAL GOVERNMENT TRANSPARENCY AND PUBLICATION OF CONTRACTS

Central Government buyers must publish all tender documents and contracts with a contract value of over £10,000 on Contracts Finder. TRANSPARENCY PRINCIPLES The Transparency Principles were

updated on 16 February 2017. These require Central Government departments to proactively release information in line with the above commitments and during the life of the contract. You

should establish at the start of a contract what information can be published with exemptions following the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, for example on national security or

commercial confidentiality grounds. Only genuinely commercially sensitive information should be withheld. THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT TRANSPARENCY CODE 2015 As a Local Government buyer, in addition

to the legal requirements to publish covered by both the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and the Local Government (Transparency Requirements) (England) Regulations 2015 legislation, there

are additional recommended requirements for greater disclosure in the Local Government Transparency Code. For procurement information this includes monthly (or preferably real time)

publication on Contracts Finder of every invitation to tender or invitation to quote for contracts to provide goods and/or services with a value that exceeds £10,000 (and a lower thresholds

of £500 is recommended), details of ITTs that have not been formerly advertised and all contracts in their entirety where the value of the contract exceeds £5,000. Responsibility for this

legislation and Code lies with the Department for Communities and Local Government, who conducted a consultation on strengthening the code, details of which can be found online. CONTRACTS

FINDER A redeveloped Contracts Finder website was launched in February 2015 alongside the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. The Regulations require in-scope bodies to publish all advertised

UK public sector procurement opportunities and contract awards above certain thresholds on Contracts Finder: * £10,000 for central government bodies and * £25,000 for wider public sector

bodies As the single publishing portal for all public sector procurement opportunities, Contracts Finder is a critical part of delivering the government’s commitments for transparency in

procurement and for making it easier and more accessible for smaller businesses and voluntary or charitable organisations to do business with the public sector. Contracts Finder allows users

to view and search for early market engagement notices and future opportunities, used by buyers to engage with suppliers to check interest in and define future procurement needs,

opportunities that are currently open to tender and awarded contracts. User guides for buyers on how to use Contracts Finder are available from our service support team at

[email protected] SUBCONTRACTING Building on the measures the government has already taken to open up its procurement frameworks to small and innovative businesses, we

also extended Contracts Finder to the subcontracting market in 2016, offering wider access to procurement opportunities. Contractors to the Public Sector can now register directly on

Contracts Finder to advertise opportunities in their supply chains. A user guide is available by emailing our service support team at [email protected]. Contracting

authorities are requested to encourage their key suppliers to make use of this service. Further detail can be obtained by contacting our service support team at

[email protected]. OPEN CONTRACTING The UK Open Government National Action Plan 2016-18 was published on 12 May 2016. It committed to implement the Open Contracting Data

Standard (OCDS) in CCS operations by October 2016 and to begin applying this approach to major infrastructure projects, starting with High Speed Two (HS2), and rolling out OCDS across

government thereafter. OCDS has been implemented for all data published on Contracts Finder and can be accessed online. SIGN UP FOR EMAILS OR PRINT THIS PAGE Get emails about this page Print

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