UK Elections - Impact on Public Procurement

UK Election mania! and implications on public procurements

We received some queries around implications of pre-election period of sensitivity on procurements . Of course, plenty of traffic on LinkedIn on this topic as well.

What @Vinmore has to say: Public departments don't stop working due to elections and most procurements will proceed as normal. Discretion will be applied to large or contentious contracts. Expect low-levels of market engagements and industry events. Slight delays can be expected around announcement of in-flight procurements (again, large/contentious contracts!).

Both Maureen Gore and I never delayed our procurements, and only once I delayed a market engagement during previous elections.

Of course, some departments will apply extra caution and put a hold on procurements - that's not the intended objective, and we advise a level of pragmatism in applying the discretion commercial teams hold.

Remember - Period of sensitivity is not driven by procurement regs/legal basis but instead by civil service code of conduct!

This published research briefing aligns with our views but more importantly, I found the legal challenge in 2017 (section 1.7) very interesting: SN05262.pdf (parliament.uk) -  As the briefing says - In his ruling the judge concluded the pre-election period was not a principle of law and the exceptional circumstances of the threat to public health that meant that pre-election guidance could be overridden.

How do you see the impact on your clients/projects? - Would welcome your views, please do reach out.

As usual, your words matter:  please don’t forget to repost/ follow #Vinmore. Link below:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/vinmore/

#Vinmore #moretofollow #publicsector #elections