Detailed guide: EU procurement directives and the UK regulations

This page provides guidance and eLearning resources for public sector buyers and utilities that have to apply the EU public procurement rules when letting public contracts.

Information on the overarching framework of UK public procurement policy, including links to the procurement directives and UK implementing regulations, can be found on the public procurement policy page.

Guidance

Handbooks have been produced which cover the main rule changes for both the Public Contracts Directive and the Concession Contracts Regulations:

• Brief guide to the EU Public Contracts Directive (2014) (PDF, 3.56MB, 16 pages)

• Brief guide to the EU Concession Contracts Regulations 2016 (PDF, 223KB, 19 pages)

This is supplemented by a package of more detailed, subject-specific guides to support implementation:

• Guidance for completion of Public Procurement Regulations 2015 forms and notices in the transition period before SIMAP forms are available (PDF, 500KB, 27 pages)

• Public Contracts Regulations 2015: guidance on the new light touch regime for health, social education and certain other service contracts (PDF, 555KB, 19 pages)

• Guidance on amendments to contracts during their term (PDF, 326KB, 9 pages)

• Guidance on awarding contracts (PDF, 619KB, 10 pages)

• Dynamic Purchasing System guidance (PDF, 375KB, 13 pages)

• Guidance on the standstill period (PDF, 566KB, 10 pages)

• Guidance on framework agreements (PDF, 347KB, 10 pages)

• Guidance on changes to procedures (PDF, 388KB, 15 pages)

• Guidance on provisions that support market access for small businesses (PDF, 473KB, 11 pages)

• Guidance on the subcontracting provisions (MS Word Document, 65.1KB)

• Transparency requirements for publishing on Contracts Finder (PDF, 410KB, 3 pages)

• Paying invoices in 30 days down the supply chain (PDF, 420KB, 4 pages)

• Requirements on pre-qualification questionnaires (PDF, 522KB, 22 pages)

• Standard pre-qualification questionnaire (ODT, 57.7KB)

• Public to public procurement guidance (MS Word Document, 79.9KB)

• Electronic procurement and communication guidance (MS Word Document, 73.9KB)

eLearning

The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) has developed a free eLearning resource which covers the main changes within the new regulations. This is available to all public sector procurement professionals to support continuous learning and can be found on the CCS learning hub

Training materials

To help raise awareness of the new EU Procurement Directives, CCS arranged more than 200 face to face training sessions covering the main changes within the directives. The training materials from these sessions is shared below:

• EU Procurement Directives training: slideset (MS Powerpoint Presentation, 1.3MB)

• Reform of the EU procurement rules – utilities sector: slideset (PDF, 358KB, 83 pages)