Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what representations he has received in favour of inclusion in the Public Contract Regulations 2015 of provisions to mandate that social, employment and environmental criteria have the same weight of consideration as cost or price when choosing and selecting a contract bid.

The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 implement Directive 2014/24/EU on public procurement, and came into effect on 26 February 2014. In the negotiations on that Directive, the UK was successful in securing new flexibility, at Article 77, for certain service contracts to be reserved for competition by organisations meeting certain criteria, such as mutuals and social enterprises. Regulation 77 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 implements Article 77 of the Directive, in compliance with European law.

As part of the Government’s consultation on proposals for transposition of the EU Public Procurement Directives 2014, 5 out of 204 respondents requested that the regulations should oblige contracting authorities to include clauses in contracts requiring consideration of social, employment and environmental criteria.

The government's response to the consultation can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/transposing-the-2014-eu-procurement-directives