I have uploaded on SSRN the new article ‘The UK’s Green Paper on Post-Brexit Public Procurement Reform: Transformation or Overcomplication?’, which will appear in the European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review soon. The article builds on my earlier submission to the ongoing public consultation (still open, submissions accepted until 10 March 2021). The abstract is as follows:
In December 2020, seeking to start cashing in on its desired ‘Brexit dividends’, the UK Government published the Green Paper ‘Transforming Public Procurement’. The Green Paper sets out a blueprint for the reform of UK public procurement law that aims to depart from the regulatory baseline of EU law and deliver a much-touted ‘bonfire of procurement red tape’. The Green Paper seeks ‘to speed up and simplify [UK] procurement processes, place value for money at their heart, and unleash opportunities for small businesses, charities and social enterprises to innovate in public service delivery’. The Green Paper seeks to do so by creating ‘a progressive, modern regime which can adapt to the fastmoving environment in which business operates’ underpinned by ‘a culture of continuous improvement to support more resilient, diverse and innovative supply chains.’ I argue that the Green Paper has very limited transformative potential and that its proposals merely represent an ‘EU law +’ approach to the regulation of public procurement that would only result in an overcomplicated regulatory infrastructure, additional administrative burdens for both public buyers and economic operators, and tensions and contradictions in the oversight model. I conclude that a substantial rethink is needed if the Green Paper’s goals are to be achieved.
The full paper is free to download: Sanchez-Graells, Albert, The UK’s Green Paper on Post-Brexit Public Procurement Reform: Transformation or Overcomplication? (February 17, 2021). To be published in (2021) European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, forthcoming, Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=3787380. As always, feedback most welcome: a.sanchez-graells@bristol.ac.uk.