Review of Government’s Transforming Public Procurement Response

The government’s response to the Transforming Public Procurement Green Paper offers some encouraging signs that these reforms will deliver on their promise, particularly on implementation of the Open Contracting Data Standard.

Yet there are also key areas of concern. These include:

• Debarment, particularly the decision to not include DPAs as discretionary grounds for exclusion and the lack of clarity over Section 7 offences.

• Lack of clarity over how conflicts of interest and oversight issues will be managed, particularly in relation to the independent panel of experts, emergency measures, and the complaints system.

• How comprehensive beneficial ownership disclosure requirements will be, and what sanctions there will be for failure to comply.