Exclusion, Qualification and Selection Under the UK Public Contracts Regulations 2015: The Copy-Out Copycat

Abstract

The UK Public Contracts Regulations 2015 entered into force on 26 February 2015. The 2015 Regulations transpose the 2014/24/EU which is designed to promote inter alia greater flexibility in public procurement. The UK has opted for expedited transposition of the Directive through the use of its "copy-out" method. In turn, this has necessitated equally expeditious responses on the part of the academic and practitioner communities to this development. This paper offers a first analysis of exclusion, qualification and selection of economic operators under the UK Public Contracts Regulations 2015 within the broader context of UK case law and recent policy initiatives. Nobody likes a copycat… do they?

Keywords: public procurement, contracts, regulation