The UK’s Green Paper on Post-Brexit Public Procurement Reform: Transformation or Overcomplication?

To be published in (2021) European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Forthcoming

18 Pages Posted: 5 Mar 2021

Date Written: February 17, 2021

Abstract

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.

Keywords: Public procurement, reform, deregulation, green paper, transforming public procurement, Brexit

JEL Classification: H57, K23, K42, L59

Suggested Citation

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: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3787380

Albert Sanchez-Graells (Contact Author)

University of Bristol Law School ( email )

Law School Wills Memorial Building Queen's Road Br
Bristol, BS8 1RJ
United Kingdom

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