In our final procurement update of 2009 we report on two important administrative changes: new advertising thresholds, and new OJEU notices.

New advertising thresholds published
These will apply for two years from 1 January 2010.  As predicted, because Sterling has been so weak against the Euro, the Sterling thresholds have actually gone up significantly (meaning slightly fewer contracts will be caught by the full Regulations).

For most public sector authorities (including local government), the new thresholds are:

For central government (WTO) authorities (listed in Sch 1 to the Regs):

For utilities:

New OJEU notices
These are to reflect the new Remedies Rules. See our recent briefing: http://myinfo.shoosmiths.co.uk/reaction/RSGenPage.asp?RSID=4O39L6id2DnQ80k-D1-tVR_JcW1DA3m0OtLeHgw0V-I

The forms are already available on SIMAP and e-Notices.  The changes are to:

• Amend the existing award notice, to allow for the new rule, which allows authorities to put in an award notice where they have not ‘OJEU'd' a contract, and include their reasons for not ‘OJEUing' it in the first place. Where they do, the limitation period for challenges under the new "ineffectiveness remedy" (the one where the contract can be torn up) is shortened from six months to thirty days.

• Introduce the new ‘voluntary transparency notice'. Where an authority decides a contract does not need to be advertised in ‘OJEU', but places a voluntary transparency notice explaining why, and does not sign the contract for 10 days, then a disgruntled supplier cannot apply for the contract to be declared ‘ineffective' - i.e. torn up.

There may be good tactical reasons for using such notices from time to time, though particularly for transparency notices, authorities will be wary in many cases of ‘flagging up the issue'.

Each of the notices has a 500-word box, where the authority must state its reasons for not advertising in OJEU. This box will need to be filled in with some care.