The commercialisation of multi-supplier frameworks in the UK public sector: the divergence between law and practice

Public procurement rules that specifically regulate public sector framework agreements only came into force in the UK in 2006. These implement EU directives, the most recent being Directive 2014/24/EU transposed in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. The EU rules are skeletal in nature as they a...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Brunning, Steven
Format: Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
Language:English
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/77561/
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author Brunning, Steven
author_facet Brunning, Steven
author_sort Brunning, Steven
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Public procurement rules that specifically regulate public sector framework agreements only came into force in the UK in 2006. These implement EU directives, the most recent being Directive 2014/24/EU transposed in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. The EU rules are skeletal in nature as they are intended to apply across all EU Member States. The UK Government has historically taken a light touch approach to implementing the EU directives, reserving significant discretion to contracting authorities rather than setting out detailed, prescriptive rules. The lack of regulatory controls and detailed guidance on the establishment, management and use of frameworks has led to the development of a competitive framework market in the UK and the adoption of commercial behaviours by central purchasing bodies seeking to attract business to their frameworks. This has resulted in some questionable consequences from a legal and commercial perspective that require investigation. It is concluded that the commercialisation of frameworks has led to fundamental disconnects between the law and practice, calling into question the relevance and efficacy of current regulatory policy and the practical effectiveness of the framework tool.
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spelling nottingham-775612024-07-31T04:40:43Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/77561/ The commercialisation of multi-supplier frameworks in the UK public sector: the divergence between law and practice Brunning, Steven Public procurement rules that specifically regulate public sector framework agreements only came into force in the UK in 2006. These implement EU directives, the most recent being Directive 2014/24/EU transposed in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. The EU rules are skeletal in nature as they are intended to apply across all EU Member States. The UK Government has historically taken a light touch approach to implementing the EU directives, reserving significant discretion to contracting authorities rather than setting out detailed, prescriptive rules. The lack of regulatory controls and detailed guidance on the establishment, management and use of frameworks has led to the development of a competitive framework market in the UK and the adoption of commercial behaviours by central purchasing bodies seeking to attract business to their frameworks. This has resulted in some questionable consequences from a legal and commercial perspective that require investigation. It is concluded that the commercialisation of frameworks has led to fundamental disconnects between the law and practice, calling into question the relevance and efficacy of current regulatory policy and the practical effectiveness of the framework tool. 2024-07-31 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en cc_by https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/77561/1/Brunning%2C%20Steven%20ID%2014342389%20PhD%20Final%20Submission%20inc%20minor%20corrections.pdf Brunning, Steven (2024) The commercialisation of multi-supplier frameworks in the UK public sector: the divergence between law and practice. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham. public contracts government purchasing public procurement uk
spellingShingle public contracts
government purchasing
public procurement
uk
Brunning, Steven
The commercialisation of multi-supplier frameworks in the UK public sector: the divergence between law and practice
title The commercialisation of multi-supplier frameworks in the UK public sector: the divergence between law and practice
title_full The commercialisation of multi-supplier frameworks in the UK public sector: the divergence between law and practice
title_fullStr The commercialisation of multi-supplier frameworks in the UK public sector: the divergence between law and practice
title_full_unstemmed The commercialisation of multi-supplier frameworks in the UK public sector: the divergence between law and practice
title_short The commercialisation of multi-supplier frameworks in the UK public sector: the divergence between law and practice
title_sort commercialisation of multi-supplier frameworks in the uk public sector: the divergence between law and practice
topic public contracts
government purchasing
public procurement
uk
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/77561/