Economy, Energy and Fair Work Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, December 8, 2020

Official Report 650KB pdf

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Subordinate Legislation

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Public Procurement etc (EU Exit) (Scotland) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 [Draft]

Agenda item 2 is subordinate legislation. The committee will take evidence on the regulations that are before us in draft form. We have with us, online, Kate Forbes, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, and her officials. Good morning to you all. Broadcasting staff will operate the microphones. As they are working remotely, please wait for me to introduce you and leave a few seconds for your microphone to come on before you speak.

I invite the cabinet secretary to make opening remarks on the regulations before we move to any questions from members.

Thank you, convener. I hope that you can see and hear me.

I am delighted to be able to explain a little about the background of the regulations that are before the committee. There are a number of reasons why the committee is being invited to approve the regulations. The principal one is that they provide much-needed and continued stability for businesses and other organisations as well as the wider public sector as the United Kingdom leaves the European Union. The regulations are designed to update our existing public procurement rules in Scotland so that they can still function at the end of the transition period. They try to maintain the status quo and to provide the stability and certainty that those organisations all need.

Much of the content of the draft regulations is not new and was included in earlier amending regulations made by the Scottish ministers in 2019 about EU exit and procurement. Committee members considered the detail of those earlier regulations previously. The new draft regulations will revoke and replace those earlier amending regulations, as they were made before the withdrawal agreement and so did not take account of some of the transitional arrangements for procurement that starts before but has not concluded by the end of the transition period.

The main change in the new draft regulations that are before the committee is that they include those transitional arrangements. For example, where a procurement has started but not concluded before the end of the transition period, relevant procurement notices must be sent to the Official Journal of the European Union for the duration of the procurement. The regulations make that clear, and changes have been made to the Public Contracts Scotland advertising website to make that happen.

Other changes in the new draft regulations include the sorting of some small deficiencies. The regulations follow the UK Government’s approach and, at the UK’s request, will continue for a time-limited period the obligations and the rights afforded to bidders and potential bidders from countries that, at the end of the transition period, were party to an international agreement with the EU. Members might recall that the 2019 regulations continued the same obligations and rights to bidders from other countries, but that was for 18 months after the end of the transition period. Our new draft regulations reduce that period to 12 months to match the latest approach that the UK Government has taken, as it anticipates the Trade Bill becoming law, and so the enabling powers in it becoming available to make the fix permanent sooner rather than later. Until then, our draft regulations will ensure that our laws are compatible with the UK’s international obligations.

Overall, the regulations maintain the status quo and ensure that our procurement rules can continue to function. Any changes are to ensure consistency and stability for businesses, other organisations and public sector bodies that are involved in public procurement as we come to the end of the transition period, sooner rather than later.

As members have no questions, I will simply move to the formal debate on the motion to approve the affirmative instrument that we have just considered. I invite the cabinet secretary to move motion S5M-23569.

Motion moved,

That the Economy, Energy and Fair Work Committee recommends that the Public Procurement etc (EU Exit) (Scotland) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 [draft] be approved.—[Kate Forbes]

Motion agreed to.

As we are agreed, do members agree that the clerk and I should produce a short factual report of the committee’s decision and arrange to have it published?

Members indicated agreement.

I suspend the meeting for a few minutes to allow for the changeover of witnesses.

09:05 Meeting suspended.  

09:11 On resuming—