As a local authority, the Council has to comply with the European Union public procurement directives. These rules can be quite complex, but essentially they are designed to ensure that any firm or organisation in any EU member country has a fair and equal opportunity to compete for any public sector contract in any EU country.

The rules themselves, with a few exceptions, require all invitations to tender for contracts above a certain value to be advertised in the supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). They also specify, for example, certain allowable criteria upon which contracts can be awarded, the designated tendering procedures and the minimum timescales to be allowed for the submission of tenders. The rules are backed up by substantial legal remedies for any non-compliance.

Contracts with an estimated value above the following thresholds are subject to the regulations. The New EC Procurement thresholds to take effect from 1st January 2012 have now been published and are detailed below:-

To view conditions of contract for sale and supply of goods click here

To view conditions for provision of services click here

To view terms and conditions which apply to any building related work click here

To view a guide on our new purchase ordering and payment process please click here