In the most recent Public Procurement Notice (PPN 08/20) the Cabinet office has reminded contracting authorities that the Find a Tender Service (“FTS”) will launch on 1st January 2021 as a UK replacement to the existing Tenders Electronic Daily (“TED”) system publication in OJEU. All public procurement notices must therefore be published through the FTS as of the go live date at 11pm on 31st December 2020.
Up until 11pm on 31st December, contracting authorities should continue to submit notices to OJEU, which is a requirement that will continue to apply after the end of the transition to all procurements that have not been finalised before 11pm on 31st December. While it is not a legal requirement, contracting authorities are asked to send notices that are still required to be sent to OJEU for publication, to FTS also so that suppliers only have once place to look for UK opportunities.
The new FTS will be implemented through the Public Procurement (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020, which you can read more about here. The aim was to enable an easy transition for users by ensuring the new system reflected the same, or similar, core principles as the existing TED system. The FTS will continue to apply to public, utilities and defence contract opportunities and as the law regarding regulated procurement post-Brexit is not changing significantly, the formalities of notices will remain the same as on TED. Similarly, the thresholds will remain the same as for the EU.
Contracting authorities intending to publish high-value public procurement notices directly to the FTS must register with the service by creating an account on Contracts Finder. All such accounts will automatically be granted access to the FTS in order to publish notices. Those contracting authorities that currently use an eSender to manage procurement notices may continue to do so providing that the eSender has confirmed its ability to publish notices to the FTS. It is important to check with your eSender that they have completed the necessary work to enable them to publish notices.
Existing portals such as Contracts Finder, MOD Defence Contracts Online, Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales and eTendersNI will continue to be available for viewing low value or location specific notices.
One of the most noticeable improvements that users will experience on this system is the upload speed for notices. This will be almost instantaneous, which is a clear improvement on the current upload time that over the course of 2020 has sometimes been taking up to five days on TED (which has a knock on effect in terms of standstill periods for VEAT notices and the 30 day risk of challenge period). The benefit that arises from this improved upload speed is that it provides certainty around challenge period deadlines that further enables better project management. There will also be reminders on the FTS encouraging users to make use of the Public Procurement Review Service (“PPRS”) where concerns arise over potential breaches of the Regulations or where it is believed that opportunities have not been properly advertised. You can find out more about the PPRS here.
Should you have any queries about the FTS or any of the changes to public procurement law following the UK’s exit from the EU on 31st December 2020, please get in touch with a member of our Procurement Team.
