Public Contracts Regulations 2015 - Regulation 15

Regulation 15 - Defence and security

Regulation 15 transposes Article 15 of Directive 2014/24/EU into England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This Regulation ensures that Part 2 applies to certain contracts within the field of defence and security.

As mentioned before, defence and security benefit from exceptions to general procurement rules under certain situations. One of the exceptions is granted by Article 346 TFEU, but most of the legal regime applicable to defence and security contracts is contained on Directive 2009/81/EC. As such, Regulation 15 ensures that if contracts do not fall within the exceptions of Directive 2009/81/EC, then they are subject to general procurement rules and in this consequence to Part 2 of the Public Contracts Regulation 2015.

This is an almost verbatim transposition of the original with the only noteworthy difference being that the cross references on Article 15(1)(a) and (b) to Directive 2009/81/EC are made instead to a "Defence and Security Regulations". I am not sure why the lawmakers would use this terminology and not refer to the official name of the law which is Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011. Maybe another example of the rush to get the Regulations out the door?

Albert's short entry is here.

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