This Procurement Journey for England, Wales and Northern Ireland (Click here to access the Scottish version) is intended to support all levels of procurement activities and to help manage the expectations of stakeholders, customers and suppliers alike. It facilitates best practice and consistency across the sector. The processes, templates and guides allow procurement professionals to concentrate on the higher value, higher risk areas in which they can add value and deliver value for money for the public purse.

There are also simplified processes, templates and guidance to support individuals with authority to procure lower value, lower risk goods and services. This provides one source of documentation which can be updated on a continual basis with any changes in legislation, policy and promotion of best practice. We would encourage you to use the source documentation in the Procurement Journey for every procurement exercise to ensure you are always using the most recent guidance and templates on an ongoing basis.

The Procurement Journey is primarily aimed at developing and implementing procurement strategies for goods and services. In any procurement process, the key roles of budget holder and procurement officer should not be performed by the same individual.

This guidance is designed for use by professional procurement staff or staff who are authorised by their organisation's procurement team and/or formally authorised by the organisation to conduct procurement activities. This guidance is not a substitute for legal and professional advice. You must consult with relevant procurement, legal and technical staff wherever appropriate. You should ensure, when working with this guidance that you identify and comply with any relevant internal organisation's guidelines, policies or procedures.

Meeting legal obligations

Decisions of the European Court of Justice and the national courts provide interpretation of the requirements of the EC Treaty and the EC Procurement Directives and can establish precedents which must be observed. Caselaw, by its nature, is constantly evolving and can have significant effects.

The legal framework is not static: it evolves through new/amended legislation, through European Commission decisions/guidelines and through court judgements. Every institution should therefore ensure that it has appropriate arrangements in place to ensure that staff involved in procurement activity are kept up to date with developments in the legal framework and are equipped to meet their legal obligations.

Step 1 of the Procurement Journey is the Decision Matrix which you should now use to help ensure that you select the most appropriate route for your procurement exercise.

Background

The Procurement Journey is designed to be used in conjunction with guidance on current Public Procurement Legislation and with support from the appropriate procurement and legal teams within your organisation.