Skip to main content

Civil engineering contractors call for public sector procurement to be put in the Brexit spotlight

Written by: Supply Chain Online
Published on: 13 Oct 2016
Category:

BREXIT CLOUD NEWS

Civil engineering contractors call for public sector procurement to be put in the Brexit spotlight

As plans for the implementation of the UK’s departure from the EU gather a head of steam, the Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA) has called on the Government to look again at public sector procurement policies and legislation.

CECA has been studying how infrastructure projects are procured in the UK for the past year, and the association is expected to publish its findings next month.

With the Government making plans for its Autumn Statement and Prime Minister Theresa May having given an indication of when she expects to trigger Article 50, however, CECA is calling for a re-examination of the procurement process.

Marie-Claude Hemming, CECA’s Head of External Affairs, said: “Civil engineering contractors are primed to deliver a substantial project workload over the coming years. Yet their ability to deliver these projects in the most efficient way is increasingly being stymied by burdensome procurement processes on projects large and small. Our research suggests that this burden is caused, in part, by the rules that are enforced as a result of EU procurement regulations.”

Ms Hemming added that the UK’s impending departure from the EU presents an opportunity to examine certain elements of the EU procurement process that do not function as sensibly as others to ensure a competitive market for consumers.

She also stated that CECA hopes that the UK Government will take the initiative to work with industries with the aim of improving overall approaches to procurement, adding: “Clearly, the UK’s departure from the EU will take time to achieve, and industry will still be bound by UK and global regulations. However, there is no reason why we could not start to look now at what the future of procurement might look like outside the EU.”