Issue - meetings

To submit the report of the Monitoring Officer.

To adopt the new Contract Procedure Rules (Section 17) shown in Appendix 1 of the report submitted to the Council.

The Monitoring Officer set the context and the Solicitor presented a report:-

·         noting that the Procurement Act 2023 that had come into force on 24 February, 2025 meant that the Council must review and amend its internal procurement rules contained within the Contract Procedure Rules to reflect the change in legislation in order to ensure compliance with the act.

·         asking the Council to amend the Constitution by adopting the new Contract Rules (Section 17) shown in Appendix 1 to the report.

Members were given an opportunity to ask questions and make observations.

The regulations were welcomed, and everyone working in the field of Procurement were wished well.

It was noted that there were not many references in the Regulations to language skills in subcontracting, and suggested that a golden opportunity was being missed here. It was accepted that there were contracting rules relating to discrimination, but the law stated that priority can be given in different circumstances in achieving a legitimate aim such as promoting the Welsh language. Accordingly, an amendment was proposed to delay the adoption of the Regulations until the Language Committee had had the opportunity to scrutinise this.  In response, it was noted:-

·         That this was a matter of compliance with legislation that was now in force, and that the Council must have regulations that aligned with this legislation.

·         The amendment related to procurement policy rather than the legal system, i.e. what the Council buys rather than how the Council buys it.

·         This may be an issue to be raised in the Language Committee in terms of how procurement reflects language requirements, etc.

·         This did not close the door on conducting further reviews in the future.

The Chief Executive noted that the Language Committee was free to look into any subject, but that would not change the decision.

Officers were asked if they could be confident that the policy would help keep the benefit local, and at what level of tender was it required to go out on Sell to Wales?  In response, it was noted:-

·         That the essence of the new regulations was transparency, and that information about tenders below the previously existing high thresholds must now be advertised.

·         The approach to tendering was then a matter of choice, but this was a legal framework, which asked for much more at a much lower level in terms of awareness of tenders and also procurement processes.

RESOLVED to adopt the new Contract Procedure Rules (Section 17) shown in Appendix 1 of the report submitted to the Council.