The Public Services Contracts Regulations 1993

Design contests

24.—(1) This regulation shall apply to a design contest—

(a) if it is organised as part of a procedure leading to the award of a public services contract and the estimated value of any public services contract (calculated in accordance with regulation 7 above) which it is intended to award as the outcome of the contest is not less than 200,000 ECU, or

(b) whether or not it is organised as part of a procedure leading to the award of such a contract, if the aggregate of the value of the prizes or payments for the contest is not less than 200,000 ECU.

(2) The contracting authority shall publicise its intention to hold a design contest by sending to the Official Journal a notice in a form substantially corresponding to that set out in Part F of Schedule 2 and containing the information therein specified.

(3) The contracting authority shall make the rules of the design contest available to services providers who wish to participate in the contest.

(4) The contracting authority may restrict the number of persons invited to participate in the design contest, but it shall make the selection on the basis of clear and non discriminatory criteria.

(5) The contracting authority shall take account of the need to ensure adaquate competition in determining the number of persons invited to participate in the design contest.

(6) Regulation 20 applies to design contests as it applies to the seeking of offers in relation to a proposed public services contract.

(7) The contracting authority shall provide for the participants' proposals to be submitted to the jury without any indication as to the authorship of each proposal.

(8) The contracting authority shall ensure that the members of the jury are all individuals who are independent of participants in the design contest and, when the participants are required to possess a particular professional qualification, that at least one third of the members of the jury also possess that qualification or an equivalent qualification.

(9) The contracting authority shall ensure that the jury makes its decision independently and solely on the basis of the criteria set out in the notice referred to in paragraph (2) above.

(10) The contracting authority shall, no later than 48 days after the date the jury has made its selection, publicise the results of the design contest by sending to the Official Journal a notice substantially corresponding to the form set out in Part G of Schedule 2 and including the information therein specified.