These Regulations amend the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (“the Public Contracts Regulations”) and the Utilities Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (“the Utilities Contracts Regulations”).

Directive 2004/17/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (OJ L134, 30.4.2004, p.1) (“the Utilities Directive”) concerns the co-ordination of procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal service sectors. Directive 2004/18/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (OJ L134, 30.4.2004, p.114) (“the Public Sector Directive”) concerns the co-ordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts. Those Directives have been implemented for Scotland by the Utilities Contracts Regulations and the Public Contracts Regulations respectively.

Commission Regulation (EC) 213/2008 (“the CPV Regulation”) concerning public procurement procedures, as regards the revision of the Common Procurement Vocabulary amends Annexes I, IIA and IIB of the Public Sector Directive and Annexes XII, XVIIA and XVIIB of the Utilities Directive which list the activities, along with their Common Procurement Vocabulary (“CPV”) codes, which constitute public works and public services for the purposes of the two Directives.

The CPV Regulation does not change the material scope of the Public Sector Directive or of the Utilities Directive.

Regulations 2 and 3 amend the Public Contracts Regulations and the Utilities Contracts Regulations to reflect the amendments to the Public Sector Directive and Utilities Directive made by the CPV Regulation.

Regulation 4 makes transitional provision for both the Public Contracts Regulations and the Utilities Contracts Regulations so as to enable a contracting authority or a utility, in certain circumstances, to treat references to Schedule 2 (activities constituting works) and Schedule 3 (categories of services) within specified regulations as references to those Schedules before amendment by these Regulations, with the effect that the previous CPV codes will continue to apply to those contracts and framework agreements concluded prior to the coming into force date of these Regulations.

A full regulatory impact assessment has not been produced as no impact on the private and voluntary sectors is foreseen.