The Public Contracts Regulations 2015

Standstill period

87.—(1) Where regulation 86(1) applies, the contracting authority must not enter into the contract or conclude the framework agreement before the end of the standstill period.

(2) Where the contracting authority sends a regulation 86 notice to all the relevant economic operators by facsimile or electronic means, the standstill period ends at midnight at the end of the 10th day after the relevant sending date.

(3) Where the contracting authority sends a regulation 86 notice to all the relevant economic operators only by other means, the standstill period ends at whichever of the following occurs first:—

(a) midnight at the end of the 15th day after the relevant sending date;

(b) midnight at the end of 10th day after the date on which the last of the economic operators to receive such a notice receives it.

(4) In paragraphs (2) and (3), “the relevant sending date” means the date on which the regulation 86 notice is sent to the relevant economic operators, and if the notices are sent to different relevant economic operators on different dates, the relevant sending date is the date on which the last of the notices is sent.

(5) Where the contracting authority sends the regulation 86 notice to one or more of the relevant economic operators by facsimile or electronic means and to the others by other means, the standstill period ends at whichever of the following two times occurs latest:—

(a) midnight at the end of the 10th day after the date on which the last notice is sent by facsimile or electronic means;

(b) the time when whichever of the following occurs first:—

(i) midnight at the end of the 15th day after the date on which the last notice is sent by other means;

(ii) midnight at the end of the 10th day after the date on which the last of the economic operators to receive a notice sent by any such other means receives it.

(6) In this regulation—

“regulation 86 notice” means a notice given in accordance with regulation 86; and

“relevant economic operators” means economic operators to which regulation 86 requires a notice to be sent.