Helping you make procurement pain-free.

Public sector and utilities sector buyers have to comply with strict rules when preparing tender documents and running a procurement process. The rules are designed to ensure that buyers follow a transparent process and that all bidders capable of doing the job are given an equal opportunity.

For buyers, we see our job as ensuring that your procurement process secures the best outcome for you, while being as robust and challenge-free as possible. For bidders, we’re here to help you navigate those processes strategically, and to defend your rights when you’ve been wronged.

Although procurement challenges are sometimes necessary, no buyer or bidder wants to have a procurement process challenged. For buyers, doing so is inefficient, can lead to a loss of credibility and liability for damages. For successful bidders, wasted bid costs and significant financial and commercial implications can arise if a contract award is delayed or a procurement abandoned after contract award. Your bid can also be the subject of public scrutiny and comment. For unsuccessful bidders, the process of challenging can be costly, lead to strained relationships with the buyer, and never guarantees the desired outcome.

We’re here to help you make sense of the rules, secure strategically important contracts, and navigate buyer-bidder relationships along the way.

Key Contacts

How Burness Paull's procurement lawyers can support you:

Procurement processes

From the start, we work on getting a buyer’s call for competition and tender documentation right, building in transparent selection and award procedures and making the process smooth and efficient. We also offer training and support for the logistics of negotiation, assessment, clarification and award.

For bidders, we can review tender documents, highlight any non-compliant elements, and provide relevant and critical clarification questions for submission to the buyer – with the aim of resolving issues at the outset and minimising the risk of a challenge.

We are also regularly called upon to design new, innovative models for the delivery of infrastructure, capital projects and shared services, and to test those models against the requirements of the procurement regulations. For example, we launched one of the first innovation partnership procurement procedures in the UK and have developed innovation partnership template documentation for use by public authorities.

Procurement challenges

When there is a dispute, our highly regarded procurement team will assess the merits of any challenge and what outcomes are available. Whether you are a disappointed bidder, or a buyer on the receiving end of a challenge, we can advise on strategy and act on your behalf in relation to any dispute.

We never forget that buyers and bidders want to work with one another. Our approach is to minimise reputational and relationship damage while achieving the best results for our clients.

Burness Paull's procurement lawyers have had a number of notable successes where buyers have been able to proceed with contract award; and where bidders have won valuable contracts following our intervention.

Procurement advice

We are experienced dealing with the public sector and utilities regulations in Scotland and the rest of the UK; and we keep abreast of procurement news, best-practice, caselaw and legislation – most notably the Procurement Act 2023. Keeping up-to-date and compliant with the procurement regulations is a key requirement for both buyers and bidders, particularly in times of uncertainty and rapid regulatory change.

So whether you are a buyer or a bidder, north or south of the border, the firm's specialist procurement lawyers can guide you safely through the minefield of public and utilities procurement law.

Subsidy control

Another area of law at the intersection of the public sector, the market and competition is Subsidy control. The Subsidy Control Act 2022 can apply to public support in any form, including:

• grants
• loans
• guarantees
• capital investments

• the grant of property rights (including options)
• reliefs
• waivers

Compliance with the Subsidy Control Act is not only essential for the public authority giving the subsidy, it is critically important for the recipient – who may need to repay any subsidy (plus interest) not given in compliance with the rules. To help you avoid this, our experienced subsidy control team has detailed knowledge and understanding of the Subsidy Control Act and is frequently called upon by clients to find a way through the complexities of the law to meet their needs.

When giving a subsidy, or any public funding, it is also vitally important for both the public authority and the recipient to get the contractual terms right. We regularly advise public authorities on how to get the most out of their funding, ensuring the project advances in a way that meets the needs and objectives of all parties, and defending the public authorities’ interests where this doesn’t happen. We also advise recipients on how best to negotiate these terms, minimising the administrative burden that can come with the expectations attached to public support.

When dealing with subsidy control issues, Burness Paull will deliver a pragmatic and workable risk-based solution.

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