Procurement Regulations Update
In November 2019, the EG approved a new set of Procurement regulations. These regulations have been completely rewritten since the previous version, and replace any and all Procurement Regulations that have been published. These regulations provide clarity and reduce the University’s exposure to risk. There are some major changes around the thresholds for tendering and documentation. Of particular note:
- All non-Property procurement activity with a total contract value of £100,000 or above should have a Procurement Plan attached to ensure compliance to the law and regulations
- All Property procurement activity with a total contract value of £1,000,000 or above should have a Procurement Plan
- Exceptions to the procurement regulations have been clarified
- A Single Supplier Non-Compliance process has been formalised (see below)
- The Procurement Regulations need to be read in conjunction with a number of other University regulations
Procurement have started delivering updates internally to make clear the changes and the reasons behind these to help implement the new regulations. If you wish to attend a session please contact us.
All the standard documentation and processes have been reviewed and updated to ensure they meet the internal and external Procurement Regulations and legal obligations of the University.
Updated Single Supplier Process
The Single Source (non-compliance) Request Form has been updated to match the new suite of Procurement forms and templates which were released in January 2020. The new form can be found here.
The process itself remains unchanged, and is designed for instances where:
- There is a request not to run a process compliant with the University’s Procurement policies
- There is only one supplier capable of meeting the requirement
- There is an emergency or other unusual circumstances
- A Grant funding application or other requires a specific solution or supplier
Updated OJEU Thresholds
The new OJEU Thresholds that apply from 1st January 2020 have been published and are as follows:
| Supply, Services & Design Contracts | Works Contracts | Light Touch Regime Services |
| Value: £189,330 | £4,733,252 | £663,540 |
| Value: €214,000 | €5,350,000 | €750,000 |
Brexit
The immediate changes to the Procurement Regulations post 31st January 2020 are minimal. The Euro currency has been retired in the UK and the only values that now apply are Pounds Sterling. At some point, the UK may launch a separate system to replace the OJEU platform, however this has not yet been confirmed. The University is attending a consultation session with SUPC and the Cabinet Office in March to input into the post-Brexit Procurement legislation.
Key Travel Update
Key Travel will be launching their new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform on Tuesday 18th February. The CRM is designed to ease call flows and improve the support to calls and bookings. One consultant will manage the booking from beginning to end, improving the customer experience. Key are anticipating around 10 days before the system is fully embedded so there may be a short period of ‘live system learning’ to Feb 28th.
In order to mitigate this, and the impact of Storm Dennis and Storm Ciara, please book travel through the following routes :
– www.keytravel.com: Book travel via the online tool as a priority, as bookings are processed instantly, e.g. UK rail, point-to-point flights, hotels, low-cost airlines such as Ryanair and Easyjet, quotes for funding applications);
– kent@keytravel.com: For non-urgent new bookings (7+ days in advance), complex itineraries (2+ destinations) or ancillary services that are not available to book via the online tool, please continue to use email as an option;
– +44 (0) 20 7843 9672: If you need to contact the operations team for any service enquiries, or your booking is urgent, please use the phone in place of email. If you do need to call, keep in mind that peak times are between 10am-12pm and 3pm-4pm;
– +44 (0) 20 7843 9602: Outside of our office hours (8:45am-5:30pm Mon-Fri and 9:00am-1:00pm Sat) in the event of an emergency please contact our 24/7 number, where you will be put in touch with one of our consultants.
– bookers@keytravel.com: If you are requesting set up as an approved travel booker, please email providing full name, email address, job title, contact number, department name and two-letter code.
– Bteatheredge@keytravel.com: Please contact Bruce, your account manager, for any escalations that cannot be resolved directly with the offline service team.
There will also be induction and refresher sessions with key on Wednesday 4th March. Please book here to attend.
Please let the Procurement Office know if you have any questions surrounding this.
First Class and Business Travel
You are reminded of the University’s Travel Policy.
There are limited circumstances in which Premium Economy, Business Class or First Class travel is permitted : in short, where this travel is lower cost than economy travel, or where the nature of the travel is over at least six hours overnight. This is detailed in section 14.2 of the Policy. Use of this class of travel can be audited and investigated.