The changes which are being seen by providers in the health, education and social care fields, and indeed all publicly funded providers are a direct result of a new EU Procurement Directive. Signed on 31st March 2004, implemented on 1st February 2006, and entered into English and Welsh law, The Public Contracts Regulations 2006.

The new EU Directive has a number of key features:

• it is a consolidated Directive covering, works, supplies, services and utilities;
• an emphasis on matters affecting the environment;
• an expansion in the use of ICT, and thus the adoption of systems for e-procurement, e-auctions, etc;
• the introduction of a new procurement methodology called Competitive Dialogue;
• a tightening of the regulations regarding the purchasing of previously opted out "Part B" services. The end result of which is that, even though a public purchaser has opted out of the Directive, the systems used for purchasing must, in a number of areas be fully compliant with the Directive.

Alongside the introduction of the new regulations there has been the effect of European case law on purchasing. Decisions made by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) impact on public purchasing in the UK and so this impact is on-going. It is possible to challenge procurement decisions in some circumstances. Indeed the European Commission has recently stated that UK providers of Part B services are showing an increasing willingness to challenge these decisions.

A new Remedies Directive was approved and published in autumn 2007, with an allowance of two years for the UK government to adopt the Directive into law. This addresses a range of issues, including the remedies available to those tendering for contracts where there is an infringement of the Directive which affects the chances of the tenderer to obtain the contract. Under the existing Directives, and supported by ECJ case law, there are options for providers who have been the subject of infringements to sue for damages from the purchasers, regardless of whether or not they were the contractor prior to the procurement process.

Regulations for the advertising of tenders are complicated and pose some problems for purchasers: they need an article of their own. To this must be added interpretations and case law from the European Court of Justice. The following table sets out the total value of contracts over which tenders must be formally advertised across Europe as set out in the Regulations.