RESTRICTED  
  
GPA/ACC/GBR/14  
 
10 September 2018  
(18-5593) Page: 1/2 
Committee on Government Procurement  Original: English  
 
ACCESSION OF THE UNI TED KINGDOM TO THE A GREEMENT ON GOVERNME NT 
PROCUREMENT IN ITS O WN RIGHT  
COMMUNICATION  FROM THE UNITED STATES OF  AMERICA  
The following communication, dated 7 September  2018, is being circulated at the request of the 
Delegation of the United States of America.  
 
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COMMENTS AND ADDITIO NAL QUESTIONS FROM T HE UNITED STATES CON CERNING THE 
REPLIES OF THE UNITE D KINGDOM TO COMMENT S AND QUESTIONS FROM  
THE UNITED  STATES (G PA/ACC/GBR/9)  
The United States thanks the European Union an d the United Kingdom for circulating the replies of 
the United Kingdom to comments and questions from the United States (GPA/ACC/GBR/9). The 
United States presents these additional comments and questions concerning the United Kingdom's 
replies to the Check list of Issues and its replies to comments from the United States, and the 
United States reserves the right to modify its comments or submit additional comments and 
questions in the future.  
 
1  LEGAL FRAMEWORK  
1. Annex B of the Procuring for Growth Balance Score card (Balanced Scorecard Strategic 
Themes and Critical Success Factors in Relation to the Procurement Process) in Procurement Policy 
Note 09/16 (PPN 09/16) identifies "employment " as a critical success factor. Annex B further 
indicates that the employment factor can be applied at the award criteria stage and at the contract 
performance conditions stage. Please provide responses to the questions raised regarding 
examples specified in Annex B for Employment:  
Award criteria evaluated on the basis of training n ew workers for delivery of the contract.  
 
a. Is the award criteria evaluation limited to new workers trained in the relevant area, as 
defined in Section 1(4) of the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012? Are tenders that 
offer to train workers in another G PA country treated equally to an offer that commits to 
train workers in the UK?  
Contract clause that requires the contractor to advertise new employment, as appropriate.  
 
b. Please provide information about how this has been applied. Would this be limited t o 
advertising new employment in the relevant area as defined in Section 1(4)? Would a 
company be able fulfil this by advertising for new employment opportunities in another 
GPA country?  
Award criteria evaluated on the basis of evidence of the suppliers ' commitment to good 
employment practices relevant to the contract.  
 
c. Please define "good employment practices ". What guidance is provided by the procuring 
entities on appropriate good employment practices?  GPA/ACC/GBR/14  
 
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  Contract performance conditions that cover fair and equal pay, promotion of equality & 
diversity and effective engagement of the workforce on the project.  
 
d. Does the UK have laws on fair and equal pay and promotion of equality and diversity? If 
so, please identify the specific laws. If these are legal requir ements, why are these 
contract performance conditions as opposed to conditions for participation?  
e. If this factor does not reflect existing legal requirements, please indicate how these 
concepts are defined. Please share guidance provided to procuring entit ies on how to 
apply these factors.  
f. Please explain what "effective engagement of the workforce " means.  
g. How is this factor applied to a company with facilities around the world?  
2. Procurement Policy Note 14/15 – Supporting Apprenticeships and Skills Through Public 
Procurement Action (PPN 14/15) indicates that the UK Government is committed to increase the 
quantity and quality of apprenticeships in England to three million starts ove r the next five years 
(starting in 2015). PPN further notes that public procurement of contracts with a full life value of 
£10 million and above and duration of 12 months and above should be used to support skills 
development and delivery of the apprentice ship commitment. Apprenticeships are defined as full 
time paid jobs with training, which typically last a minimum of 12 months. "As an example of good 
practice, and depending on the size of the contract and the market, we would expect contractors 
to aim fo r 3-5% of the workforce to be apprentices, sponsored students and/or on graduate 
programmes, with a focus on apprentices. 5% would represent a gold standard (which is 
equivalent to the industry -led "5% Club ")."  
a. Please indicate whether a proposal to foster  apprenticeships in other GPA countries 
would be treated equally to a proposal to foster apprenticeships in the UK. If yes, please 
indicate whether guidance to this effect has been provided.  
b. PPN 14/15 states that procuring entities should not use criteria  that potentially 
discriminates against a bidder in another member state/non -member state. Please 
explain guidance provided to procuring entities on how to ensure consistency with UK's 
GPA obligations while also working to fulfil the overarching goal indic ated in the PPN 
(that is, to increase the quantity and quality of apprenticeships in England by three 
million)?  
3. Can the UK explain how it ensures that the effect of such considerations related to 
implementation of the Public Services (Social Value) Act 201 2, including those identified in 
Questions 1 and 2, do not amount to offsets or have a discriminatory effect on international 
suppliers?  
4. In its response to a question on the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 and its 
facilitation of SMEs (Question 2), the United Kingdom provided information on statutory guidance 
issued by Scotland. In this guidance, Scotland notes that Section 11 of the Act allows for 
participation in procurements to be restricted to supported businesses as long as the procurement 
is not subject to EU rules. For policies and procedures, particularly in Scotland, that are tied to EU 
rules and/or EU thresholds, can the United Kingdom explain how, upon leaving the European 
Union, these policies and procedures will be amended?  
6  INFORMATION  
1. We thank the UK for its confirmation in response to Question 8.c that the UK has not 
undertaken a study into how dividing contracts into smaller lots may affect the level of interest 
from foreign suppliers. However, we note that paragraphs 114, 115, 116, an d 117 of EC Directive 
2014/24 speak to the issue of value and level of expected cross -border interest in a procurement. 
The EC directive notes that there would be limited interest in certain service procurements valued 
below EUR 750,000. The United States encourages the UK to assess the impact that dividing 
contracts into lots may have on interest from foreign suppliers and to take steps to ensure that the 
division into lots does not serve as a restriction on international trade.  
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