RESTRICTED  
  
GPA/ACC/GBR/7  
 
19 July 2018  
(18-4561) Page: 1/3 
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  
The following document f rom the United Kingdom, dated 18  July 2018, is being circulated at the 
request of the Delegation of the European Union.  
 
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REPLIES OF THE UNITE D KINGDOM TO COMMENT S AND QUESTIONS FROM  MOLDOVA 
(GPA/ACC/GBR/4) ON T HE UNITED KINGDOM'S MARKET ACCESS OFFER 
(GPA/ACC/GBR/1/REV.1 ) AND ITS REPLIES TO T HE CHECKLIST  
OF ISSUES (GPA/ACC/G BR/2)  
We thank Moldova for its interest in the UK's  accession to the GPA and its comments and 
questions. The UK has prepared the following answers to Moldova's questions and is looking 
forward to further constructive dialogue with Moldova and all GPA Parties.  
 
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1. In the aftermath of Brexi t, is the United Kingdom legislation on public procurement 
going to remain in accordance with the European directives, or there is an intention to 
amend it, or even pass new legislation? In the case you do intend to operate changes to 
the current Governmen t Procurement legislation, would it be possible to get more 
information related to the conceived changes?  
 
As set out in section 1.1 of the UK 's response to the Checklist of Issues (GPA/ACC/GBR/2) the UK's 
overall approach is to ensure the same rules and laws will apply after the UK leaves the EU as they 
did before, to provide continuity and certainty.  
 
The six sets of regulations referred to in our response to the Checklist of Issues (GPA/ACC/GBR/2) 
implement the EU Directives on public procurement and w ere originally made using powers 
provided by the European Communities Act 1972. In this way, the EU Directives are given effect in 
the UK through domestic laws.  
 
The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 20181 converts EU law into domestic law (including the si x 
sets of regulations relating to public procurement). It is possible that this may not take effect until 
the end of the implementation period in circumstances where a Withdrawal Agreement is agreed 
between the EU and the UK. The Act also creates temporary  powers to make secondary legislation 
to enable corrections to be made to laws that would otherwise no longer operate appropriately 
once the UK leaves the EU. This is a technical "fix" to ensure that UK domestic law continues to 
function correctly. The Explanatory Notes to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 provide a 
more detailed explanation of the Act and can be found at the following address:  
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2018/16/pdfs/ukpgaen_20180016_en.pdf . 
 
The Trade Bill provides a power to allow the UK to make regulations to implement its GPA 
obligations as an independent member o f the GPA, and to implement new accessions to and 
withdrawals from the GPA. The GPA power in the Trade Bill does not allow for amendments to the 
                                                
1 The European Union (Withdrawal) Bill received Royal Assent from H er Majesty the Queen on 
26 June 2018 an d became an Act of Parliament.  GPA/ACC/GBR/7  
 
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  UK's public procurement law beyond these limited powers, which are intended to ensure continued 
application of the GPA in the UK upon exit from the EU.  The Explanatory Notes to the Trade Bill 
provide a more detailed explanation of the Bill and can be found at the following address:  
https://services.parliament.uk/Bills/2017 -19/trade/documents.html . 
 
Therefore, following the UK 's exit from the EU or at the end of the implementation period in 
circumstances where a Withdrawal Agreement is agreed between the EU and the UK, the primary 
domestic source of the UK 's public procurement law will remain the six sets of regulations referred 
to in our response to the Checklist of Issues (GPA/ACC/GBR/2). These regulations will be 
preserved in UK domestic law and technical corrections will be made  (a) to ensure the regulations 
operate appropriately once the UK leaves the EU and (b) to implement GPA obligations as an 
independent member of the GPA.  
 
2. The GPA Agreement contains provisions encouraging the use of electronic means 
in the government procurement procedures. Importantly, they shall not preclude the 
participation of non -resident bidders. Thus, we would like to ask, what kind of electronic 
means are you currently employing in the process and how is the access of non -resident 
bidders ensur ed. Are there impediments for remote participation?  
 
We would like to underline that economic suppliers from the Republic of Moldova, as 
well as Government representatives holding diplomatic and service passports encounter 
difficulties in applying and obta ining a visa to travel to the UK. In the last years we have 
had a significant number of cases where visas have been declined for holders of 
diplomatic and service passports and cases of delayed answers (over one month delay), 
which precluded the applicants  to travel to the UK on the scheduled time. The majority 
of the official visits have been cancelled.  
 
The procedure is more complex for economic agents, as they are obliged to travel to 
Warsaw (Poland) to manage to apply for a visa. In this sense, we enco urage the UK 
Government to offer a more efficient solution for our economic suppliers in order to fully 
allow them to participate in government procurement procedures and facilitate the 
access of non -resident bidders.  
 
Provisions in UK domestic legislation  which currently require notices to be sent to the EU 
Publications Office for publication in the Official Journal of the European Union 
(http://www.ted.europa.eu/ ) will be amended as the UK leaves the EU and no lon ger has access to 
the Official Journal of the European Union to refer to a replacement suitable platform. We will 
share details of this platform with GPA Parties as soon as proposals are finalised, but our plan is 
that the platform will be used by central government authorities, sub -central authorities and 
utilities. It will be consistent with the GPA obligations requiring publication of intended 
procurements in electronic medium, including that the medium must be widely disseminated and 
readily accessible to the public, regardless of whether they are non -resident bidders (and we note 
your concerns in this regard).  
 
3. In the event a UK government procurement procedure is officially challenged, 
what kind of mechanism could be ensured for the participation of  the relevant bidders 
from the Republic of Moldova in the official procedures of hearing and solving the 
complaints?  
 
An explanation of UK domestic review procedures and the access of foreign suppliers (including 
those from Moldova) to these procedures is  provided in sections 6.7 and 6.8 of the UK 's response 
to the Checklist of Issues (GPA/ACC/GBR/2). These review procedures will remain unaltered as a 
result of the UK leaving the EU.  
 
4. We would be grateful if the UK could present an exhaustive list of th e relevant 
central governmental bodies, sub -central and other entities that have not been included 
in the Annexes 1, 2 and 3, as well as the reasons for their non -inclusion in the offer?  
 
The UK's aim is to provide continuity in its trading relationships a s we leave the EU. This means for 
the GPA that we are replicating our current commitments as set out in the EU schedule of 
commitments.  
 GPA/ACC/GBR/7  
 
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  This does mean that we have kept the list of central government entities in Annex 1, and the 
indicative lists in Annexe s 2 and 3. This completely replicates the current offer the UK has under 
the EU schedules, providing continuity to GPA Parties. The footnote included in respect of the list 
of central government entities in Annex 1 provides reassurance that coverage is not  being 
reduced, and the indicative list of entities circulated to all Parties informally gives an example of 
the kinds of bodies covered by the footnote.  
 
We have heard the concerns of some Parties about the need to understand the current state of 
play of government in the UK and to have this reflected in the schedules. Whilst we are unable to 
reflect up to date lists in the schedules on accession, we have provided the indicative list of 
entities referred to above and we intend to circulate an updated versi on as well as provide further 
transparency on how we have arrived at that list. This approach is intended to assist Parties to 
understand which entities are covered by the footnote and in explaining coverage to their 
stakeholders, whilst still respecting t he overall approach taken with the UK's market access offer 
(GPA/ACC/GBR/1/Rev.1). We also intend to provide updated indicative lists for Annexes 2 and 3.  
 
 
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