If a contract is coming up for re-procurement, the Authority might decide to turn to an existing framework and call off from that, rather than run a new competition. If the incumbent is not a provider under the framework it will have no opportunity to win the contract. Given that the incumbent will lose the contract, there is a potential for challenge, so care needs to be taken.
Assuming that the contract with the incumbent says nothing to the contrary, the Authority has the discretion to choose a different procurement route (i.e. the framework) for the re-procurement and has no obligation to provide the incumbent with an opportunity to win the new contract.
The Authority should take care to ensure (and be able to demonstrate in the Regulation 84 report) that this decision is being taken for justifiable commercial reasons and not with the intention of discriminating against the incumbent.
This is particularly true where the loss of the contract will have a significant impact on the incumbent, which may very well try to challenge on the basis that it has “nothing to lose”.