Explanatory note

These Regulations amend the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015, the Utilities Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2016 and the Concession Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2016 (“Scottish public procurement regulations”).

The Scottish public procurement regulations contain provisions requiring contracting authorities to treat economic operators from countries with which the United Kingdom has an International Trade Agreement (“ITA”) no less favourably than economic operators from the United Kingdom. Details of the relevant ITAs are set out in schedules to the Scottish public procurement regulations. These Regulations amend those schedules as a consequence of amendments made to the United Kingdom’s ITAs with Georgia, the Republic of Kosovo, Ukraine, the Republic of North Macedonia, the Republic of Moldova and the Republic of Albania. The ITAs with these countries have been amended to remove access to bidders from those countries to the procurement of certain health care services. In practice, these Regulations update the list of ITAs to reflect the date and location of the amended agreements.

The Regulations also insert into the Scottish public procurement regulations the United Kingdom’s ITA with the Republic of Kazakhstan.