Regulation 20 Consortia

In this regulation a “consortium” means 2 or more persons, at least one of whom is a supplier, acting jointly for the purpose of being awarded a public supply contract.

A contracting authority shall not treat the tender of a consortium as ineligible nor decide not to include a consortium amongst those persons from whom it will make the selection of persons to be invited to tender for or to negotiate a public supply contract on the grounds that that consortium has not formed a legal entity for the purpose of tendering for or negotiating the contract; but where a contracting authority awards a public supply contract to a consortium it may, if to do so is justified for the satisfactory performance of the contract, require the consortium to form a legal entity before entering into, or as a term of, the contract.

In this part of these Regulations references to a supplier where the supplier is a consortium includes a reference to each person who is a member of that consortium.