Getting Started
Public sector procurement in the UK is subject to a legal framework which encourages free and open competition and value for money. Single source procurement is when contracts are placed without competition.
The regulations mainly affect a small number of high value contracts held by larger defence companies in the UK. However, any supplier to the UK government, or their sub-contractors, could find themselves subject to them if they hold a qualifying contract.
The framework includes:
- a structured and "open book" approach to pricing;
- an extensive transparency regime;
- a civil compliance regime, including penalties and enforcement; and
- a dispute resolution mechanism.
The Defence Reform Act 2014: Part 2 and the Single Source Contract Regulations 2014 are UK legislation. They are written in formal legal language.
The SSRO's guidance is written in more natural language and can typically be understood without the reader needing to reference the legislation, but the SSRO does not provide guidance on all aspects of the framework.
The MOD's commercial guidance is an internal guide written for use by MOD commercial officers when negotiating on MOD's behalf. Contractors may find it useful to understand this guidance, but it does not have any legal standing.
This website alsi includes some tools and illustrations to help explain the requirements of the legislation or the SSRO's guidance.
These regulations should be of interest to:
- anyone supplying goods, works, or services to the UK government for "defence purposes".
- anyone who is a sub-contractor to such a supplier.
- procurement and commercial officers working for the UK government.
- anyone carrying out procurement activities on behalf of the UK government (an "authorised person").
The regulations mainly affect a small number of high value contracts held by larger defence companies in the UK. However, any supplier, or sub-contractor to a supplier, to the UK government could find themselves subject to them if they hold a qualifying contract.
At a minimum, anyone working in this area should understand how to identify qualifying contracts so that they can take any action they need to before signing a contract.
The Single Source Contract Regulations are hard to navigate. The legislation, regulations and various amendments are in different places on legislation.gov.uk; SSRO and MOD guidance is separately published on their own websites.
This website brings all the regulations and guidance together in one place in an easy-to-navigate, cross-referenced,and searchable format, along with many other features we hope you will find useful.