Combatting Corruption and Collusion in UK Public Procurement: Proposal for Post‐Brexit Reform: Proposals for Post-Brexit Reform

TY - JOUR

T1 - Combatting Corruption and Collusion in UK Public Procurement: Proposal for Post‐Brexit Reform

T2 - Proposals for Post-Brexit Reform

AU - Jones, Alison

N1 - Funding Information: Professor of Law, King's College London. The author would like to thank Michael Bowsher QC, Niamh Dunne, Sue Hawley, Stijn Huijts, Michael O'Kane, two anonymous reviewers and participants at the University of Cambridge Centre of European Law's seminar series (March 2020) and University of Oxford EU Seminar Series (November 2020) for their extremely helpful comments on previous drafts of this paper. Special thanks are due to Michael Bowsher for numerous discussions and guidance on the topic. Thanks are also due to Howard Cartlidge and Sean McNabb for their valuable insight into cartel enforcement at the Competition and Markets Authority. Finally, the author is extremely grateful to the British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant program for helping to fund this research and to Niha Parshurampuria for her valuable research assistance. All URLs last accessed 10 February 2021. Funding Information: Professor of Law, King's College London. The author would like to thank Michael Bowsher QC, Niamh Dunne, Sue Hawley, Stijn Huijts, Michael O'Kane, two anonymous reviewers and participants at the University of Cambridge Centre of European Law's seminar series (March 2020) and University of Oxford EU Seminar Series (November 2020) for their extremely helpful comments on previous drafts of this paper. Special thanks are due to Michael Bowsher for numerous discussions and guidance on the topic. Thanks are also due to Howard Cartlidge and Sean McNabb for their valuable insight into cartel enforcement at the Competition and Markets Authority. Finally, the author is extremely grateful to the British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant program for helping to fund this research and to Niha Parshurampuria for her valuable research assistance. All URLs last accessed 10 February 2021. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Authors. The Modern Law Review published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Modern Law Review Limited. Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2021/6/11

Y1 - 2021/6/11

N2 - Every year the UK government spends billions of pounds purchasing goods, works and services that are vital to growth, development, health and social welfare. Performed well, public procurement helps a government to nurture competition, save money, and provide better public services. These benefits will not be reaped, however, if the system is not protected adequately from distortion by corruption and/or supplier collusion. This paper concludes that additional measures are required to protect the integrity of procurement processes in England & Wales through improving the distinct public procurement, anti‐corruption and competition regimes and uniting them around a cohesive strategy. It advocates policy coordination and enhancements designed to yield major benefits to public procurement as the UK seeks to develop its own policies post‐Brexit and to grapple with the demands that the Covid‐19 pandemic has placed on public purchasing and the public purse.

AB - Every year the UK government spends billions of pounds purchasing goods, works and services that are vital to growth, development, health and social welfare. Performed well, public procurement helps a government to nurture competition, save money, and provide better public services. These benefits will not be reaped, however, if the system is not protected adequately from distortion by corruption and/or supplier collusion. This paper concludes that additional measures are required to protect the integrity of procurement processes in England & Wales through improving the distinct public procurement, anti‐corruption and competition regimes and uniting them around a cohesive strategy. It advocates policy coordination and enhancements designed to yield major benefits to public procurement as the UK seeks to develop its own policies post‐Brexit and to grapple with the demands that the Covid‐19 pandemic has placed on public purchasing and the public purse.

KW - Public Procurement, Corruption, Collusion

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85102318988&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/1468-2230.12626

DO - 10.1111/1468-2230.12626

M3 - Article

SN - 0026-7961

VL - 84

SP - 667

EP - 707

JO - Modern Law Review

JF - Modern Law Review

IS - 4

ER -