Brexit and Public Procurement

I've been meaning to mention the impact of possible Brexit on Public Procurement, but just haven't had the time.  And it looks like Pinsent Masons have covered most of what I wanted to say - here linked on the excellent Spend Matters blog.

In short, if we stay nothing changes.  If we leave, nothing changes - at least not for quite a while.  And even then it might not.  We are signed up to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement, which is the basis of quite a lot of the EU Procurement directive, and therefore our procurement regulations.  Deciding what whether we would leave that agreement, and if so what we would change will probably not be top the the government's agenda post Brexit.

As Pinsent Masons have pointed out, rather than reducing bureaucracy the Government seems quite keen on adding things on top of the directive (with good intentions) so we might end up with more regulation rather than less.

Any how over the next 5 years, I would not expect to see a lot of change.  After that?  Who knows.