Avid readers of our e-updates (including our e-update of 16 March 2010) will recall the European Commission adopted earlier this year Directive 2009/33/EC to promote the purchase of clean and energy efficient vehicles through public procurement exercises. As from 4 December 2010, The Cleaner Road Transport Vehicles (Scotland) Regulations 2010 came into force to implement those obligations in Scotland.
As such, the Regulations now impose a specific new requirement on all Contracting Authorities, Contracting Entities and operators (a body which discharges certain public service obligations of public transport services by rail and by road) to assess the environmental impacts of vehicles when procuring road transport vehicles, albeit there are exclusions for procuring some vehicles, such as those designed and constructed for forces maintaining public order.
The Directive laid out three Options in relation to how operational and environmental impacts may be taken into account. Those Options are replicated in the Regulations, and so an Authority may:
- Set out an appropriate technical specification for energy and environmental performance;
- Use the impacts as award criteria; or
- Apply a specific methodology to convert the impacts into monetary value. The methodology of calculation - based on the operational lifetime costs - is set out in the Directive.
In addition, any relevant environmental impacts may be used by an Authority, Entity or Operator in its assessment, provided as a minimum, energy consumption, and the emissions of carbon dioxide, oxides of nitrogen, non-methane hydrocarbons and particulate matter are included.
Lastly, the Directive has also been implemented (in largely similar terms) south of the border by The Cleaner Road Transport Vehicles Regulations 2010, which also came into force on 4 December.
If you require any further information about how the Regulations may impact on any procurement please contact us.
Disclaimer
The material contained in this article is of the nature of general comment only and does not give advice on any particular matter. Recipients should not act on the basis of the information in this e-update without taking appropriate professional advice upon their own particular circumstances.
