Circular 06/12 was recently issued.  This notifies public bodies of the mandatory requirement, from 1 September 2012, to utilise central contracts put in place by the National Procurement Service when procuring a range of commonly acquired goods and services. The goods and services concerned are set out in the Annex with details of the relevant frameworks. 

Where a public body already has contracts in place for the categories of goods and services covered by the mandatory arrangements, it is expected that the public body will transition to the NPS arrangements on expiry of the contracts currently in place.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.