United Kingdom: Government Contracts, Procurement & PPP

A UK court has ruled that contracting authorities cannot rely on self-created urgency to justify direct awards under the Procurement Act 2023, and that contract award notices must independently contain accurate justification information. The decision establishes that courts will scrutinize the factual basis of urgency claims and may treat inaccurate notices as if they were never published, potentially allowing contracts to be set aside even after voluntary standstill periods.

The UK government has unveiled its comprehensive 10-year infrastructure strategy, setting out ambitious plans to transform the nation's critical infrastructure landscape. This strategic framework addresses key challenges in power supply, construction, and public-private partnerships, with particular focus on emerging sectors like data centres and modernising existing PFI contracts.

Explore how the energy transition is reshaping investment landscapes, from sustained deal flow in renewable energy projects to evolving regulatory frameworks for heat networks. Discover the strategic shifts driving diversified portfolios and the legal considerations shaping compulsory purchase in the renewables sector.

This comprehensive roundup examines critical legal and regulatory developments reshaping the UK public sector landscape, from the government's ambitious National Planning Policy Framework 2026 to sweeping employment law reforms and local government reorganisation. How will these interconnected changes affect public bodies navigating construction contracts, procurement obligations, and workforce management in an era of structural transformation?

As the UK embraces a new era of Procurement Sovereignty under Prime Minister Andy Burnham, the debate over sourcing electric buses domestically versus internationally reveals complex trade-offs between upfront costs, total ownership expenses, and strategic national interests. While Chinese-manufactured buses offer significantly lower purchase prices, UK-built alternatives may deliver superior long-term value when factoring in maintenance, cybersecurity, and alignment with emerging industrial policy prioriti

NHS England has published refreshed statutory guidance on planning and delivering service changes, nearly 13 years after the original 2013 publication. The updated guidance integrates new ministerial intervention rules, emphasizes proportionality and legal defensibility, and replaces references to CCGs with ICBs while providing detailed frameworks for temporary closures and substantial service changes.

Two UK companies have been fined a combined total of over £237,000 for breaches of export control regulations involving unlicensed exports of military-listed goods. The companies secured compound settlements with HMRC after voluntarily disclosing the violations, which were deemed inadvertent or due to weaknesses in internal controls.

This issue of International Quarterly explores the new ICC Arbitration Rules, jurisdictional and enforcement challenges in disputes involving Russian entities, the FIDIC Gold Book’s whole-life contracting model, state immunity and the enforcement of ICSID awards, the risks of third-party funded arbitration and recent guidance on referring disputes to ad hoc DABs under FIDIC contracts.

FIDIC's Gold Book offers a distinctive approach to infrastructure procurement by combining design, construction and long-term operation into a single contract framework. While the model promises better alignment between construction quality and operational performance, its limited market adoption raises questions about whether employers are willing to pay for extended risk transfer and whether contractors can confidently price obligations extending 20 years or more. This analysis examines why the Gold Book