Statutory Guidance

‘Procurement Rest’ is defined in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/102) as a period of at least 28 days during which a contracting authority must not award a contract to a supplier.

A ‘contracting authority’ is defined in the regulations as an ‘authority or body which has been designated by regulation 7(1)’. This includes central government departments, executive agencies, non-departmental public bodies and NHS bodies. The full list of bodies that are classed as contracting authorities can be found in Schedule 1 of the regulations.

The purpose of the procurement rest period is to give suppliers who have been unsuccessful in their bid for a contract time to consider whether they want to submit an appeal. Appeals must be submitted within 10 days of the decision being made public.

If an appeal is submitted, the contracting authority must not award the contract until the appeal has been decided.