Whether the decision to tender the contracts for the management and maintenance of the trunk road network was required by either European o…

Answered Asked by Murray Tosh Con Lodged 23 Jan 2001

The question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the decision to tender the contracts for the management and maintenance of the trunk road network was required by either European or British law; whether it is legally necessary to award the contracts as tendered or whether it is possible to review and re-tender them, and whether it would be legally competent to continue with the existing contracts or to replace them with a temporary negotiated arrangement with the existing providers, to allow for any new contracts to be subject to parliamentary scrutiny.

The answer

Answered by Sarah Boyack on 4 Apr 2001 · 71 days after it was lodged, 57 days after it was due

The tendering of the contracts was required by the relevant EC Directive implemented in domestic law by the 1991 Regulations. Failure to award the contracts as tendered could expose the Scottish Executive to damages claims. Only the 5 existing Managing Agent contracts under which two private sector and three local authority consortia provide management services for the rural networks outwith the central belt, can clearly be extended. Such an extension would not deliver maintenance services of itself.

In the Official Report

No contribution in the Official Report cites S1W-12739 by reference.