Health service procurement (Provider Selection Regime Wales): eligibility for decision reviews

Requests to the Wales Procurement Review Unit must meet the following criteria to be eligible for review:

1. The relevant authority intends to make an award under:
   • Direct Award Process 1 (regulation 8)
   • Direct Award Process 2 (regulation 9)
   • The Most Suitable Provider Process (regulation 10)
   • The Competitive Process (regulation 11) (including the establishment of a framework agreement under the Competitive Process)
   • award of a contract under the Provider Selection Regime Wales based on a framework agreement with a competition (regulation 20)
   • award of a contract under the Provider Selection Regime Wales based on a framework agreement without a competition (regulation 21)
2. The unit will not accept representations in regard to relevant authority’s decisions under award of a contract based on a single-provider framework agreement (regulation 19), contract modifications (regulation 13) or the urgent award process (regulation 14).
3. The request comes from a provider that might otherwise have been a provider of the services to which the contract relates.
4. Following the provider’s representation the relevant authority has conducted a review of its original decision and has decided to award the contract or conclude the framework agreement as originally intended.
5. The request has been made in writing (which includes electronically) within 5 working days of the provider being notified of the decision by the relevant authority.
6. The provider has set out why it believes the relevant authority has failed to apply the regime correctly.
7. The provider has submitted all of the necessary supporting information for the unit to carry out its review as requested in the unit’s pro forma.
8. The representations are not considered by the unit to be trivial, vexatious, or an abuse of the units’s procedures.
9. The unit reserves the right to stop the consideration of a matter where legal proceedings are under way and the unit forms the view that its advice would no longer assist in helping to resolve the matters under consideration.

The Wales Procurement Review Unit may need to prioritise between cases in various situations as set out below:

• the potential for the advice to assist relevant authorities interpret and comply with the Provider Selection Regime Wales in the future
• the materiality of the relevant authority’s procurement process decision on the provider or the relevant authority
• the advice will deliver a benefit that is proportionate to the unit's use of resources in formulating its advice
• availability of unit's resources to review representations received under other procurement regimes (such as the Procurement Act 2023 and the Social Partnership and Public Procurement Act 2023)

If a request is not accepted for review, the unit will inform the provider and the relevant authority as soon as possible.