DCLG consults on updating best value guidance to cover procurement boycotts

The Department for Communities and Local Government is to consult on proposals to update the revised best value statutory guidance to cover procurement boycotts.

The DCLG said this would make it clear that authorities “should not implement or pursue boycotts other than where formal legal sanctions, embargoes and restrictions have been put in place by the Government”.

The deadline for submitting responses is 28 March 2017.

In February 2016 the Crown Commercial Service issued a procurement policy note, Ensuring compliance with wider international obligations when letting public contracts, with similar wording.

In June last year three councils – Swansea, Gwynedd and Leicester – successfully defended a High Court judicial review challenge brought by Jewish Human Rights Watch (JHRW) over motions passed in relation to the authorities' business dealings and Israeli settlements.

JHRW had argued that the motions passed at Swansea, Gwynedd and Leicester were discriminatory and in breach of the Equality Act 2010 and procurement laws.