Procurement Templates

OJEU Standstill Period

The OJEU standstill period is really important because a simple admin error could invalidate your whole tender on the basis of a claim of ineffectiveness. The standstill period is 10 days but you need to remember a few things!

  1. The letter should be sent via email or other electronic means such as a procurement portal
  2. The clock starts ticking the day after the letter is issued
  3. The standstill period ends midnight on the 10th day
  4. This means you can enter the contract on the 12th day – for example you issue the letter on 22 November, the clock starts ticking on 23rd November for 10 days. The last day of your OJEU standstill period is 2 December and you can enter the contract on 3 December. Therefore from beginning to end you have allowed 12 days.
  5. The standstill period is for 10 calendar days but can’t end on the weekend or bank holiday

My preference is to issue the standstill letter in accordance with the regulations but where time is permitting and the contract is not urgent, exchange contract signatories a couple of days after or even weeks after the standstill period has ended.

You can use the time to write up your evaluation report, review the agenda for the project kick-off meeting or prepare the communications to plan to inform users about the impending changes.

Use a calculator for the 10 day standstill if you are in doubt

A letter template for successful award

Rejection letter

Even though the UK is no longer in the European Union, the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (and the Public Contracts Regulations 2006 which they replaced), still applies, therefore a mandatory period between the notification of the intended award of a contract subject to those regulations and the actual award of that contract. The standstill period ends at midnight at the end of the tenth day after sending the notice if the authority sends the notice by electronic means or by fax, or the 15th day after the notice is sent by other means, or the tenth day after the date on which the last supplier receives it, whichever occurs first. (Regulation 87, PCR 2015.)