Very little has changed   in practical terms, however, there are some things that you should be aware of for procurement exercises launched after the end of the  transition period. From 11p.m. on 31 December 2020:

 1) The title of the ESPD (Scotland)  has changed  to SPD (Scotland). 

2) The exclusion criterion concerning fraud relating to European Communities’ funds is no longer  a valid ground for excluding bidders. This criterion must not be used in any procurement exercises that launched after the end of the transition period.

This exclusion criterion has been removed from the SPD (Scotland) templates available in the Procurement Journey and PCS-Tender.

3) There have been other minor changes made to reflect the fact the UK has left the EU, including updates to the wording of standard SPD questions containing references to EU ‘Member States’, as detailed below. This does not fundamentally change the meaning of the questions. 

Question 2A16

Previous ESPD wording

Will the economic operator be able to provide a certificate with regard to the payment of social security contributions and taxes or provide information enabling the public body or contracting entity to obtaining it directly by accessing a national database in any Member State that is available free of charge?

Current SPD wording

Will the economic operator be able to provide a certificate with regard to the payment of social security contributions and taxes or provide information enabling the public body or contracting entity to obtaining it directly by accessing a national database that is available free of charge?

Question 3B.1

Previous ESPD wording

Has the bidder met all its obligations relating to the payment of taxes or social security contributions, both in the UK, and in the country in which it is registered, if that is not the UK?

If not, please indicate:

Country or Member State concerned

Current SPD wording

Has the bidder met all its obligations relating to the payment of taxes or social security contributions, both in the UK, and in the country in which it is registered, if that is not the UK?

If not, please indicate:

Country concerned

Question 4A1

Previous ESPD wording

1) The bidder is enrolled in the relevant professional or trade registers kept in the Member State of its establishment  (as described in Schedule 5 of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015):

Current SPD wording

1) The bidder is enrolled in the relevant professional or trade registers kept in its country of establishment:

Concluding statement

Previous ESPD wording

The undersigned formally declare to be able, upon request and without delay, to provide the certificates and other forms of documentary evidence referred to, except where the contracting authority or contracting entity has the possibility of obtaining the supporting documentation concerned directly by accessing a national database in any Member State that is available free of charge.

Current SPD wording

The undersigned formally declare to be able, upon request and without delay, to provide the certificates and other forms of documentary evidence referred to, except where the contracting authority or contracting entity has the possibility of obtaining the supporting documentation concerned directly by accessing a national database that is available free of charge.

If your framework or DPS was launched before the end of the transition period you should continue to use the ESPD request you created for that procurement exercise, even if that means issuing the ESPD request after the end of the transition period.   The original ESPD request will still be attached to your original notice so there will be no need to create another request.

For all procurement exercises launched after the end of the transition period,  you should create a request from the SPD (Scotland) template(s). 

Public Contract Scotland (PCS):  The exclusion criterion relating to fraud (Q3A3)  has beeb removed from the SPD module within PCS. I

PCS- Tender (PCS-T):  The exclusion criterion relating to fraud has been removed from the SPD (Scotland) template available in PCS-Tender.

Procurement Journey (Microsoft Word document):  The Procurement Journey  contains:

1.  ESPD (Scotland).  This should be used for procurement exercises that were  launched prior to 31 December 2020 and for any subsequent call-offs from a framework agreement or dynamic purchasing system created before this date.

2.  SPD (Scotland).  This should be utilised for all procurement exercises launched after 31 December 2020 and for any subsequent call-offs from a framework agreement or dynamic purchasing system created after this date.

Yes, it is still considered best practice to use the SPD for lower value procurement exercises that are advertised on PCS.

Further information can be found in SPPN 11/20 

Yes, but only slightly.

The exclusion criterion concerning fraud, relating to European Communities’ funds will no longer be a valid ground for excluding bidders.

This criterion must not be used in any procurement exercises launched after the end of the transition period.

This exclusion criterion has  been removed from the SPD (Scotland) template available in the Procurement Journey and PCS-Tender.

It must not be used to evaluate any SPD responses for procurement exercises launched after the end of the transition period.

You can still access E-Certis to check equivalency for EU member states' certificates.

However information on UK certificates will no longer feature for new procurements.