This section uses the term direct award to denote not only contracts that are awarded without any public procurement procedure, but also those that are awarded pursuant to a negotiated procedure without the conduct of any competition. In the classic EU regime, such directly negotiated contracts are provided for under Article 32 of Directive 2014/24, which sets out the exceptional circumstances in which such a direct award can be made – for example, where competition is wholly absent for technical reasons.
In the UK, the Procurement Act 2023 provides for the making of a direct award in special cases (section 41), with Schedule 5 setting out specific justifications for the making of a direct award. Although the UK provisions are somewhat more detailed, they are quite similar to the provisions of Directive 2014/24, with all of the main grounds for direct awards maintained (technical reasons, for example). The general principles developed in the case law, which emphasise the exceptional nature of direct awards and the necessity for for such awards to be shown convincingly, will very likely continue to apply.