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Current regulations mean that the award of a contract without any advertising or competition may be challenged by aggrieved suppliers in the Sheriff Court or Court of Session, even where the contract is itself exempt from the detailed advertising and procedural requirements in the Scottish Regulations and or EU UK Directives.
Guidance from the Scottish Government states that it is for individual contracting bodies to decide whether advertising is required (and in what form) and to defend their decisions as necessary. Decisions which are documented and based on legitimate business needs and objective criteria are likely to be defensible.
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