If a Social Firm tendered for a contract to deliver a product or service, is it legal for it to do that and subcontract part of
The main point to make is that this depends on the process the contracting authority has followed, in particular:
- whether it has reserved the contract under Regulation 7 - in which case a Social Firm would only be able to subcontract to another "supported business";
- what provision the contracting authority has made in its tender process for subcontracting, in particular if, under Regulation 45, the contracting authority has required tenderers to indicate in their tenders any part of the contract they intend to subcontract, and to whom. If the contracting authority has required this information, it may well not be possible for the Social Firm to subcontract later on if it had not envisaged doing so in its tender.
This is of course assuming that the EU procurement rules apply! If the contract is below threshold or for Part B services, then the restrictions are less rigid - it would probably still be wise, though, to have a solicitor or equivalent look at the particular tendering process to see what the contracting authority's requirements are.