EU Public Procurement Legislation Creates Multi-billion Pound Bill for Taxpayer

New research by Vote Leave shows that:

• EU public procurement law imposes extremely onerous requirements on public authorities, which can apply regardless of the value of a contract and/or whether any tenderers are from outside the UK. The Government pledged to change this, but EU procurement law remains unaffected by the renegotiation.

• EU public procurement law imposes an annual cost of at least £1.69 billion to the taxpayer. This is five times what is spent on the NHS Cancer Drugs Fund, 34 times what is spent on the Government’s dedicated Pothole Action Fund, or enough to pay for 273,000 basic state pensions.

• Between 2010 and 2014, EU public procurement legislation imposed costs of at least £8.4 billion in real terms on the taxpayer. This is three times what will be spent on flood defences in England between 2015 and 2021, six times the cost of the new Queensferry Crossing in Scotland, or enough to build 25 new hospitals.

• Delays to projects caused by EU public procurement law amounted to 5,422 years in 2014 alone. Procurement legislation delayed the award of contracts between 2010 and 2014 by 27,912 years.

Commenting, Michael Gove MP said:

‘If we Vote Leave we can scrap the EU’s foolish rules on how Whitehall runs procurement processes which add billions to the cost of Government every year. I’ve experienced firsthand in the Department for Education how these rules add significant operational costs and generate expensive delays to construction projects. Across Whitehall, there are billions to save after we Vote Leave.’

Commenting, Vote Leave Chief Executive Matthew Elliott, said:

‘The EU already costs us a fortune thanks to our £350 million a week contribution to the EU budget, but the hidden costs of membership are compounding the bill to British taxpayers. Pernicious interference from Brussels not only stifles business, it makes government more bureaucratic and less responsive. The PM’s closest adviser has said EU membership makes Britain ungovernable while sixty per cent of our laws now come from Brussels. The only way to take back control is to Vote Leave on 23 June.’