Dear Mr Cooper

Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 - Provision Of Information

Ref No: 52861

Thank you for your request for information. I have dealt with this in accordance with the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

You asked three questions:

1. Was the contract to run the Edinburgh Grassmarkets put out to tender?

Yes. The tender process is described below.

The advert was published on the website www.Supply2.gov.uk on 14 October 2008 inviting expressions of interest from the open market. Eleven organisations expressed their interest in the project and Pre-Selection Questionnaires were issued on 7 November 2008 with a return date of 19 November 2008.

Eleven bids were received as follows:

Four organisations returned Pre-Selection Questionnaires and were short listed to proceed to the next stage.

The four organisations were:

Tender documents were issued on 5 December 2008 with a return date of 19 December 2008.

The Selection Panel considered the respective submissions when balancing the quality/price and selected the best overall value for money. The weightings given to the submissions in respect of quality and price were in the ratio of 70/30 (quality/price). Unique Events was identified as the “best value” bid as the company achieved the highest overall score and was subsequently accepted.

2 If yes, who were the other bidders apart from Unique Events? If no, why not?

As noted above, the other bidders were:

3 Please will you clarify the Council's tendering process for events such as the Grassmarkets?

All [Author ID1: at Mon Aug 31 17:47:00 2009 ]procurement activities[Author ID1: at Mon Aug 31 17:47:00 2009 ] undertaken by the Council comply with EC Directives, the [Author ID1: at Mon Aug 31 17:47:00 2009 ]statutory instrument Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2006, [Author ID1: at Mon Aug 31 17:47:00 2009 ]the Council's Standing Orders and best practice.[Author ID1: at Mon Aug 31 17:47:00 2009 ] The Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 is available to view or download from the following webpage: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/legislation/scotland/ssi2006/20060001.htm. The Council's Standing Orders document is available to view or download from the Council's website, at http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/internet/Council/Council_Business/CEC_procedures.

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Julie Kelly

Freedom of Information Officer

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