pEPR - Statutory Appointment of a PRO - Legal Advice

To appoint an industry led PRO which will be delegated relevant functions by PackUK to support with ongoing delivery of the pEPR scheme. Legal support is required to assist with the appointment process of a PRO. There are four main phases to the work:

• Prepare the proposed conditions of appointment
• Prepare the appointment process
• Run the appointment process and select the candidate PROs
• Confirm conditions of appointment and appoint the PRO

As PackUK and the 4 nations agree which functions are to be delegated to the PRO and in which years, these will in turn need to be set out in conditions of appointment. The greater the responsibilities delegated to the PRO, the more robust the appointment process will need to be, so legal support will be used to assist with the design, drafting of application documentation, and the subsequent assessment of applications.

Given the possibility of multiple applications, Defra is working on the basis that a clear, transparent and rigorous assessment process is necessary for this work, and legal support will be utilised in the application assessments and finalising conditions of appointment.

This contract will run for eight (8) months from August 2025 to March 2026.