(1) The Minister for the Cabinet Office or the Secretary of State may by regulations impose on a contracting authority duties in respect of the exercise of its functions relating to procurement.

(2) For the purposes of this section "the exercise of functions relating to procurement" includes the exercise of functions in preparation for entering into contracts and in the management of contracts.

(3) Subject to subsection (4), "contracting authority" has the same meaning as in regulation 2 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (S.I. 2015/102), or any regulation replacing that regulation, as from time to time amended.

(4) But such an authority is not a contracting authority for the purposes of this section if it is a devolved Welsh authority (within the meaning given by section 157A of the Government of Wales Act 2006) or if its functions are wholly or mainly devolved functions, namely -

(a) Scottish devolved functions, that is to say functions the exercise of which would be within devolved competence (within the meaning of section 54 of the Scotland Act 1998);

(b) Northern Ireland devolved functions, that is to say functions which could be conferred by provision included in an Act of the Northern Ireland Assembly made without the consent of the Secretary of State (see sections 6 to 8 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998).

(c) [deleted]

(5) Regulations under this section may, in particular, impose -