
The clock is ticking to prepare for the new era of procurement that will be here soon.
Here is a quick summary of six essential things you need to know about the upcoming changes to public procurement.
- Go live date
The changes within the Procurement Act 2023 come into effect from 24 February 2025. This is a recently announced change, having originally been set to go live in late October 2024, to allow time for a new National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS) to be produced. More details on the reason behind the delay are explained in our recent write up here.
- Notices
There will be a noticeable shift meaning that notices are required throughout the full procurement and contract lifecycle, instead of just the procurement process.
This starts as early as the new mandatory pipeline notice, which sets out information about a contracting authorities public procurement pipeline where the anticipated spend is over £100m within a defined reporting period.
Contracting authorities will need to invest time into their procurement resources or engage with organisations like Pagabo to manage and deliver their frameworks, but increased administrative burden may be offset by the simpler system aiming to reduce duplication.
The new notices will drive transparency, increase supplier inclusion and enable greater scrutiny of procurement decisions and contract performance.
- Procedures
Processes under the current regime will be streamlined down from seven to two competitive procedures – open and the new competitive flexible procedure – aiming to create maximum flexibility for procurement solutions and reduce barriers to entry.
Contracting authorities are encouraged to utilise preliminary market engagement to determine the most appropriate route to market and ensure their internal policies and procedures align with the new mechanisms.
Suppliers should allocate the appropriate resource and time to review published opportunities and raise clarifications with the contracting authorities if documents contain ambiguities.
- Exclusion and debarment
Discretionary and mandatory exclusion grounds will remain very similar, targeting non-compliance and poor performance, but the scope widens under the new act. The new act drives greater transparency with plans to launch a debarment register, and a new mandatory notice detailing any unsatisfactory performance or contract breaches.
There is some nervousness around this, but there are several robust steps that will be completed prior to a supplier being placed on the debarment register.
Suppliers are encouraged to review their supply chains to ensure no organisation poses unacceptable risk. Policies and procedures should also be subject to a levelling up exercise to ensure the correct governance is in place.
- Performance
New requirements are in place for procurement performance. This includes issuing at least three mandated performance measures prior to entering into contracts with an estimate value above £5m, publishing payment compliance information, and social value tender commitments which will form a contractual commitment and KPI.
There will be increasing analysis of the entire procurement lifecycle and suppliers will be assessed on whether things are performing as intended within bids.
Greater access to information may increase scrutiny and the volume of challenges, potentially increasing opportunity or damaging chances depending on what performance data shows.
- Challenges
Provisions remain broadly the same, but there are some changes to the challenge process, including the standstill period being changed to eight working days.
Contracting authorities must now provide all bidding organisations that have been assessed with feedback in the new assessment summary format which drives transparency and will aid industry betterment by enabling suppliers to improve bids.
These are just some of the changes to be aware of ahead of February, but there are various free government resources available online to help those involved in public procurement to prepare for a successful future.
Procurement Act 2023: Fact Sheet
Transforming Public Procurement Knowledge Drops
Procurement Act 2023 Phrasebook
Discover our frameworks