With the Procurement Act 2023 coming into force on 24 February 2025, many suppliers may be wondering how the changes to the procurement regime will affect the way they tender for public sector and utilities contracts. In this article, we’ve put together a list of seven key takeaways for suppliers on the new regime.
The Procurement Act 2023 sets out procurement objectives which contracting authorities must have regard to when carrying out a procurement, which are:
There will be a duty to treat suppliers the same, equal treatment by another name, and a new duty to have regard to the fact that SMEs may face particular barriers to participation and to consider whether those barriers can be removed. Contracting authorities must also have regard to the National Procurement Policy Statement when designing and implementing their procurement processes.
The government is introducing a new online system where procurement notices, contract information and supplier details will be published and stored. It will be an enhanced version of the current Find a Tender Service. In order to participate in a procurement process, suppliers must register on the central digital platform and submit core supplier information. The intention is to reduce the administrative burden on suppliers by providing a 'tell us once' approach and it also means that contracting authorities do not have to request the core supplier information for each procurement.
Transparency is the golden thread throughout the legislation and contracting authorities will be required to publish and disclose a raft of new notices and information throughout the lifecycle of a public contract, including information in respect of:
The information disclosed should assist suppliers in identifying and assessing contract opportunities, and provide suppliers with the ability to better scrutinise and challenge contracting authorities’ decisions.
There are only very limited reasons why information will be exempt from publication, including for national security reasons, and where the information is commercially sensitive and it's in the public interest not for it to be disclosed. With a lot more information being made available in the public domain, suppliers are advised to consider, when submitting their tenders, which information they consider is genuinely commercially sensitive, label it as such and provide a clear justification for non-disclosure.
Visit our Interactive Procurement Notices Tool which gives details on all the notices and information which needs to be published: Lifecycle of Procurement 2024
There will be only two procurement procedures under the new Procurement Act 2023:
The procurement procedure must be proportionate having regard to the nature, complexity and cost of the contract. Direct award will continue to be possible in specific circumstances.
There will be a centralised debarment list of excluded or excludable suppliers maintained by central government. An 'excluded supplier' is one to which a mandatory exclusion applies (Schedule 6 of the Procurement Act 2023), and an 'excludable supplier' is one to which a discretionary exclusion applies (Schedule 7 of the Procurement Act 2023). Entry onto the debarment list will mean that a supplier must not/may not be permitted to participate in a procurement which falls within the scope of the Procurement Act 2023 until it has been removed from the list.
On conclusion of a procurement process, each bidder will receive an assessment summary, detailing its scores and the contracting authority’s reasons for awarding those scores. Where a bidder is unsuccessful, the scores, and reasons for those scores, of the most advantageous tender will also be provided.
A contract award notice must be published prior to entry into the contract. Publication of the contract award notice marks the commencement of an eight working day standstill period during which a contracting authority must not enter into the contract. A claim must be brought within that time frame in order to automatically suspend the contract award. Where a contract is for more than £5 million, as well as setting out the winning supplier’s details, the contract award notice needs to set out details of the unsuccessful suppliers.
There is a much greater emphasis on performance management under the new Procurement Act 2023, with new requirements on contracting authorities to:
For further information or advice, please contact our construction and infrastructure or energy and resource management teams.
