06 Aug 2024
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2 min read

Public procurement law is changing – what is the Procurement Act 2023?

Shaking hands or signing a financial agreement or contract, symbolizing a successful partnership or funding arrangement

What’s happening?

If you are an in-house lawyer working for a private sector supplier supplying, or bidding to supply, goods or services to the public or utilities sector in England, Wales or Northern Ireland you will need to ensure that you and your organisation are prepared for the Procurement Act 2023 which has a target go live date of 28 October 2024. That said, the good news is that the new rules are not retrospective so any procurement already in progress when the new rules come into effect will continue under the old rules set out in the Public Contracts Regulations (PCR) 2015.

Why is this important?

To continue to bid for public or utilities sector contracts from the Acts go live date organisations must comply with the new rules.

The government has produced a short guide for suppliers which is a helpful starting point for understanding the changes the Act will introduce and links to more detailed information.

In this guide the government say the new Act “will create a central digital platform for suppliers to register and store their details so that they can be used for multiple bids, and see all opportunities in one place. Simplified bidding processes will make it easier to bid, negotiate and work in partnership with the public sector”. This sounds like good news, including for lawyers having to deal with the contract process.

The Cabinet Office is leading a readiness programme to prepare organisations for the rules changing called Transforming Public Procurement (TPP), through which guidance and support will be provided to organisations in relation to the upcoming rule changes. The TPP webpage explains:

“The Transforming Public Procurement programme aims to improve the way public procurement is regulated in order to:

create a simpler and more flexible, commercial system that better meets our country’s needs while remaining compliant with our international obligations
open up public procurement to new entrants such as small businesses and social enterprises so that they can compete for and win more public contracts
embed transparency throughout the commercial lifecycle so that the spending of taxpayers’ money can be properly scrutinised”.

What should you do?

The first step will be for in-house lawyers and their organisations to understand what public procurement activities they are involved with and how the rule changes will affect them.

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