Guidance

The Procurement Act 2023: A short guide for suppliers (HTML)

Updated 29 October 2024

Making it easier to bid and work in partnership with the public sector

Public Procurement is changing next year.

On 24 February 2025, the rules that shape how public bodies buy goods and services will change. The Procurement Act 2023 will improve and streamline the way procurement is done and benefit prospective suppliers of all sizes, particularly small businesses, start-ups and social enterprises.

If your business supplies goods, works or services to organisations in the public or utility sectors – or hopes to do so in the future – you need to know about the changes. This includes supplying to government departments, the NHS, local authorities, universities, schools, social housing organisations, police and fire brigades and utility companies.

Key benefits for suppliers include more standardisation and streamlining of procurement processes - but there are also additional benefits in the Act such as requiring better oversight of procurement decisions and strengthening payment terms.

More flexibility

The new Act will:

• Simplify the bidding processes to make it easier to bid, negotiate and work in partnership with the public sector - including a new ‘competitive flexible’ procedure.
• Make commercial frameworks more open, so prospective suppliers are not shut out for long periods of time.
• Remove bureaucratic barriers for smaller businesses and VCSEs so they can compete for more contracts - with strengthened provisions for prompt payment throughout the supply chain, enabling you to benefit from 30 day payment terms on a broader range of public sector contracts.
• Require public bodies to provide consistent feedback for suppliers: a requirement on public bodies to provide bid assessments for final tenders

Greater transparency - a central digital platform

• We will also make it easier to find and bid for contracts with a central digital platform which will be an enhancement to the existing Find a Tender service, it will;
  • Feature a  simple registration approach
  • Store your core business details that you can use for multiple bids.
  • Enable you to manage and update your core information quickly, and share easily with contracting authorities.
• Public procurement opportunities will be visible making it easier to search at no cost for and set up alerts for tenders of interest to you

Greater oversight

• A new Procurement Review Unit (PRU) established to enhance public sector procurement practice by ensuring adherence to the Procurement Act and safeguarding public procurement from suppliers deemed to pose risk. The PRU will maintain and build upon the existing Public Procurement Review Service (PPRS) where you can address concerns regarding  public procurement practices relating to a specific procurement procedure and late payment matters.
• The PRU will ‘go-live’ when the new procurement regime goes live in February 2025, comprised of three services:
  • the existing Public Procurement Review Service (PPRS)
  • a new Procurement Compliance Service (PCS)
  • a new Debarment Review Service (DRS)
• More details on these services, and how they will work, will be provided when the new regime goes live.

What you need to do to get ready

• Familiarise yourself and your colleagues with the Act - check out all the summary documents and videos on the Transforming Public Procurement landing page which provides further information about the new regime and the learning and development, guidance and support that Cabinet Office is providing.
• If you haven’t already Sign up for regular updates here - we will use this to keep you up to date on the Get Ready for go-live webinars and the ‘How to’ videos.
• We have also developed a series of supplier Knowledge Drop videos to give you a broad understanding of the Procurement Act and the key changes. There are also dedicated SME and VCSE videos as part of the series. You can view all Knowledge Drop videos here
• If you want to dive in deeper, you can also access many of the training materials we are providing to public sector buyers. This includes our suite of guidance documents exploring the different elements of the Act. These can be found here.
• Discuss the changes with your regular customers and clients - who will now be thinking about their forward pipelines and which procurements might be undertaken using the new approaches.
• And, as we get closer to go-live next year, we will be publishing more information and guidance so you can get ready for the changes. This will cover information on the transitional arrangements and ‘Get Ready’ guides and videos.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will the central digital platform be a brand new portal?

No, we will be building these new features and functionality into the existing Find a Tender service (https://www.gov.uk/find-tender) that many suppliers and contracting authorities are already using. The new functionality will automatically come on-stream on 24 February 2025.

Will I need to bookmark a new website?

The new service will be on the same URL (https://www.gov.uk/find-tender) on GOV.UK; so you don’t need to update any bookmarks or links you have saved, or that are in your organisation’s procedure documents.

If I am already registered on Find a Tender, will I need to re-register?

Yes, you will need to re-register and enter your organisation information. We will provide comprehensive guidance to help you do this closer to 24 February 2025.

Will the central digital platform still be free to use?

Yes. There will continue to be no cost to search for contract opportunities or to register on the new service.

When can I register?

There is no hurry. You only need to register for the new service after the law comes into force and at the point that you want to bid for a contract. Early in 2025, we will update suppliers when the new service is ready for registration and entering your information. And, there will be a help desk available to support you, if you need any additional help.

What sort of information will I need to have to hand?

We will provide a simple checklist and guide of what is required by the Procurement Act and how to enter it all into the Find a Tender service. It will include: your organisation’s Companies House number (if you have one), postal address, website, email, the last two years of accounts (if you have them), details of any people or businesses connected to your business, or with significant control over it (if there are any), the most recent two years of accounts and details of any convictions held or offences committed by the organisation or any people connected to the business.