Happy Procurement Act 2023 Go Live Day!
Procurement Act 2023 in force from today
It's been a long road to get here from December 2020 when the Green Paper on transforming public procurement was first published. But, at long last, the Procurement Act 2023 comes into force today.
Note that a small number of provisions, relating to new Notices in the contract management phase, are subject to delayed implementation and are not yet in force. We don’t yet have a timeline for these, but they're expected to go live later this year. We discuss this in more detail in our 5 in 25 webinar on implementation.
The Act regulates all new procurements which are advertised from today onwards (and the contracts awarded under them). However, don’t throw out your old copy of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 just yet as these will be relevant for some time to come.
The old rules will continue to apply to all public contracts whose procurement started before today (and this will include contract changes even if the change is made after today). The old rules will also apply to call-offs from framework agreements which were already in existence before today (even if the call-off is being made after today).
The expanded Find a Tender Service went live today, and we wait to see whether authorities are queuing up to start new procurements under the Act. However, given that no less than 318 Contract Notices were published from Friday to Sunday, it looks like many public bodies were eager to make sure their procurements remained regulated by the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.
More Guidance Published!
The Government continues to publish guidance on the operation of the Act. Today on go live day we have had first sight of:
- Detailed guidance on the role and operation of the Procurement Review Unit and the Debarment List (currently, this list is empty of course!)
- Further guidance on the process for excluding suppliers who the authority has determined (following a three-step assessment) to pose a threat to national security and outlining the role of the new National Security Unit for Procurement (NSUP) which sits within Cabinet Office.
Here to help you!
Once you're underway with your first Procurement Act 2023 procurement, do explore our portal which has been updated for the new Act and includes some helpful new tools and information, including our:
- our Notices Generator – allows you to input the contract type, value and award process and it tells you which notices you need to publish for your procurement;
- our Procurement Act 2024 Standstill Calculator – calculates the appropriate standstill period under the Act;
- our Notices Infographic – a helpful flowchart (produced in partnership with Tussell) to guide you through the notice publication process;
- our series of 5 in 25 webinars on the Act - you can find recordings of all our webinars plus a list of the Q&A raised at each. If you’d like to be invited to our future webinars (the next one is on 22nd May 2025) then you can register your interest here.
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