PPNs, Payment Compliance, Procurement Policy Statement, and implementation – don’t panic …

MEAT - meet your maker

Relative advantages - time for the final score

Reg 72 - we will miss you for a change

No more will we be restricted

There'll be less DPS

But don't stick a PIN in it

Because our last dialogue has closed

And so, PCR - RIP

You will be remembered forever - in our final Reg 84 report

© 2025 Kevin Calder

Here in the M&R procurement team, we have been reminiscing fondly about our 10-year relationship with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 – especially since there are now only 7 days to go until it is finally time to say goodbye (for new procurements started on or after 24 February at least!)

This moment has been five years in the making - since the Green Paper was first introduced in December 2020 - and we have turned to poems, songs and even eulogies to mark the transition – who said procurement lawyers were not creative?

Of course, there has been such a flurry of activity from the Cabinet Office this week in relation to the Procurement Act 2023 that you might not have had a spare moment to reflect on the passing of the PCRs. 

National Procurement Policy Statement

The new National Procurement Policy Statement – long awaited and the stated cause of the need to delay the October 2024 implementation date  - was published last week, meaning authorities now have a clearer sense of what it is that they will need to “have regard to” when running a procurement.

Procurement Act 2023 PPNs

We also had first sight of some new “Procurement Act 2023 PPNs” - PPN 001 on setting targets for SME and VCSE spend for central government authorities, and PPN 002 providing an update to the Social Value Model.

Under PPN 01, from 1 April 2025 central government authorities need to set a three-year target for SME spend, and from 1 April 2026 a two-year target for VCSE spend.

Under PPN 02, the Social Value Model has been updated to align with the National Procurement Policy Statement – presumably making the adoption of the Model a good route for an authority – including non-central government if desired - to demonstrate the required “having regard to”.  The new Social Value Model is mandatory from October 2025 but can be applied sooner.

Payments Compliance Guidance

The final pieces of official government guidance have been published, including on Payments Compliance Notices (together with confirmation that the requirement at section 69 of the Act to publish the Payments Compliance Notice is not coming into force just yet but will follow later this year). 

It is worth noting, though, that section 68 is coming into force next week – so it will be an implied term of all contracts under the Act that the authority must pay within 30 days of a valid and undisputed invoice. This obligation is then passed down the subcontracting chain thanks to section 73.

The Procurement Act 2023 (Consequential and Other Amendments) Regulations 2025

If you were feeling pleased that you had begun to get to grips with the Act and the Procurement Regulations 2024, you may need to pause, because also last week, a further piece of secondary legislation was finalised – the Procurement Act 2023 (Consequential and Other Amendments) Regulations 2025.

These 2025 Regulations make further clarifying amendments to various pieces of legislation – particularly the Procurement Regulations 2024 around which KPIs need to be published and reported on. The amendments are helpfully summarised in the explanatory memorandum; you will want to make sure that you are always looking at the updated version of each piece of legislation under the Act.

Don’t Panic!

There are only 7 days to go until implementation of the Act but if you are feeling underprepared, don’t panic!

Take a look at our 5 in 25 webinar on implementation for our summary of how the land lies at implementation.

Don’t try to access the new Central Digital Platform (FTS) over the weekend, as it will be unavailable from 1730 on 21 February to 2359 on 23 February to allow the updates to the new platform to be made.

Once you are underway with your first Procurement Act 2023 procurement, do explore our Procurement Portal which has been updated for the new Act and includes some helpful new tools and information:

• 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 22^nd May 2025) then you can register your interest here.

Good luck everyone!

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