The Procurement Act 2023 and the supporting Procurement Regulations 2024 come into force on 24 February 2025. The Act, along with the Procurement Regulations 2024 and the National Procurement Policy Statement provide a new regime for awarding public contracts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland ending the obligation for the UK to comply with EU Procurement Directives. The Scottish Government has opted not to join the rest of the UK having transposed EU Directives into their own statute book. However, the Act does apply to contracting authorities in Scotland which are either cross-border bodies or exercise wholly reserved functions.
The reforms 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. The Act also embeds transparency throughout the commercial lifecycle.
The Procurement Regulations 2024 is secondary legislation which applies a broad range of powers within the Procurement Act 2023 providing additional details concerning various aspects of the new procurement regime.
The National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS) is a statement published by the Government to communicate to contracting authorities policy objectives relating to public procurement. Contracting authorities must have regard to such a statement when they are carrying out a procurement. This guidance provides some explanation about the duty. The current NPPS has been withdrawn and is currently being redrafted. To read more about the NPPS please click here.
The Procurement Act will govern new procurements started after 24th February 2025. Procurement commencing prior to the Act coming into force will continue to be governed by the current regime meaning that two regimes will run parallel for some time.
To view the Procurement Act 2023 please click here.
To view the Procurement Regulations 2024 please click here.