Update on the new Procurement Bill

The new Procurement Bill (Bill) introduced to reform the UK’s public procurement regime is in its final stages of its journey through Parliament.

We have a new anticipated “in force date” of October 2024, a little later than originally planned, but the Cabinet Office is staying true to its promise of a 6 month lead time from final approval to it being in force to allow us all time to prepare for the new regime.

What does this involve?

We do know that the main provisions of the Act won’t change much before it comes into force, though there are some tweaks around the edges still being made in Parliament.  

If you have read the Bill you will know that there is still meat to be put onto the bones of some of the provisions in the form of secondary legislation (Regulations) which will give us long awaited detail on things like the light touch regime, content of notices to be published etc.

These Regulations are well into the process of being drafted.  We can then expect a public consultation on their content. The Cabinet Office intends to launch phase one of this consultation in June 2023 and phase two in July 2023.

Phase one

In phase one, the consultation will deal primarily with areas of the Bill requiring lists, calculations, and further definitions. It will cover the following areas:

• Scope of Light Touch Regime Contracts and Reservable Light Touch Services;
• Exempt Contracts: Vertical and Horizontal Activities calculations;
• Exempt Contracts: Utilities Intra-group Turnover calculations;
• Utility Turnover and Supply Tests;
• Intra-UK Procurement;
• Definitions of ‘Central Government Authority’ and ‘Works’ for thresholds;
• Disapplication of section 17 of the Local Government Act 1988; and
• Disapplication in regard to NHS procurement.

Next steps

The second phase will focus on the use of transparency provisions and notices by contracting authorities.

It will also provide information on the proposed transitional arrangements for procurements already in progress at the time the new Act comes into force.

So we have over 12 months to prepare – what can we be doing now to get ready?

It’s not too soon for contacting authorities and bidding teams to become familiar with the structure and main provisions of the new Act.  

We are currently providing a series of training sessions to our clients on how the Act will work, what will change and how the new regime will be similar (or not) to the existing procedures.  

For more information, please contact Alison Walton at 0191 211 7850, or [email protected], or your usual Muckle contact.