UK Procurement Act Goes Live – Now What?

Please join the Oxford POGO Club’s session next Tuesday, 25 February, 4 – 5 pm (UK) to discuss the newly live Procurement Act 2023, Procurement Regulations 2024, and National Procurement Policy Statement — just one day after the Act and its trappings go into effect.

Sign up here. The session is online. There is no fee. All are welcome. Please forward to colleagues.

Chaired by Professor Anne Davies, this session of the Oxford POGO Club will explore what the new legislation and associated (very) new policies mean in practice. We will address our regular themes of procurement professionalisation and capacity, accountability, transparency, data, social value, and social outcomes. One issue is the use of procurement lever for the government’s ‘missions’ as posited by the new National Procurement Policy Statement. Our excellent panellists are:

The Procurement Act 2023 and associated Procurement Regulations 2024 go live on Monday and will be the law of the land in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland but not Scotland for devolved matters. The Act introduces various reforms including new public notices earlier and later in the procurement cycle, an expanded central digital platform for notices and supplier registration, and increased procedural flexibility. The Cabinet Office has issued new Procurement Policy Notes (PPNs) and produced a detailed set of guidance documents.

Just published on 13 February, a new Public Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS) linked to the Act describes procurement as a ‘key lever in achieving the Government’s missions.’  The government’s missions are described here. Under the Act, UK central government and English contracting authorities must ‘have regard to the national procurement policy statement.’ (Procurement Act 2013, s13 (9).) The Act also makes provision for Wales to have a Wales procurement policy statement. The first Procurement Policy Note (PPN 001) under the Act focuses on spend targets with Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) and Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprises (VCSEs).

You can rewatch a previous Oxford POGO Club session on the Act here. Recall that various Oxford POGO Club participants previously submitted this letter to the Parliamentary Secretary at the Cabinet Office, this response to the green paper, and this response on the draft regulations.

This online session is co-hosted by the University of Oxford’s Faculty of Law and the Government Outcomes Lab (GO Lab) in the Blavatnik School of Government.