Procurement Act 2023: Go-live date delayed by 4 months

The Cabinet Office announced yesterday (12 September 2024) that the Procurement Act 2023 (the PA23) will now go live on 24 February 2025 – four months later than the previously scheduled date of 28 October 2024. This is to allow time for a new National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS) to be finalised and published.

The NPPS is a statutory statement whereby the Government sets out the wider policy objectives to which it expects public authorities to have regard. In their statement, the Cabinet Office highlights that the NPPS published under the previous Government, “does not meet the challenge of applying the full potential of public procurement to deliver value for money, economic growth, and social value.” Under the new administration, a new NPPS will be produced, which “clearly sets out this Government’s priorities for public procurement” in line with its missions. Consequently, the NPPS laid in Parliament in May 2024 will be withdrawn, and the Government intends to make regulations to set a new go-live date for the Procurement Act 2023 of 24 February 2025.

What does this mean in practice?

There will be a series of implications for authorities and bidders alike. First, it seems there will be a new NPPS to get to grips with in due course, setting out the new Government's policy objectives.

There will also be implications for those procurement procedures that would have gone live after 28 October but before 24 February 2025. 

• Authorities who had planned to launch a procurement prior to the previous go-live date in October such that the existing set of Regulations would apply may be pleased to hear that they now have more time to spend on planning and finalising the process. In such cases, public authorities should use the additional time wisely to engage with suppliers. This pre-market engagement should better enable public authorities to discover solutions which meet the defined need, potentially leading to an adjustment in the procurement requirements and contract terms to reach an overall better result.
• Then there are those authorities that had planned to start a procurement after the previous go-live date in October (so that it aligned with the PA23) will now need to consider whether to proceed with the planned timetable, or whether to wait until the PA23 commences in February 2025. If the former, it is likely that adjustments will need to be made to the procurement procedure and/or contract model such that it is compliant with the existing Regulations. This may create a difficult decision for public authorities which wished to make use of new flexibilities offered by the PA23, for example under the Competitive Flexible Procedure. Consideration should also be given to the legal risks around extending existing contracts with the incumbent supplier and how such risks can be mitigated.

For further information and guidance on how we might be able to assist, contact Patrick Parkin ([email protected]), Laura Wisdom ([email protected]) or your usual Burges Salmon Procurement team contact.

Article written by Scarlett Sullivan, Solicitor.