Procurement Bill - Your Guide

The Cabinet Office has announced that the Procurement Act 2024 will now come into effect on 24^th February 2025, a delay of four months from the initially planned date of October 28^th 2024. This postponement allows for the development of a new National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS), which will outline the Government’s strategic priorities for public procurement.

The NPPS is essential for ensuring that the new procurement regime aligns with current government missions, focusing on value for money, economic growth and social value.

With this delay, the NPPS laid by the previous administration will be withdrawn, and a new one will be drafted, taking into account the new government’s objectives. While this may impact some scheduled procurements, the extra time will also facilitate a smoother digital transition and implementation process for contracting authorities and suppliers.

The official learning and development materials will remain accessible, ensuring that stakeholders can continue preparing for the upcoming changes. Authorities planning procurements between October 2024 and February 2025 will need to decide whether to proceed under existing regulations or adjust their timelines to align with the new Act.

For more detailed guidance and to address specific queries, stakeholders are encouraged to reach out to the Cabinet Office.

The procurement bill is a proposal to improve the current procurement processes in the public sector.

Currently £300 billion is spent every year on the public procurement of goods, works, and services. In 2022/2023 alone £28.4 billion was spent on procuring adult social care services.

The aim of the procurement bill therefore is to change the 4 sets of regulations used currently into one single regulation framework so we can:

• Create a simpler and more flexible commercial system that best meets our country’s needs.
• Remain compliant with international obligations.
• Create more opportunities for small businesses and social enterprises to compete for contracts.
• Embed transparency throughout the commercial lifecycle to scrutinise taxpayers’ money more thoroughly.

The procurement bill is important because it offers both a simpler and more flexible approach to procuring goods, works, and services.

This has helped communities recover from COVID-19 and will help support local authorities' transition to net zero carbon emissions smoothly with limited disruption.

Not only will local authorities be able to save money through new procurement legislation, their productivity will be boosted which will empower communities to continue to improve their public services to get the best outcomes.

The new procurement bill offers procurement professionals the flexibility to use their commercial skills to overcome previous frustrations during the procurement process, so they can then negotiate with bidders the way they want to, and design processes that best suit their local area. This additional freedom will allow local authorities to be able to talk to suppliers a lot earlier in the process as well as throughout the process to help deliver the best outcomes possible.

In procuring adult social care this helps local authorities to use a population health management approach to procure services that matter to their community to ensure the delivery of person-centred care.

For the new procurement bill to be law it must go through both houses of parliament.

The Procurement Act 2023 was made law on 27th October 2023 containing some of the biggest changes to UK public procurement since 2015. Following the completion of secondary legislation regulations and a 6 month notice period the new Procurement Act will now go live on 24^th February 2025.

This procurement bill timeline has had three main stages:

1. House of Lords - 1st Reading, 2nd Reading, Committee Stage, Report Stage, 3rd Reading 
2. House of Commons - 1st Reading, 2nd Reading, Committee Stage, Report Stage, 3rd Reading 
3. Final Stages - Consideration of amendments, Royal Assent 

On 26th October it was granted Royal Assent and became known as the Procurement Act 2023. The Procurement Regulations were then announced in Parliament on 25th March 2024 as a form of secondary legislation.

Currently being managed by The Cabinet Office, the new regulations will be taken into effect on 24^th February 2025. At The Access Group, we have been working alongside the Cabinet Office to explain how these new changes should be shaped so local authorities can remain compliant without any disruption.

Whilst the procurement bill has been under review from the House of Lords and the House of Commons the procurement bill has undergone multiple changes. By the end of 2022 and the first stage of legislation, there had been 38 hours of debate. Some of the most recent changes include:

1. The introduction of a new clause – ‘Covered Procurements.’ 
2. A specific duty on contracting authorities to have regard to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
3. Provisions to ensure that contracting authorities may NOT require:

Audited accounts to test the financial standing of bidders (Unless it is already required under the Companies Act 2008).

Insurance relating to the performance of the contract is to be in place before the award of the contract.

Contracting authorities must publish specific transparency data such as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) publication of contracts, and contract change notices.

An explicit duty on the Minister for the Cabinet Office to provide a central, freely accessible, digital platform.

Both the Welsh Government and Northern Ireland have agreed to join but there may be some differences. 

One of the biggest changes to be aware of and understand is the introduction of covered procurements. A covered procurement is the award entry into and management of a ‘public contract.’ These contracts have an estimated value greater than the relevant threshold.

The majority of the bill will apply to both procurement and covered procurement, but some of the bill’s most consequential provisions will only apply to covered procurements.

The procurement bill currently states that all ‘covered procurements’ and ‘regulated below threshold contracts’ contracting authorities will be required to have regard to the fact that small and medium-sized enterprises may face particular barriers to participation.

In reality, this means that there may be potential ground for judicial review if small or medium enterprise (SME) challenges whether a contracting authority has limited them in competing for relevant work. This can happen through contracting authorities and not taking into consideration the barriers or reducing the barriers SMEs could be dealing with.

What our work with The Cabinet Office has ensured is a smooth transition for when it goes live in October. By offering advice and expertise on how best to manage the transition it has been determined that:

• Current customers can procure services as they used to without disruption.
• New customers will have to take on the change.

These are important differences to note to help your local authority best prepare for the change. Equally, for The Access Group, through partnering with The Cabinet Office we fully understand all the legislation in the Act and are best prepared for the changes to ensure both the quality and the compliance of services in your local authority don’t decrease.

One of the ways the government is helping local authorities prepare is through its Learning and Development program. Here the aim is to support procurement, commercial, and commissioning professionals to develop the knowledge, skills, understanding, and confidence to operate effectively within the new procurement regime. The Learning and Development program will then allow flexibilities to be exploited appropriately to drive an increased value for money and social value for the taxpayer. 

To provide professionals with the knowledge required the government has announced they will offer a variety of resources within the Learning and Development program so all local authorities can be fully prepared. The package includes: 

• Knowledge Drops – a range of short presentations available on demand to provide overviews of the changes. These will be aimed at non-commercial leaders and others including suppliers.
• Self-guided e-learning – Aimed at commercial staff in Contracting Authorities. It is expected to involve 10 x 1-hour modules to inform users of each element of the new regime to then be awarded a Practitioner Certificate on the procurement changes.
• Deep dive webinars – A three-day intensive course for smaller groups who will have completed the e-learning modules. It will include interactive virtual webinars in small cohorts to allow learners to engage with the content. These webinars are designed to provide learners with a deeper level of understanding about procurement changes to build confidence and skills to act as ‘super-users’ within their organisations.

To help with preparations for the legislation changes in procurement it is also important that local authorities consider the procurement and contract management capability you have currently across your organisation. This will help to benchmark your relevant commercial and procurement operating standards against other comparable organisations. Through doing this you can also ensure all your current contract registers and details are up to date.

Once these things have been reviewed, checked, and confirmed, your local authority can look for ways all this information can be streamlined more efficiently, and find ways that contract opportunities can be open to a variety of bidders.

1.     Invest in Procurement and Commissioning software

One way this can be done efficiently with minimal disruption is through investing in digital technology. Our Access Adam Care Commissioning platform helps manage your workflow in a single platform to improve efficiency and your accuracy of provider placement.

Our Access Adam Procurement uses a cloud-based end-to-end solution to allow your teams to act quickly when locating trusted suppliers to ensure you secure high-quality contracts at reasonable prices.

One of our customers, Sutton Council for example found that through using our transport management system we help helped their provider base increase. They went from obtaining roughly 4.5 bids per route to 14.4 and the number of providers within their provider base went from 17 to 32.

This allowed Sutton Council to deliver their home-to-school transport to more children at a 10% lower cost and young people to reduce waiting lists and pressure building on them, as well as offer more opportunities to small businesses to bid for the contracts.

Wren Housing also found that through using our Housing management solution  more compliant providers could be onboarded quicker leaving council workers 100% confident that individuals were being placed in accommodation that was safe, secure, and met their individual needs.

We have currently checked over 17,500 safety certificates from 4200 different listings for Wren Housing to help place individuals in properties that best meet their needs.

2.     Understand the care market

Another way to prepare for the changes under the procurement bill is for local authorities to understand the care market and the resources they have around them.

Without this knowledge, the care needed in your community may be at risk of provider failure or might not reach the capacity it needs to.

As already discussed one of the things the Procurement Bill is concentrating on is local governments having more transparency and accountability for the decisions taken when commissioning any service. This is even more crucial within the care sector to ensure your local authorities collect the evidence needed to provide the quantity and quality of care and support in your area.

Through assessing the care market through using a Social Care Landscape tool your local authority can bring together all the information you need to know about population and demand, spending and activity, capacity and availability, as well as the current care quality being delivered and potential risks.

Here at The Access Group our PAMMS technology provides market insight reports that can identify trends that would have otherwise been missed to provide you with up-to-date business intelligence for all stakeholders to ensure that care services commissioned are at the best quality for the best value for money.

This market oversight can help your local authority have a better overview of your spending, activity, and care quality over time so you can understand your care responsibilities under the Care Act and the procurement bill to deliver better care outcomes. It also will allow better care monitoring and safeguarding to ensure the best continuity of care is delivered.

Our CM solution allows your local authority to gain further transparency across the market by obtaining fuller views of each case and gaining easy access to the information you need.

This article has reviewed what the procurement bill is and why it is important for local authorities. We have reviewed the stages that the bill has gone through to become law.

We have also acknowledged some of the main changes that have taken place since both the House of Lords and the House of Commons reviewed the procurement bill.

This article has highlighted how the introduction of covered procurements is one of the most impactful changes and how it is now being highlighted in the main objectives part of the bill. The article has also summarised what some of the best next steps are including reviewing the government’s learning and development program aimed to provide all local authorities, suppliers, and bidders the knowledge they need to know about the procurement changes, as well as highlighting the importance of digital technology and commissioning platforms.

By explaining our partnership with the Cabinet Office we have demonstrated our knowledge in understanding what the changes will mean for both current and new customers and how our knowledge has helped The Cabinet Office strategise the rollout of the Act effectively so local authorities can remain compliant. As a result, our knowledge has enabled our digital local government software to equally be prepared for the changes to make it easier to transition for your local government.

Through discussing the benefits of commissioning software and our Access PAMMS technology we summarised how we can help streamline your procurement processes whilst ensuring all parties involved are fully compliant and can deliver the needs required.

For more information on how digital technology can help your local authority prepare for the procurement changes, discover our local government software today.