Following Brexit, the Government intended to overhaul our public procurement rules. They saw a reform of the UK’s EU law-based procurement rules as an opportunity to better tailor the procurement framework to the country’s needs.
The Government first laid out their reform proposals in a green paper in December 2020. A public consultation on these proposals ran until March 2021 and in December of that year the Government published its response to the consultation. A Procurement Bill was announced in the Queen’s speech in May 2022 and entered the House of Commons on 14 December 2022.
The main outcomes from the proposed Procurement Bill are that there will be just two categories of competitive procedures (as opposed to the current five): Open Procedure and Competitive Flexible Procedure. This will give contracting authorities greater scope to shape the process to best meet their needs but the less prescriptive approach will make it necessary for authorities to still abide by principles of transparency and fairness.
There is also a proposed shift in the way tenders should be assessed and awarded. The Bill requires tenders are awarded to the ‘most advantageous tender’ and contracting authorities can take a view on what best value means to them such as environmental, social value or qualitative.
Furthermore, contracts valued over £5million must be formally performance assessed every 12 months through at least three KPIs.
These are by no means the only changes; as you can imagine, the introduction of a new Bill brings new ways of working, complications and it’s critical public sector organisations ensure they meet the new standards and rules when they come into play.
Earlier this month, we hosted a training session which all our Consultants attended, together with our legal partners, to ensure we are ready to help public sector bodies navigate the revised rules.
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The Litmus Team