On April 23, 2024, the UK government announced a 6-month notice period for the "planned go-live date" of the 2023 Procurement Act, set for October 28th, 2024. This extensive legislation, spanning over 138 pages, aims to revolutionise the UK’s £300b annual procurement industry by enhancing efficiency, transparency, and flexibility.
As we speak, government procurement teams are intensively training to adapt to the new regulations effective this October. Faced with the dual challenge of mastering new procedures while managing their ongoing responsibilities, these teams are in a critical phase of preparation.
In this blog, we introduce industry expert Martin Medforth to help highlight the top two focus areas for buyers’ ahead of October, providing insights on how you can alleviate their burdens and establish yourself as a forward-thinking partner ahead of the new era.
Th Act introduces greater flexibility into the UK's procurement processes, aimed at overcoming the limitations of current rigid procedures.Under the new regulations, buyers will have the flexibility to create 'competitive flexible procedures' for procurement, allowing them to tailor bidding requirements to the specific needs of each contract.
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These new competitive flexible contracts empower buyers to streamline bidding requirements and avoid unnecessary complexity, with SMEs especially standing to benefit.
While the new Competitive Flexible procedure allows for new innovation in the contracting process, the first contracts issued under the Act might look familiar to contracts currently seen in the procurement system.
This opens a unique opportunity for suppliers to engage with strategic decision makers, initiating intelligent conversations about their plans for implementing new procedures.
Since flexible procedures will vary with each buyer, suppliers should proactively collaborate with your strategic customers to shape these processes. By doing so, you can position yourselves as early leaders, equipped with the expertise to successfully navigate bids when the Act goes into effect.
“A lot of authorities are looking at a unified approach, that is developing their own version of flexible procedures so suppliers know where they stand across all contracts in the authority.”
Speaking to buyers within their networks, our experts have revealed that buyers are currently most concerned about the additional compliance requirements associated with the new procurement process.
Buyers are not only training to up-skill their own knowledge but also ensuring that all relevant parties, including legal teams, contract managers and suppliers, understand the new compliance requirements associated with the Act.
Under PCR 2015, there are limited expectations placed on suppliers during the bidding and contract management process. However, the new Act introduces new compliance considerations for suppliers, including contract management, key performance indicators, and termination processes, which will begin with the kick off the new Procurement Act.
Martin recommends that suppliers should proactively identify the KPIs they want to be judged under the new supplier reporting requirements, and bring these suggestions to strategic clients.
By initiating discussions on these criteria with your buyers, suppliers can shape the conversation and influence arrangements to better suit your strengths. This approach can help position your company as an informed, strategic partner, ready for the changes the new regulations bring.
“Under the old regulations, only the buyer had to comply. The suppliers performance didn't matter. Now, we have a whole raft of supplier lifecycle considerations, around contract management, KPIs and terminations.”
To succeed in the new era of procurement, suppliers need a clear line of sight on relevant opportunities to align with buyer’s strategic priorities. To understand the full impact of the Procurement Act on the way you identify and sell to public sector buyers, download our full white paper using the link below.
