Procurement Act 2023 – Coming into force on 24 February 2025

After a four-month delay from its original commencement date of 28 October 2024, the new Procurement Act 2023 is now due to come into force later this month on 24 February 2025.

The Act brings a number of key changes including:

• Bringing all the procurement rules under a single umbrella
• Introducing a new single competitive tendering procedure, with more flexibility for contracting authorities to design their own procedures which are tailored to meet their needs
• Introducing a new set of core procurement objectives
• Overhauling the notices which will need to be published at each stage of the procurement cycle
• Setting up a new Central Digital Platform for authorities and suppliers to use

The Act also introduces some changes to the process for challenging the outcome of a tender – see our Need to Know Guide on Procurement Challenges under the Procurement Act 2023 for more detail.

In announcing the delay in the coming into force of the Act last year, the government relied upon the need to produce a new National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS), arguing that the one published by the former Conservative government in May 2024 was not fit for purpose. The NPPS sets out the government’s strategic priorities for procurement, and under the Act authorities must have regard to it and how they can further its objectives when designing and running their procurements. However, despite carrying out a one-month consultation in October 2024, the new NPPS is yet to be published, with just days to go until the commencement of the Act. We will publish a further update on this in due course.

Authorities and suppliers can contact our procurement team for advice if they have any queries about the impact of the upcoming changes.