“Laws will simplify procurement in the public sector.”
The purpose of the Bill is to:
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● Reform the UK’s public procurement regime, making it
quicker, simpler and better able to meet the country’s needs
while remaining compliant with our international obligations.
This will replace the current regime which was largely
transposed from EU procurement directives.
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● Make public procurement more accessible for new entrants
such as small businesses and voluntary, charitable and social
enterprises to compete for and win public contracts.
The main benefits of the Bill would be:
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● Harnessing the billions that the Government spends every
year on public procurement to support Government priorities
to level up and spread opportunity across the country.
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● Embedding transparency throughout the commercial lifecycle
from planning to procurement, contract award, and performance
evaluation. Procurement data will be published in a standard,
open format, so that it is more accessible to anyone.
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● Making UK procurement rules more modern, flexible,
innovative and diverse, by allowing the Government to
consider wider social value when picking suppliers so that
taxpayers’ money goes further and has more of a wider benefit
for society including the creation of new jobs and skills to
drive economic growth.
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● Consolidating the 350+ regulations governing public
procurement and creating a single, uniform framework,
including for defence procurement, to allow more freedom for
the public and private sectors to innovate and work in
partnership in public service delivery.
The main elements of the Bill are:
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● Enshrining in law the principles of public procurement such
as: value for money, public benefit, transparency, integrity,
fair treatment of suppliers and non- discrimination.
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● Overhauling the complex and inflexible procurement
procedures and replacing them with three simple, modern
procedures. This will allow the public sector more scope to
negotiate with potential suppliers to deliver innovative new
solutions.
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● Requiring buyers to have regard to the Government’s
strategic priorities for public procurement as set out in a
new National Procurement Policy Statement.
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● Introducing procurement processes that allow contracting
authorities to buy at pace, for serious situations that are
declared a crisis, with strengthened safeguards for
transparency.
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● Establishing a single data platform for supplier
registration that ensures suppliers only have to submit their
data once to qualify for any public sector procurement.
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● Tackling unacceptable behaviour such as supplier fraud
through new exclusion rules and giving buyers the tools to
properly take account of a bidder’s past performance.
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● Reforming the process for challenging procurement decisions
to speed up the review system and make it more accessible and
capping the level of damages available to bidders in order to
reduce the attractiveness of speculative claims.
Territorial extent and application
● The provisions in the Bill will extend to the whole of the UK.
The provisions will apply to all contracting authorities in
England and to contracting authorities carrying out reserved
functions in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The UK
Government is in discussion with the devolved Welsh and Scottish
Governments and Northern Ireland Executive about the application
of some provisions.
Key facts
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● The UK’s exit from the EU presents an opportunity to shape
the UK’s future landscape for public procurement. Independent
of the EU’s complex system of procurement laws, the UK is
free to modernise and develop its own scheme, in line with
our international commitments under free trade agreements on
public procurement.
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● In December 2020 the Government confirmed that
below-threshold contracts can be reserved for UK suppliers
and/or small suppliers. This applies to supplies and services
contracts valued below £122,976 and works contracts below
£4,733,252.
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● There are currently over 350 different procurement
regulations spread over a number of different regimes for
different types of procurement including defence and
security. This Bill will consolidate these into a single
uniform regime.
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● At the end of the transition period, the UK acceded to the
World Trade Organization’s Government Procurement Agreement
in its own right, guaranteeing access for UK firms to a
global public procurement market worth £1.3 trillion.
● The Government will also soon publish the first National
Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS). The NPPS will set out
strategic national priorities for public procurement and help
ensure that the power of public procurement is leveraged to
support these priorities.
