Today is the original "go-live" day for the Procurement Act 2023. The new law has been delayed until 24 February 2025, ostensibly due to the Labour Government's desire to introduce a new National Procurement Policy Statement, perhaps to the relief of procurement professionals everywhere (and those working on the central digital platform).
Delays in a procurement programme are never desirable. Nevertheless, the ensuing pause provides a good opportunity for buyers and bidders to review their "to do" lists ahead of the new February 2025 go-live date.
For buyers – have you:
- Mapped out your procurement pipeline: either to publish it via the new pipeline notice and/or simply to understand all current and planned commercial opportunities to enable strategic or collaborative approaches to the relevant market?
- Updated your procurement strategy, procedures and policies? These documents should show everyone in your organisation what "procurement done well" looks like. They need to be robust and future-proofed for the new legal regime and should not be ignored.
- Updated documents and considered templates? We are working with numerous clients keen to update their "most used" documents to ensure they are compliant with the new regime. Look at the CCS templates (some are out now, some are due) and adopt/adapt as necessary to suit your organisation and procurement approach.
- Primed your portal? Are your procurement portal and other systems ready? Do they reflect your new way of working and (most importantly) do they make your life easier?
- Read the Procurement Act and Regulations, Guidance and Learning Manual? Also look out for the new National Procurement Policy Statement.
- Undertaken training? The Cabinet Office's e-learning sessions are now transcribed as the Transforming Public Procurement Learning Manual and their deep dives are still available. We are also training clients in reform issues as well as business-as-usual procurement practices, focusing on evaluation, avoiding conflicts of interest, procurement fraud etc.
For bidders – have you:
- Engaged with your public sector clients? Do you understand what the Procurement Act reforms mean to each of your key clients? How are they planning for it and how will they be engaging with you in the future?
- Audited the frameworks and dynamic purchasing systems you are on? Frameworks let under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 will continue in accordance with their terms, but all dynamic purchasing systems will need to end, at the latest, on 23 February 2029. Consider the new commercial tools under the Procurement Act: they represent very different routes to market and how you engage with the opportunities will change.
- Undertaken training? Even though you can't access the Cabinet Office's e-learning sessions, you can read the Learning Manual and access third-party training to address your specific interests in procurement reform. Hot topics include the new competitive flexible procedure, the KPI reporting regime and confidentiality/publication requirements.
- Read everything that the buyers are reading (see above for the long list!)?
- Considered your pre-market engagement strategy? The Procurement Act is keen for buyers to engage with the market at the earliest possible stage in a procurement life-cycle. How will you constructively participate in such engagement whilst protecting your IP and commercial position?
- Understood the impact of the Procurement Act on your business protection strategy? What feedback are you entitled to? What time-limits will you need to adhere to in order to protect your position in the event your tender is not successful?
Keep going!
In short, we cannot waste the opportunity of a few extra months to get to grips with the new regime. There remain a lot of unanswered questions, but does it matter? The initial transitional period was to allow buyers and bidders to immerse themselves in the detail of the regime, have time to embed the new flexibilities in their procurement procedures, and develop their knowledge and appreciation of the power of procurement. Now that this period has been extended, it's a great opportunity to get up to speed, so we can absorb additional information quickly and to greater effect.
Recognise the benefits of the reform agenda
The Cabinet Office recognised what we all know to be true in practice: that the culture and capacity of the procurement sector in the UK needs to improve and embrace more commercial skills and capabilities in order to unleash the benefits that good procurement can produce. We have all experienced the frustration of the "computer says no" mentality that can mark out a number of procurement experiences, and that approach gives colleagues the excuse to paint procurement as a "barrier" to good outcomes, value, safety and even common sense. The Procurement Act, with its emphasis on achieving good outcomes and its "can do" attitude to procurement and process should be embraced and celebrated.
Don't forget the day job!
This extended transitional period allows us to reflect on successes and required improvements and gives us licence to implement them across our organisations. Nevertheless, we do need to keep an eye on non-reform issues. How are we dealing with Artificial Intelligence in our tender procedures? Could we be doing more to address the climate change challenge in our organisations? What social value are we delivering through procurement and how does that fit with our wider organisational goals? Are we managing contracts effectively and viewing the supply-chain as an asset to work with collaboratively?
Investing time and energy into implementing the procurement reform agenda will not be wasted. If we get up to speed now, we can look forward to February 2025 with renewed energy!
