The UK’s new Procurement Act, which came into effect on 24 February 2025, brings significant changes aimed at increasing transparency, improving supplier performance and removing barriers for SMEs, here’s what you need to know:
1. More opportunities for SMEs to win contracts
One of the Act’s core aims is to level the playing field for small businesses. The government wants to increase SME participation in public procurement, meaning authorities are encouraged to consider how they engage smaller suppliers and minimise barriers to entry. Contracts may be broken into smaller lots to make them more accessible or financial requirements may not be as restrictive as they have been in the past, enabling SMEs to participate in the tendering process.
2. Simplified procurement procedures
The Act streamlines existing procurement processes into three key routes:
- Open procedure - a simple, competitive process open to all suppliers.
- Competitive flexible procedure - which gives buyers more freedom to design multi-stage processes, negotiations, and tailored supplier assessments.
- Direct award - allowing contracts to be awarded without competition in certain circumstances.
These more flexible procedures should reduce administrative burdens, making competing and engaging earlier in the process easier.
3. Greater transparency in bidding and contracting
The new Act introduces a Central Digital Platform on Find a Tender where all notices (including contract opportunities, market engagement, and performance data) will be published. This will give you better access to upcoming contracts and performance data, helping you prepare stronger bids and track your competitors.
This platform provides a broader set of search criteria enabling you to be very specific in your search and the increase in the types of notices aims to give greater transparency of the stages within the process. You are also able to search specific procurement models including Framework Agreements, Open Framework Agreements and Dynamic Markets, which replace Dynamic Purchasing Systems (DPS)
In addition, more information is provided upfront including the percentage weighting between price and value, and clear deadlines for market engagement.
4. Faster payments for suppliers and subcontractors
The Act strengthens the 30-day payment rules for all public sector contracts, which even if not explicitly stated, is implied by law. This will help you with a more reliable and predictable cash flow which will give you greater financial security.
5. Stricter exclusion rules and the debarment list
A new Debarment List will flag suppliers who fail to meet standards due to poor performance, fraud or legal breaches. If you deliver high-quality, reliable services, this could work in your favour, removing unreliable competitors and making public sector contracts more accessible for businesses that meet the right standards.
6. Performance monitoring and KPIs
For contracts worth over £5m, buyers must now set Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and publish performance results annually. In doing this, businesses are held to account, ensuring credible businesses win contracts moving forward.
7. A stronger focus on public value
While cost is still important, authorities must consider broader public benefits such as social impact, sustainability and innovation. If you can utilise your local knowledge and demonstrate value beyond price, such as strong ethical policies, green credentials or community benefits, you’ll have a competitive edge.
Do I have to do anything different as a supplier due to these changes?
Tenders will still be run through the various portals used by the different buyers and you will search in the same way (with a few extra criteria), but the idea is that this Central Digital Platform (Find a Tender) will also act as a central registry of bidders, where you will complete your basic information, and upload documents (like accounts). Loading this here once should mean you won’t need to do this in the individual buyer portals each time you bid.
You will need to ensure you register on the Central Digital Platform, once registered you will receive a ‘share code’. Then, when you bid, instead of having to complete your basic company information each time, you will give permission for the buyer to access your information via this share code.
Things to look out for:
- When searching for tender opportunities you might need to be more selective on the filters that you use. There are 14 new types of tender notice that procurement officers are also getting used to e.g. Concession notice, Design Contest notice, and Subcontract notice.
- You may need to spend more time rather than less at the outset. The registration processes and Central Digital Platform will take some time to bed in and properly integrate with all the different procurement portals. So, you might still need to register and provide your details more than once for now.
- Be aware that the new system is just starting and there may be some teething problems. Websites can break or have downtime in their early stages, so to avoid FOMO (Fear of Missing Opportunity) make sure you give yourself enough time to come back and conduct your searches, and have a plan B with an alternative search site like our own Open Tenders Directory.
- Sign up to attend pre-engagement exercises - these will be more common with government commitments for more supplier engagement. They are a vital opportunity to find out about an upcoming opportunity and be part of the discussion and development of the contract requirements.
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Existing tender submissions, i.e. those in progress over the 24th February 2025 – anything started pre-24th February will use the older regulations, however, make sure you still register on the CDP to stay ahead if your procurement exercise is cancelled and re-issued.
If you are looking to submit a tender and need help completing your submission get in touch.
