Transforming Public Procurement - December 2024 update

Procurement Act 2023 - Secondary legislation and go-live

On Monday 9 December, the Procurement Act 2023 (Consequential and Other Amendments) Regulations 2025 were laid in Parliament. These regulations primarily make technical amendments to references to the existing procurement regulations in other legislation and are the last that are needed to enable go-live in February 2025. You can view the regulations here.

Minister Georgia Gould, Parliamentary Secretary at the Cabinet Office, also answered questions on procurement last week during Cabinet Office Orals, confirming the go-live date for the new regime in the House of Commons. You can read the debate here.

New guidance and templates documents published

To support stakeholders in their preparation for the Act, the Cabinet Office are publishing a suite of guidance documents and templates that address all aspects of the new regime, providing technical guidance, and help with interpretation and understanding.

The latest documents are:

• Covered Procurement Objectives, which can be found in the Plan section of our official PA2023 guidance pages
• Competitive Flexible Procedure Guidance and Templates, which are available for contracting authorities to download from the Procurement Pathway tool.

The Cabinet Office are almost at the end of their planned releases of information, there are only a few more documents to come ahead of go-live;

• Procurement Specific Questionnaire template (due December)
• Two more pieces of Procurement Act guidance on Electronic Invoicing and the Payment; Payments Compliance Notice (due January)
• A further piece of supplementary guidance - National Security Unit for Procurement (due January).

National Procurement Policy Statement

The Cabinet Office would like to thank all stakeholders who completed their online survey to inform the development of the new National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS). They received over 430 responses and also hosted a series of roundtable discussions, listening to the views and suggestions of stakeholders across a range of sectors representing both buyers and suppliers. Once finalised, they aim to publish the new NPPS in early February.

Webinars for suppliers and other external organisations

Save the dates: Thursday, 24 January (10.30-11.30) and Friday, 25 January 2025 (11.00-12.00).

To support readiness for the new regime for suppliers and other external organisations, the Cabinet Office are running two webinars in January. These sessions will focus primarily on what the key changes are, how the central digital platform will work (featuring a live demonstration of the new platform), and will be an opportunity to ask questions on preparations for go-live. The Cabinet Office will record the sessions and make a recording available via their webpages on GOV.UK for those unable to attend.

A separate edition of this update will be issued shortly with full details of how to book on to these sessions. To make it easy for suppliers to find this information, the Cabinet Office have created a dedicated supplier information page on GOV.UK. They will continue to add information as they get closer to go-live so please do bookmark and check back for further updates.

Communities of Practice (CoP) update

The formal follow-up to the e-Learning and Deep Dives, these monthly meet-ups focus on 2-3 key topics each session, offering a collaborative environment for continuous learning. This community of 7,000 procurement professionals offers practical sessions to embed the knowledge gained from the L&D sessions. The CoP portal, hosted on the Government Commercial College (GCC), enables participants to register for events, access programme/implementation resources and engage in community discussion forums. The next meet-ups are scheduled for 15 and 16 January, with sessions on the Procurement Specific Questionnaire and on 21 and 22 January, there will be sessions on the competitive flexible procedure.

You can book your place on these via the CoP page on the Government Commercial College.

Central Digital Platform update

The Cabinet Office have now been running the Private Beta testing on the enhanced Find a Tender service for over 6 weeks. They are grateful to the numerous commercial and systems colleagues from contracting authorities and suppliers who have taken part so far. They originally aimed to have 300 users on the Beta. They are currently at 288 - so are on track to hit our target. Should any suppliers wish to take part in the Beta, please contact tppdigital@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

The feedback so far has been positive - with everything working as expected.  As you might expect, they are always looking to make the service better and since starting the Private Beta, they have already:

• Introduced International Identifiers.
• Integrated with the Charity Commission API.
• Revised the Public Procurement Organisation Number (PPON) to make it more user-friendly.
• Improved login / logout functionality.
• Simplified user journeys.

The Cabinet Office have also received feedback on where user experience can be improved even further, which they are now assessing for any enhancements to be made for go-live.

To continue to ensure a smooth transition on 24 February, the Cabinet Office are extending Private Beta for an additional month to 15 January 2025. This will maximise the time available to Beta participants and eSenders to test system integrations and further familiarise themselves with how the service works.