The most significant change to the landscape of public sector procurement is a step closer. The procurement bill continues to make its way through parliament. It has now had its third reading in the commons (as of the 13th of June) and will progress to ‘consideration of amendments’ in the House of Lords. There may be some back and forth between the houses at this point. Yet the bill is closing in a conclusion to a degree that the Cabinet Office has outlined a commencement point of October 2024.
Before getting too excited, between now and October 2024 a lot can change. Not least the bill itself, which still has stages remaining in both houses. However, there is now a clearer target for commencement that procurement professionals can work towards.
The further consultation on the Statutory Instruments, that set-in place the regulations implementing the bill will be very interesting. The latter consultation relating to transparency is key. It is too easy to pivot from the standards of transparency we desire and expect; and implement in the regulations an overwhelming bureaucratic burden, particularly for smaller contracting authorities. Though the bill itself does seem to have stepped back from the requirements outlined in the original green paper from 2020.
Phil Williams, Director of Procurement for TPPL commented ‘As a national provider of frameworks and dynamic purchasing systems to the public sector the transitional arrangements for existing procurements are important to TPPL. It’s the finer details behind these arrangements, what they mean for our solutions, and therefore our members that is something we look forward to seeing more detail on.’
If you want to know more and see the current position of the bill then you can do so here: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3159. The Gov.uk website also holds a lot of useful information about the incoming changes here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/transforming-public-procurement
Alternatively, contact Phil Williams directly here
