Update to trade and professional bodies issued 28 November 2024

Procurement Act 2023 - Communications Update

I’m writing to share our latest Transforming Public Procurement communications materials to support supplier readiness for commencement of the Procurement Act 2023, which we invite you to share with your members. With just under three months until go-live, we will be sharing further materials and updates as they become available, including in due course specific ‘how-to’ videos and step-by-step guides for suppliers on registering and using the central digital platform.

Commencement date

As you may be aware, Ministers recently announced to Parliament that the Procurement Act 2023 will now commence on 24 February 2025 - a delay of four months from the original go-live date of 28 October 2024. This is to allow time for a New National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS) to be produced, the work for which is now well underway.

Supplier information leaflet and Knowledge Drops

We have also updated our information leaflet for suppliers, which includes a dedicated FAQ. This leaflet, together with our series of ‘Knowledge Drop’ videos, give suppliers a broad understanding of the Procurement Act and the key changes that will come into effect in February 2025. There are also dedicated SME and VCSE videos as part of the series. You can view all Knowledge Drop videos here

We have also shared many of the training materials we are providing to public sector buyers. This includes our suite of guidance documents exploring the different elements of the Act which can be found here and the entire contents of our e-learning modules which can be found here.

Central Digital Platform

We have also published a handy factsheet, which covers key FAQs about the platform for both suppliers and buyers.

Supplier information page

To make it easy for suppliers to find this information, we have created a dedicated supplier information page on gov.uk. We will continue to add information as we get closer to go-live so please do encourage your members to bookmark and check back for further updates.

CCS pipeline update

Following the change in go-live date, CCS has also provided a commercial pipeline update, outlining which agreements have been transitioned to PCR 2015 and which have been extended.

What suppliers can do now

In the meantime, there are actions suppliers can take to get ready:

• Sign up for regular updates here.
• Familiarise themselves with the Act with our supplier ‘Knowledge Drop’ videos, which gives a broad understanding of the Procurement Act and the key changes that will come into effect in February 2024. There are also dedicated SME and VCSE videos as part of the series. You can view all Knowledge Drop videos here
• Discuss the changes with their regular customers and clients - who will now be thinking about their forward pipelines and which procurements might be undertaken using the new approaches.

As we get closer to go-live next year, we will be publishing more information and guidance so suppliers can get ready for the changes. If you have any questions or would like to discuss TPP communications in greater detail, please do contact me.