Overview of the Act
- The purpose of the Procurement Act 2023 is to reform the United Kingdom’s public procurement regime following its exit from the European Union (EU), creating a simpler and more transparent system not based on transposed EU Directives.
- The reforms were announced in the Queen's Speech in May 2022. The legislation gives effect to the policies that were set out in the Government’s Green Paper ‘Transforming Public Procurement’ 1published in December 2020, and the Government’s response to the consultation published in December 2021.2
- The reforms are guided by the following "principles of public procurement" set out in the Green Paper: value for money, public good, transparency, integrity, equal treatment and non-discrimination.
- Streamlined new procedures are intended to save time for public bodies and suppliers and mean better commercial outcomes that deliver more value for money for taxpayers.
- The new regime provides a number of sector-specific features, including tailored rules for defence and security procurement.
- The legislation also amends Part 2 of the Defence Reform Act 2014 which regulates single source contracts (contracts for goods, works or services for defence purposes awarded other than through competition) to ensure that the Government continues to pay fair prices on single source defence contracts while providing value for money.
- The legislation contains 13 parts with 11 Schedules addressing a range of issues relating to public procurement. The legislation replaces a number of existing statutory instruments, most notably the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, Utilities Contracts Regulations 2016, Concession Contracts Regulations 2016 and the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011, which are largely drawn from EU Directives.
