With just one month left until the Procurement Act 2023 officially takes effect, the clock is ticking for organisations to ensure they’re fully prepared.
Have you:
- Reviewed your existing policies and procedures?
- Updated your procurement documents to comply with the Act’s requirements?
- Engaged your stakeholders to help them understand the implications of the new regulations?
It’s not too late to get everything in place! To help you get ready, we’ve put together a handy checklist and outlined some key dates you’ll need to keep in mind.
Your procurement readiness checklist:
- Update your procurement strategy and contract procedural rules.
- Review and update your procurement documents to reflect the new terminology, processes and procurement specific questionnaire.
- Ensure you know what notices need to be published on Find a Tender and when.
- Engage with internal stakeholders regarding the increased transparency requirements, e.g. regular reporting of payments on time, and for contracts over £5 million, agreeing and monitoring of at least 3 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and publication of a copy of the contract (redacted if necessary).
- Update your internal training materials, including training for evaluators on evaluation and giving feedback.
- Communicate with suppliers so that they understand the changes and how to engage with your organisation.
- Review and update your internal audit documents to reflect the new requirements e.g. monitoring conflict of interest, undertaking preliminary market engagement, considering exclusions and debarment together with the decisions you make.
Key dates to watch out for:
- Late January 2025: Familiarise yourself with the new look Find a Tender services and the Central Digital Platform. On-boarding and registration commences for contracting authorities.
- 24 February 2025: The Act goes live.
- 30 April 2025: First deadline to publish a Payment Compliance Notice (s69 PA)
- 26 May 2025: Deadline to publish a Pipeline Notice (where contracting authority spend is estimated to exceed £100m in the next financial year). (s93 PA)
Please feel free to get in touch if you would like support and assistance on how to get ready for the Procurement Act. Contact Stephanie Rickard in our Public Sector team at 07384 251 896.
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