Update on Timing for Public Procurement Reforms
The Cabinet Office has recently revised timescales for the public procurement reforms and postponed introducing the draft Procurement Bill into Parliament.
What's Changing?
The Green Paper on Transforming Public Procurement represents a radical change to the UK procurement laws which promises consolidation of the current public procurement framework, greater flexibility in the procurement process and award criteria and increased transparency.
When Will This Come Into Effect?
The draft Procurement Bill was originally anticipated to be introduced into Parliament this Autumn. This has now been delayed. According to the update, the Procurement Bill will be introduced "when Parliamentary time allows", with the new procurement legislation unlikely to come into force until 2023 at the earliest.
What Next?
Feedback on the Green Paper consultation exercise is expected shortly – with Cabinet Office saying that several areas of their thinking have moved on as a result of feedback received. We will be interested to see how the proposals have developed. We will be looking in particular at feedback around proposals for a single public procurement central platform which we know has been an area of concern for clients and industry groups.
Following this recent update by Cabinet Office on the revised timescales for the public procurement reforms, we have decided to postpone our Procurement Update webinar scheduled for 2 November.
Join Our (Free) Webinar
The webinar has been re-scheduled to 26 April 2022 when we hope to provide you with further information about the Procurement Bill, the process for implementation and how you can get ready for the changes.
To register your interest for this webinar, please contact our Events team.