The final countdown: National Procurement Policy Statement and new guidance

With just a week to go before the Procurement Act 2023 (Act) goes live, the National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS) has been published, marking the final piece to complete the package of legislation and guidance on the Act.

From 24 February 2025, all contracting authorities must have regard to it when making procurement decisions (except for procuring authorities in Wales who have their own Wales procurement policy statement). We have picked out some key points to note.

The NPPS outlines four key priorities, including:

• Delivering value for money
• Driving economic growth
• Securing social and economic value
• Ensuring commercial capability and standards to procure and manage contracts.

While these priorities are hardly surprising, underpinning them are eight principles to achieve these priorities. Particular attention is given to maximising procurement spend with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and voluntary, community and social enterprises (VCSEs).  

A new element of the NPPS, as compared with previous versions, is the focus on ensuring suppliers uphold the highest standards of integrity, ethical conduct and environmental sustainability in business. This aligns with the stronger sanctions in the Act relating to performance, exclusions, and debarment. As a result, contracting authorities must actively assess whether suppliers are responsible employers and have appropriate policies and procedures in place regarding bribery and corruption, modern slavery, compliance with tax, employment and environmental law and other legal obligations, and are taking steps to tackle late payment in their supply chains.

In the accompanying official written statement on the NPPS, local governments will be pleased to note the long promised measures allowing them to reserve competitions for low value contracts for local small businesses and social enterprises.

For more detailed information, you can refer to the NPPS here and the official written statement here.

Finally, the publication of two new guidance notes on the Act completes the set:

• Guidance: Payments Compliance Notices
• Guidance: Electronic Invoicing and Payment

The guidance notes can be found here.

For further assistance please contact Stephanie Rickard in our Public Sector team at 07384 251 896.

Our full range of Procurement Act services can be found here.

A full list of our procurement blogs, including checklists for contracting authorities and suppliers to make sure you are ready for the Act, can be found here Procurement Law Articles & Blogs.