Following our recent post on the Procurement Bill, the Cabinet Office has confirmed that the Report Stage and Third Reading stages for the Procurement Bill have now been set for Tuesday 13 June.
Although the Procurement Bill is still subject to parliamentary ‘ping pong’ between the House of Lords and Commons, the Cabinet Office are planning for the new regime to commence in October 2024, following a 6-month preparation period.
Bird & Bird’s UK Procurement Team has been providing workshops for clients on the new regime. We encourage all stakeholders to start to prepare for the impending changes and we would be happy to assist in this preparation.
Secondary Legislation Consultation
The Cabinet Office has announced that it will shortly be launching a public consultation on the secondary legislation that will support the new regime. This is a significant stage as it will ‘bring to life’ many of the provisions contained within the Procurement Bill and will provide us the detail to understand how the new regime will work in practice. The consultation process is an important opportunity for businesses and stakeholders to inform that development.
The consultation will comprise of two distinct phases:
- The first phase, which the Cabinet Office intends to launch this month, will refer predominately to lists, calculations or further definitions to be used in practice.
- The second phase, which the Cabinet Office intends to launch in July 2023, will focus on the transparency provisions, notices, transitional arrangements for procurements already underway, and required consequential amendments to other legislation.
The consultation will be accessible online and further details on how to access and contribute to the consultation will be shared by the Cabinet Office this month.
Bird & Bird’s UK Procurement Team will be keeping a close eye on the proposed secondary legislation and have experience of responding to consultations as well as supporting businesses responding to public consultations. We will keep you updated on the progress of the consultation and would be happy to assist in supporting a response.
Transparency Platform
The new single digital platform will be based on the existing Find a Tender service (FTS) and is intended to be operational for when the new regime goes ‘live’ in October 2024. In the coming weeks, Cabinet Office aims to share an overview of the draft mandatory fields for each of the procurement notices. The Cabinet Office has committed to providing a learning and development programme, including Knowledge Drops and written guidance specifically tailored for suppliers.
For further information, please contact:
Stuart Cairns, Partner, Bird & Bird
stuart.cairns@twobirds.com
