The Procurement Act 2023: what actually changed for suppliers

The Procurement Act 2023 went live in February 2025, replacing the EU-inherited regulations (PCR 2015) for new procurements in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Most commentary was written for procurement lawyers; here is what a small supplier actually needs to know. (Scotland kept its own regulations; procurements started before go-live also continue under the old rules, so you will see both regimes referenced for a while.)

One register, one identity

The Act put a central digital platform at the heart of the system: suppliers register once on the government's supplier information service, and buyers must draw those core details — identity, financials, exclusion grounds — instead of asking for them again on every bid. The old ritual of retyping your company number and insurance limits into every portal is being retired gradually, portal by portal. Notices themselves are consolidated on Find a Tender, which under the Act carries the whole lifecycle: pipeline notices, tender notices, award notices and contract performance information.

New procedures, simpler on paper

The old menu of procedures collapsed to essentially two for regulated procurements: the open procedure (everyone bids, one stage) and the competitive flexible procedure, which lets buyers design their own multi-stage process — negotiation rounds, demonstrations, site visits — provided it is transparent and fair. For suppliers this cuts both ways: processes can fit the purchase better, and every buyer's process can now look different. Read the tender's procedure description properly rather than assuming it matches the last one you bid.

Things worth knowing exist

1. Pipeline notices: buyers with large procurement spend must publish an annual pipeline of upcoming contracts above £2m — genuine early warning, free to read. 2. 30-day payment terms now apply through the public-sector supply chain, including to subcontractors on public contracts, and payment performance above threshold is published. 3. Assessment summaries replaced the old standstill letters: after award you receive a written assessment of your bid against the criteria — blunter and more useful feedback than the old regime typically produced. 4. The debarment list: suppliers can now be centrally excluded for serious misconduct. For honest firms the practical point is the questionnaire's self-declarations — answer them accurately, because misstatement is itself a ground for exclusion.

What did not change

The fundamentals survived intact: contracts above thresholds must be advertised; selection still checks who you are and award still scores what you offer; frameworks and dynamic purchasing systems (renamed "dynamic markets" as they transition) still dominate how councils buy; and evaluators still score written answers against published criteria — so the craft in what buyers score in a bid is unchanged. The Act moved the plumbing, not the game.