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We’re here to help you understand how the Procurement Act (2023) impacts Construction Subcontractors and make the public sector procurement regulations work to your advantage.
Make the Act work for you.
Effective from 24th February 2025 (previously 28th October 2024**), the Procurement Act is designed to provide Contracting Authorities more autonomy in their Tender Awards. It encourages more streamlined public sector procurement processes, with the aim of prioritising strategically advantageous tenders instead of being assessed simply on best price, as they had been previously. With a large amount of spending occurring in public sector procurement, the Procurement Act aims to provide smaller subcontractors a better opportunity at winning work, which should make winning public sector contracts for you and your business simpler and fairer.
The Procurement Act aims to benefit suppliers throughout public procurement processes, simplify bidding processes, as well as provide Main Contractors with a higher level of commercial freedom to design public sector procurement processes that meet their exact needs and drive innovation.
This will transform the way public sector procurement is carried out and remove barriers for subcontractors looking to access public sector contracts, either directly or indirectly to join a Main Contractor’s supply chain.
There are a couple of notable changes for construction subcontractors as part of the Procurement Act:
Whilst the Procurement Act opens subcontractors up to more work, it’s important that subcontractors should be mindful of any past activities. For instance, subcontractors can be removed as a result of something that happened previously due to the supplier’s performance, or if they have underperformed.
Promotes better transparency through the contract lifecycle
Levels the playing field for SMEs to win more work
Flexibly designed procurement processes that fit Main Contractors’ and Subcontractors’ needs
Creates greater commercial freedom and considers the wider value and impact of a tender
Let us help you stay on the right side of the Procurement Act legislation to propel your prospects of winning more construction work and make the Act work to your advantage.
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Watch our short video series to help you understand the Procurement Act.
This video sets out the changes in the procedures available to contracting authorities to procure their construction contracts, including staged awards and the rules on engaging with suppliers during this process. It should be watched by buyers, estimators, and surveyors, but also due to the content on staged awards, by contract/project managers.
This video sets out the rules that contracting authorities must apply when procuring works contracts below £5.37 million (the point at which they become public contracts). For many contracting authorities, below-threshold procurements amount to most of their procurements, so for SMEs, these rules are significant. This video should be watched by estimators (and potentially surveyors, contract/project managers, and senior management).
This video sets out the new rules around frameworks, open frameworks, and dynamic markets. Being on one of these contracts/arrangements can have a significant impact on accessing opportunities in the public sector; this session sets out what they are and how they work in practice. It should be watched by estimators (and potentially surveyors, contract/project managers, and senior management).
Key information to help Construction Main Contractors and Subcontractors understand how the Procurement Act affects them.
* https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9317/ (House of Commons 2024)
** https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/transforming-public-procurement (GOV.UK, 2024)
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