Prepare your business for the Procurement Act 2023

Changes to public procurement in the UK from 24 February 2025

On Monday 24 February 2025, new Procurement Act 2023 rules will take effect changing the rules that shape how public bodies buy goods and services.

The Procurement Act 2023 aims to streamline procurement to benefit prospective suppliers of all sizes, particularly small businesses, start-ups and social enterprises.

What’s changing

The new Act will:

• simplify bidding processes, introducing a competitive flexible procedure
• make commercial frameworks more accessible for suppliers
• remove barriers for smaller businesses, ensuring 30-day payment terms for more public sector contracts
• require public bodies to give consistent feedback and bid assessments for final tenders

New Central Digital Platform

The Act introduces a new central digital platform, an enhancement to the Find a Tender service, to facilitate public procurement. This platform will simplify supplier contract searches and bids.

The central digital platform will be free to use. There are no charges to view opportunities in the public sector.

If you are already registered on Find a Tender, you will need to re-register and enter your organisation information.

The central digital platform will be launched on Monday 24 February 2025 at 00:01. The URL https://www.gov.uk/find-tender will be the same as the one used to access Find a Tender.

Find a factsheet summarising the key facts about the central digital platform.

eTendersNI

In Northern Ireland, many authorities use eTendersNI for their tendering processes. eTendersNI has issued guidance about changes to its system.

The guidance has highlighted four main areas to note:

• Tenders published before Monday 24 February 2025 will still follow the current system.
• The new notice regime and format under the Act will apply to any competitions commenced after Monday 24 February 2025.
• Authorities may change some processes based on the new law. This includes asking different eligibility questions and allowing multiple cycles of tendering and evaluation.
• Suppliers will need to provide identifiers from the new digital platform for tenders over a certain amount to help eTendersNI retrieve important information.

For more details, see the summary of eTendersNI changes to accommodate the Procurement Act 2023.

How to prepare your business

It is important to prepare for the new regulations. You should:

• review all current and planned commercial opportunities 
• ensure that your standard operating procedures and policies are robust for the new regime  
• review documents that your teams and suppliers use and ensure they are current
• consider the readiness of your organisation’s systems and what changes may be needed
• ensure your people understand Transforming Public Procurement and undertake the necessary training 

More information

For more information on changes to how supplies, services and works are procured for the public sector refer to Transforming Public Procurement.

A recorded webinar of how suppliers can prepare for the public procurement changes is available from Government Commercial Function (GFC) - watch How to get ready for 24 February 2025.

For detailed videos, access the YouTube playlist on GFC Transforming Public Procurement.

First published 20 February 2025.