Guidance

Procurement Review Unit – a short guide (HTML)

Updated 24 February 2025

The Procurement Review Unit (PRU) is a new unit based within the Cabinet Office which became operational on 24 February 2025 alongside commencement of the Procurement Act 2023.

The PRU has responsibility for oversight of public procurement, and will engage with contracting authorities across all sectors and suppliers to achieve the shared ambition to raise standards in public procurement - and ensures that the changes introduced by the Procurement Act 2023 become adopted practice.

This will be achieved through:

• Overseeing compliance to the new legislation and making recommendations if non-compliance occurs.
• Enhancing the services offered to suppliers by the Public Procurement Review Service (PPRS), to maintain fairness within the public sector procurement landscape.
• Ensuring that only suitable suppliers can bid for public contracts, by implementing the debarment regime. This will include maintaining a central list of suppliers that must or may be excluded from procurements.
• Investigating and issuing recommendations for improvement to contracting authority practice on behalf of Ministers, and actively monitoring contracting authorities’ action plans.

The PRU consists of three core services:

• The Public Procurement Review Service (PPRS) is the main way suppliers can raise a complaint about a specific procurement (which must have taken place in the last two years).

It can make recommendations to contracting authorities with the aim to improve standards - which can lead to live procurements being adjusted or reviewed. The PPRS also handles cases concerning the late payment of valid and undisputed invoices.

• The Procurement Compliance Service (PCS) investigates contracting authorities’ compliance with the requirements of the Procurement Act 2023.

It will utilise statutory powers to carry out investigations and, where appropriate, to issue recommendations as to the action contracting authorities should take to comply with the Act, and/or issue guidance that applies more generally to contracting authorities following the conclusion of an investigation.

Rather than specific procurements, the PCS will focus on systemic (i.e. common across multiple contracting authorities) and institutional (i.e. made repeatedly by one particular contracting authority) non- compliance issues.

An investigation may involve reviewing information and/or speaking with individuals involved in the procurement to understand the cause of the issue. Findings and recommendations will be captured in a report which may be published on GOV.UK.

• The Debarment Review Service (DRS) aims to protect public money from suppliers who pose risks by considering and/or conducting investigations into suppliers where their behaviour or circumstances mean that, potentially, they should not be allowed to participate in procurements or be awarded public contracts.

These investigations will then determine whether they are considered an excluded or excludable supplier (depending on whether a mandatory or discretionary exclusion ground applies) as defined in the Procurement Act 2023 and whether they should be added to the public debarment list.

The DRS manages the debarment list which is public and can be viewed on GOV.UK. It lists suppliers who may or must be excluded from bidding for government contracts, the grounds for the debarment, and their status.

Contracting authorities are mandated to notify the DRS of suppliers they have excluded, replaced or removed from a public sector procurement and the exclusion ground(s).

Separately, the National Security Unit for Procurement (NSUP) manages both exclusions and debarment on the basis of the two national security exclusion grounds.

To find out more about the services of the Procurement Review Unit, please visit our homepage on GOV.UK.

General enquiries

The PRU has a general enquiry form

to be used if none of the referral forms are appropriate - and only to be used for an enquiry that does not require a case investigation, or if you have made a referral and awaiting a response (the team dealing with your referral will direct you to an appropriate contact point).

General enquiries form

Telephone helpdesk

You can also telephone our helpdesk on:

Supplier service desk - 0345 010 3503

Contracting authority service desk - 0345 410 2222