Guidance

The Procurement Act 2023: A short guide for suppliers (HTML)

Updated 24 February 2025

Making it easier to bid and work in partnership with the public sector

Public Procurement has changed.

On 24 February 2025, the rules that shape how public bodies buy goods and services changed. The Procurement Act 2023 will improve and streamline the way procurement is done, and benefit prospective suppliers of all sizes, particularly small businesses, start-ups and social enterprises.

If your business supplies goods, works or services to organisations in the public or utility sectors – or hopes to do so – you need to know about the changes. This includes supplying to government departments, the NHS, local authorities, universities, schools, social housing organisations, police and fire brigades and utility companies.

Key benefits for suppliers include more standardisation and streamlining of procurement processes - but there are also additional benefits in the Act such as requiring better oversight of procurement decisions and strengthening payment terms.

More flexibility

The new Act:

• Simplifies the bidding processes to make it easier to bid, negotiate and work in partnership with the public sector - including a new ‘competitive flexible’ procedure.
• Makes commercial frameworks more open, so prospective suppliers are not shut out for long periods of time.
• Removes bureaucratic barriers for smaller businesses and VCSEs so they can compete for more contracts - with strengthened provisions for prompt payment throughout the supply chain, enabling you to benefit from 30-day payment terms on a broader range of public sector contracts.
• Requires public bodies to provide consistent feedback for suppliers: a requirement on public bodies to provide bid assessments for final tenders.

Greater transparency - Find a Tender, the central digital platform

• We will also make it easier to find and bid for contracts via Find a Tender, the central digital platform, with:
  • A simple registration approach.
  • Storage of your core business details that you can use for multiple bids.
  • Ability to manage and update your core information quickly, and share easily with contracting authorities.
• Public procurement opportunities are visible, making it easy to search at no cost and set up alerts for tenders of interest to you.

Greater oversight

• A new Procurement Review Unit (PRU) has been established with responsibility for oversight of public procurement. The PRU will engage with contracting authorities across all sectors and suppliers to achieve the shared ambition to raise standards in public procurement - and ensure that the changes introduced by the Procurement Act 2023 become adopted practice.
• The PRU maintains and builds upon the existing Public Procurement Review Service (PPRS), where you can address concerns regarding public procurement practices relating to a specific procurement procedure and late payment matters.
• The PRU, is available to you now, and comprised of three services:
  • the existing Public Procurement Review Service (PPRS)
  • a new Procurement Compliance Service (PCS)
  • a new Debarment Review Service (DRS)

To find out more about each of these services and access all the relevant forms and information visit Procurement Review Unit

Act now:

• Familiarise yourself and your colleagues with the Act - check out all the summary documents and videos on the Information and Advice for suppliers page on GOV.UK, which provides further information about public procurement, how to videos and guides, and additional support that Cabinet Office is providing.
• If you haven’t already, sign up for regular updates here - and we will send you a regular newsletter to keep you up to date on new developments in public procurement.
• We have also developed a series of supplier Knowledge Drop videos to give you a broad understanding of the Procurement Act and the key changes. There are also dedicated SME and VCSE videos as part of the series. You can view all Knowledge Drop videos here
• If you want to dive in deeper, you can also access many of the training materials we are providing to public sector buyers. This includes our suite of guidance documents exploring the different elements of the Act. These can be found here.
• Discuss the changes with your regular customers and clients - who are planning their forward pipelines and which procurements might be undertaken using the new approaches.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Find a Tender, the central digital platform, a brand new portal?

No, we have built new features and functionality into the existing Find a Tender service that many suppliers and contracting authorities are already using. The new functionality came on-stream on 24 February 2025.

Will I need to bookmark a new website?

The new service is on (Find a Tencder Service) on GOV.UK - the same URL as the old Find a Tender.  So you don’t need to update any bookmarks or links you have saved, or that are in your organisation’s procedure documents.

If I am already registered on Find a Tender, will I need to re-register?

Yes, you will need to re-register and enter your organisation information at Find a Tender Service - and if you use the same email address, any saved  searches  from your old account will be pulled through to your new Find a Tender account.

For more information, ‘How to’ videos and guides go to the GOV.UK page Information and Advice for Suppliers.

Is Find a Tender, the central digital platform, still free to use?

Yes. Find a Tender is free to use for everyone. There are no charges and you should not pay to view opportunities in the public sector.

When can I register?

You can register now. But you only need to register at the point that you want to bid for a contract. For more information, ‘How to’ videos and guides go to the GOV.UK page Information and Advice for Suppliers.  And, there will be a help desk available to support you with technical queries, if you need any additional help, which you can access online via Find a Tender.

What sort of information will I need to have to hand?

You can access videos and guides of what is required by the Procurement Act and how to enter it all into the Find a Tender service on GOV.UK. But in summary it includes: your organisation’s Companies House number (if you have one), postal address, website, email, the last two years of accounts (if you have them), details of any people or businesses connected to your business, or with significant control over it (if there are any), the most recent two years of accounts and details of any convictions held or offences committed by the organisation or any people connected to the business.