THE PROCUREMENT BILL - Benefits for Prospective Suppliers to the Public Sector

The Procurement Bill completed its passage through the House of Lords in December - you can read more about that in this NWUPC News article - with a number of Government amendments made following detailed debate.  The majority were minor or technical - but there were also some significant policy changes that are now reflected in the current version of the Bill, most notably to support economic growth and reduce burdens on contracting authorities. You can view the Bill on the Parliament.uk website.

The Bill includes a new duty on contracting authorities to have regard to the particular barriers facing SMEs, and to consider what can be done to overcome them. This applies throughout the procurement lifecycle, so in practical terms, it means that contracting authorities will, for example, need to specifically consider through an SME lens:

• whether the requirements they are asking for are proportionate to the contract
• whether the bidding times are realistic, including for businesses that do not have dedicated bidding teams
• whether there is a diverse representation of businesses in pre‑market engagement to make sure a contracting authority is reaching a wide range of suppliers.

The Procurement Bill will make it significantly easier for new entrants to public sector supply-chains to bid for public contracts. There are 7 key benefits for prospective suppliers to the Public Sector:

1. Commercial Pipelines
2. Preliminary Market Engagement
3. Invitation to Tender
4. Supplier Registration and Bidding
5. Procurement
6. Feedback if bid is not successful
7. Contract Management