The Procurement Bill completed its passage through the House of Lords last week 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 key changes are:
Key Timelines
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Progress on development of the Single Central Digital Platform
The central digital platform will be a single place built out from the Find a Tender platform where a new procurement ‘noticing’ regime, covering the full lifecycle of public procurement, from planning through to contract expiry, will be developed.
New notices are being built in Find a Tender. Contracting authorities will continue to be able to either create notices directly in the platform or have them automatically sent through via their eProcurement system when new activity takes place there.
eProcurement systems providers will have to make changes to support the new notices. GCF is already engaging with these companies and will also be making all technical documentation open to provide information for new companies which may want to enter this space. It is envisaged that a bespoke test environment will be available to eProcurement systems providers from Spring 2023 although the system will not be available to use until the new regime becomes active.
Further information on the Transforming Public Procurement transparency ambition can be found here.
Progress on development of L&D
Good progress is being made on developing and testing the Knowledge Drops for contracting authorities and suppliers (including SME and VCSE suppliers) and the e-learning modules for contracting authority practitioners, as outlined in the L&D offer here.
There is a developing community of Single Points of Contact (SPOCs) across the public sector, with whom GCF is working to ensure that the L&D reaches right across the target audience. 470 L&D superusers are registered. If you are procurement practitioner within a contracting authority and you would like to become a superuser, please email procreformspocs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk.
Opportunities to find out more
GCF plan to run three open-access webinars for those who want to know more about the journey through the Lords and next steps. You can register for these here:
Transforming Public Procurement Update, Friday 13 January at 10:30-11:30
Transforming Public Procurement Update, Wednesday 18 January at 14:00-15:00
Transforming Public Procurement Update, Monday 23 January at 14:30-15:30
The Transforming Public Procurement landing page is the repository for a range of information about the programme; GCF will keep adding material here. Registrations are still open for the two Procurement Reform Conferences at which Cabinet Office speakers will be covering a range of topics on 1 March (in London) and 14 March (in Manchester). The events are free for public sector attendees. For more details on the events, and to register, visit BiP Solutions’ conference website.
Keeping in touch
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