The Procurement Act 2023 explained for suppliers

The full text is on legislation.gov.uk, and the government publishes guidance on each part. Our tender jargon glossary explains the new terms in a line each.

1. One platform, one set of details

Every procurement under the Act is published on Find a Tender, which is now the Central Digital Platform. You register there once, keep your core supplier information up to date (who you are, your legal form, financial standing, connected persons and exclusion grounds), and give buyers a share code instead of filling in the same details for every tender. The questions specific to a procurement come in a standard Procurement Specific Questionnaire, which replaced the old selection questionnaire. What you need before you bid covers the registration step by step.

Each stage of a procurement now has its own numbered notice:

Source: Find a Tender, notice types. Watching UK2 and UK3 notices is the easiest way to hear about a tender early: finding contracts before they are re-tendered explains how.

2. Two procedures instead of many

A buyer runs either an open procedure, a single stage that anyone can bid in, or a competitive flexible procedure that it designs itself, with shortlisting, negotiation or several rounds if it chooses (section 20). The old restricted procedure, competitive dialogue and competitive procedure with negotiation no longer exist, though a buyer can design something similar. The competitive flexible procedure explained covers what to expect. Contracts can still be awarded directly without competition, but only on grounds the Act lists, and after a transparency notice (section 41, section 44, Schedule 5).

Minimum time to respond

Calendar days, from section 54, which also requires buyers to consider the complexity of the work, site visits and subcontracting, and to give every supplier the same time. Light touch contracts have no minimum.

3. Who can bid: conditions of participation

The old selection stage is replaced by conditions of participation, limited to legal and financial capacity and technical ability, and proportionate to the contract (section 22). Three protections matter to small firms: a buyer cannot demand audited accounts from a supplier not legally required to have them, cannot require contract insurance to be in place before award, and cannot require you to have held a previous contract with it. Buyers must also have regard to the barriers small and medium-sized enterprises face (section 12).

4. How the winner is chosen, and what losers are told

Contracts go to the most advantageous tender, judged against published award criteria and an assessment methodology (section 19, section 23). Before announcing the winner, the buyer sends every assessed bidder an assessment summary with its own scores and the winner's (section 50), then publishes the contract award notice, which starts an eight working day standstill (section 51). How to write a tender response that scores and getting feedback when you lose cover both sides.

5. Exclusions and the debarment list

The Act sets out when a supplier must or may be excluded. A supplier is excluded when a mandatory ground applies (Schedule 6), such as fraud, bribery, modern slavery offences, serious tax misconduct or a threat to national security, and the circumstances are continuing or likely to happen again. It is excludable on the same test for a discretionary ground (Schedule 7), such as insolvency, professional misconduct, or breach of contract and poor performance (section 57).

• Time limits. Events more than five years old are ignored, and for some discretionary grounds, including breach of contract and poor performance, three years.
• Putting it right. Before excluding you, a buyer must give you a reasonable chance to show what you have done about it, such as changing staff or management or bringing in new procedures and training (section 58).
• The debarment list. A minister can add a supplier to a published debarment list after an investigation, with appeal to the court (sections 62 to 65). Investigations are run by the Debarment Review Service, part of the Government Commercial Agency since 1 April 2026. The list published in November 2025 was blank, and remains so until a supplier is added.

6. After the contract is signed

Much more is now published during the life of a contract, and some of it can count against a supplier later.

• Key performance indicators. Contracts over £5 million must have at least three, assessed and published at least once a year (section 52, section 71).
• Poor performance. Where a supplier fails to improve after a proper opportunity, or a breach leads to termination, damages or a settlement, the buyer must publish it within 30 days (section 71). That record can support exclusion from future procurements.
• Changes. Significant changes to a contract's value, term or supplier need a contract change notice first; smaller changes, up to 10% of value for goods and services, 15% for works or 10% of the term, do not (sections 74 and 75).
• Publication. Contracts over £5 million are published, with sensitive commercial information withheld only where there is an overriding public interest (section 53, section 94).
• Payment. Valid, undisputed invoices must be paid within 30 days, and the same term passes down to subcontracts (section 68, section 73).

7. Frameworks, dynamic markets and smaller contracts

Frameworks run for up to four years (eight for defence and utilities), and open frameworks, which must reopen to new suppliers, can run for up to eight in total. Dynamic markets replace dynamic purchasing systems and stay open for suppliers to join throughout. What is a framework agreement? covers both. Below the thresholds, buyers that invite tenders cannot shortlist on capacity first, and must publish notices for contracts they advertise from £12,000 (central government) or £30,000 (other buyers), including VAT: procurement thresholds 2026 has the figures.

8. Challenging a decision

A supplier that has suffered, or risks suffering, loss from a breach of the Act can bring proceedings in court (section 100). Issuing a claim during standstill, and telling the buyer, stops the contract being signed until the court decides (section 101). Claims must generally be brought within 30 days of when you knew or ought to have known of the breach (section 106), and a court can set a contract aside or award damages. Take legal advice quickly: the time limits are short. The Cabinet Office's Public Procurement Review Service also looks into supplier concerns without going to court.