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ARTICLE · 14 NOVEMBER 2023

Our New Arrival: The Procurement Act Is Born

Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer LLP
Explore more from Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer LLP

Almost 18 months after it was laid before Parliament in May last year, the Procurement Bill finally received Royal Assent on 26 October and thereby became the Procurement Act 2023...

European UnionGovernment, Public Sector
Adrian Brown
Adrian Brown
Tim Briggs
Tim Briggs
Nusrat Zar
Nusrat Zar

Almost 18 months after it was laid before Parliament in May last year, the Procurement Bill finally received Royal Assent on 26 October and thereby became the Procurement Act 2023 ("the Act"). The Act is expected to enter into force in October 2024 and will replace the existing regulations governing the award of contracts and concessions by public authorities and utilities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Those regulations are based closely on EU Directives which, post-Brexit, the Government sees as outdated and overly bureaucratic.

In this blogpost, we outline nine key features of the new Act.

Consolidation, but only limited simplification

As from October 2024, the Act will replace the four separate sets of EU-inspired regulations currently applicable to public procurement in England, Wales and Northern Ireland: namely, the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, the Utilities Contracts Regulations 2016, the Concession Contracts Regulations 2016 and

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