Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 5
5
Accepted
Publish plans for Procurement Act 2023 implementation, costs, and commercial capability development.
Recommendation
We are concerned that the government may not have sufficiently considered the time, money, and resources required to provide the commercial capabilities to successfully implement the Procurement Act 2023. The Procurement Act received Royal Assent on 26 October 2023. Government has announced plans for the Act’s secondary legislation, and the new regulations are expected to be implemented fully by the end of 2024. However, the Cabinet Office and Government Commercial Function do not yet have a clear plan for the investment required, or a timeline of necessary steps to ensure that the wider public sector has the critical commercial skills required to achieve the intended far-reaching changes to the public procurement landscape. Departments and arm’s length bodies need to understand how to establish the right conditions for effective competition, varying approaches as needed across sectors and procurements. The Government Commercial Function does not have data on all relevant individuals within contracting authorities, such as arm’s length bodies or local authorities, that should be upskilled on the requirements of the Procurement Act. This could impede the process of implementation across the public procurement landscape. Recommendation 5: The Government Commercial Function and Cabinet Office should set out, as part of its Treasury Minute response, further details explaining arrangements for: • How they will manage the process transitioning from the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 to the Procurement Act, including timelines, cost implications and resources required. 8 Competition in public procurement • The learning and development plan to ensure government buyers have and continue to develop the commercial capabilities required to successfully implement the new legislative framework and ensure effective competition in public procurement. Competition in public procurement 9 1 Making competition work in public procurement
Government Response Summary
The government agreed with the recommendation, stating the Procurement Act 2023 regime is anticipated to go-live in October 2024 and it has a transition plan in place. It is already rolling out centrally-funded learning interventions for buyers, including recorded 'knowledge drops'.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation Recommendation implemented It is currently anticipated that the new regime in the Procurement Act 2023 will go-live in October 2024 following an implementation period of 6 months post the laying of secondary legislation. The Cabinet Office has set out its plan for transition between the regimes and is already rolling out a series of learning interventions to train contracting authority buyers on what the new legislative framework is and how to use it. More information on transforming public procurement is available on Gov.UK. The learning and development is intended to be free at the point of access and has been centrally funded by the government to end FY 23/24.There are four interventions planned: a) a series of recorded ‘knowledge drops’ watchable videos approximately 45 minutes in length, providing an overview of all of the changes in legislation are aimed at non- commercial leaders, professions and others (incl. suppliers) needing a general level of awareness of the new legislation. They launched in December 2023 targeted at an expected audience of up to 60,000 individuals. As of 5 January 2024, over 8,000 knowledge drop views had been recorded b) a self-guided e-learning programme comprising 10 one-hour modules with a separate certification module is the core learning product available to all procurement and commercial staff, estimated to be 20,000 individuals at skilled and advanced buyer level. The course provides a comprehensive grounding on the new legislation and will be launched in March 2024 c) an instructor-led three day course of interactive ‘deep dive’ webinars allows learners to engage with subject matter experts and gain deeper insight across the full spectrum of the legislative change and supports “hearts and minds” change. The course is aimed at advanced buyers, expected to be 7,500 to 9,000 individuals, and is planned to be launched in May 2024, running for 58 weeks to allow up to 9,000 individuals to attend. d) communities of practice which provide a system of collective critical inquiry and reflection into the legislative changes. The communities will support individuals helping them to embed what they have learned. Aimed at a mixture of skilled and advanced buyers, circa 11,000, the product is planned to be launched in May 2024 and will run for 18 months. We will enlist the support of the Civil Service Board underlined at Civil Service Learning sessions to ensure full participation by non-commercial colleagues. In addition to the comprehensive Learning and Development offer, workstreams under the programme are developing the central digital platform which will be essential to issuing new notices under the Act and creating Review Unit which will be established to monitor compliance with the act and investigate suppliers to the public sector. Treasury Minutes Archive2 Treasury Minutes are the government’s response to reports from the Committee of Public Accounts. Treasury Minutes are Command Papers laid in Parliament. Session 2023-24 Committee Recommendations: 52 Recommendations agreed: 46 (88%) Recommendations disagreed: 6 Publication Date PAC Reports Ref Number February 2024 Government response to PAC reports 1-6 [80 Session 22-23] CP 1029 Session 2022-23 Committee Recommendations: 551 Recommendations agreed: 489 (89%) Recommendations disagreed: 62 Publication Date PAC Reports Ref Number July 2022 Government response to PAC reports 1, 3 & 10 CP 722 August 2022 Government response to PAC reports 2, 4-8 CP 708 September 2022 Government response to PAC reports 9, 13-16 CP 745 November 2022 Government response to PAC reports 11, 12, 17 CP 755 December 2022 Government response to PAC reports 18-22 CP 774 January 2023 Government response to PAC reports 23-26 CP 781 February 2023 Government response to PAC reports 27-31 CP 802 March 2023 Government response to PAC reports 32-36 CP 828 May 2023 Government response to PAC reports 37-41 CP 845 June 2023 Government response to PAC reports 42-47 CP 847 July 2023 Government response to PAC reports 48-54 CP 902 August 2023 Government response to PAC reports 55-60 CP 921 September 2023 Government response to PAC reports 62-67 CP 941 November 2023 Government response to PAC reports 68-71 CP 968 January 2024 Government response to PAC reports 72-79 CP 1000 February 2024 Government response to PAC reports 80 [1-6 Session 23-24] CP 1029 Session 2021-22 Committee Recommendations: 362 Recommendations agreed: 333 (92%) Recommendations disagreed: 29 Publication Date PAC Reports Ref Number August 2021 Government response to PAC reports 1-6 CP 510 September 2021 Government response to PAC reports 8-11 CP 520 November 2021 Government response to PAC reports 7,13-16 (and TM2 BBC) CP 550 December 2021 Government response to PAC reports 12, 17-21 CP 583 January 2022 Government response to PAC reports 22-26 CP 603 2 List of Treasury Minutes responses for Sessions 2010-15 are annexed in the government’s res