Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 1
1
Accepted
Committee heard evidence on government's competitive procurement of goods and services.
Conclusion
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Cabinet Office, the Government Commercial Function (GCF) and the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) about the government’s purchase of goods and services through competitive procurement.1
Government Response Summary
The government agreed with the procedural conclusion and provided an update on the Procurement Act 2023, detailing new legal requirements for contracting authorities to upload procurement information, plans for secondary legislation by Spring 2024, and the anticipated National Procurement Policy Statement later in 2024.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Procurement Act. Contracting authorities will have clear legal requirements to upload information on procurements to the central digital platform within certain timescales, this includes publishing contract award notices for above threshold contracts (those generally above £213,000), contract details for contracts over £5 million, Key Performance Indicators for contracts over £5 million. This list is not exhaustive and will be achieved via the submission of notices within the system - simply put, if a contract authority does not upload a particular notice, it will be in breach of statutory requirements in a way that is not the case now. The requirements for notices will be set out via secondary legislation, expected to be laid in Spring 2024. The Cabinet Office will publish a range of guidance notes and provide learning and development materials setting out these requirements. billion to £21 billion1. 4.4 As part of the Procurement Act 2023, the government has powers to publish a National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS), to which all contracting authorities must have regard. This will provide the government of the day an opportunity to set out its strategic priorities to which it expects procurement to contribute and may include subjects such as driving 1 https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/central-government-spend-with-smes innovation, creating jobs and tackling climate change. It is anticipated that the first statutory NPPS will be in place later in 2024. 4.5 A successful commercial agreement strategy takes into consideration a number of factors to balance the risk appetite of customers (the public sector) against the