Procurement Bill - Your Guide

What is the procurement bill? 

The procurement bill is a proposal to improve the current procurement processes in the public sector.  

Currently £300 billion is spent every year on the public procurement of goods, works, and services. In 2021/2022 alone £22 billion was spent on procuring adult social care services.  

The aim of the procurement bill therefore is to change the 4 sets of regulations used currently into one single regulation framework so we can: 

• Create a simpler and more flexible commercial system that best meets our country’s needs  
• Remain complaint with international obligations  
• Create more opportunities for small businesses and social enterprises to compete for contracts  
• Embed transparency throughout the commercial lifecycle to scruntise taxpayer’s money more thoroughly  

Why is the procurement bill important? 

 

The procurement bill is important because it offers both a simpler and more flexible approach to procuring goods, works, and services.  This will help communities recover from Covid and help support local authorities transition to net zero carbon emissions smoothly with limited disruption.  

Not only will local authorities be able to save money through new procurement legislation, their productivity will be boosted which will empower communities to continue to improve their public services in order to get the best outcomes.  

The new procurement bill offers procurement professionals the flexibility to use their commercial skills to overcome previous frustrations during the procurement process, so they can then negotiate with bidders the way they want to, so they can design processes which best suits their local area. This additional freedom will allow local authorities to be able to talk to suppliers a lot earlier in the process as well as throughout the process to help deliver the best outcomes possible.  

In procuring adult social care this helps local authorities to use a population health management approach to procure services that matter to their community to r ensure the delivery of person-centred care.  

Procurement bill timeline – Where are we now? 

In order for the new procurement bill to be law it must go through both houses of parliament. For this to happen it is highly likely that there will be multiple amendments and adjustments.  

The procurement bill timeline has three main stages: 

1. House of Lords  
2. House of Commons  
3. Final Stages  

Within each stage there are multiple steps which need to take place.  

1. House of Lords 

• 1st Reading  
• 2nd Reading  
• Committee Stage  
• Report Stage  
• 3rd  Reading  

2. House of Commons  

• 1st Reading  
• 2nd Reading  
• Committee Stage  
• Report Stage  
• 3rd Reading  

3. Final Stages  

• Consideration of amendments  
• Royal Assent  

 

Currently the procurement bill has recently undergone the committee stage under the House of Commons’ review. It is soon to be under the Report stage which is expected to happen in May. At this point if everything is agreed by the 3rd reading it can undergo the final stages where it will then become law.  

The final stages of the procurement bill timeline is when the bill will return to the House of Lords. At this point if there are any disagreements with any amendments or they make alternative proposals the procurement bill will be sent back to the House of Commons. At this point it is likely that it may be sent back and forth until all terms are agreed.  

Despite this, the UK Government have announced that regardless of how long it will take for all terms to be agreed local authorities will have at least 6 months to prepare for the changes and that it is anticipated that it will be law by 2024.  

During the Royal Assent the secondary legislation will be finalised including statutory instruments and regulations, it also will include a public consultation on the draft regulations. It is at this point once everything is finalised the procurement bill will be law.  

Procurement bill update – What has changed? 

Whilst the procurement bill has been under review from the House of Lords and the House of Commons the procurement bill has undergone multiple changes. In total so far there has been 38 hours of debate. Some of the most recent changes include: 

• The introduction of a new clause – ‘Covered Procurements’  
• A specific duty on contracting authorities to have regard to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)  
• Provisions to ensure that contracting authorities may NOT require: 
• Audited accounts to test the financial standing of bidders  (Unless it is already required under the Companies Act 2008)  
• Insurance relating to the performance of the contract to be in place before the award of the contract 
• Contracting authorities must publish specific transparency data such as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) publication of contracts, and contract change notices  
• An explicit duty on the Minister for the Cabinet Office to provide a central, freely accessible, digital platform  
• Both the Welsh Government and Northern Ireland have agreed to join but there may be some differences  

One of the biggest changes to be aware of and understand is the introduction of covered procurements. A covered procurement is the award entry into and management of a ‘public contract.’ These contracts have an estimated value greater than the relevant threshold. 

The majority of the bill will apply to both procurement and covered procurement, but some of the bill’s most consequential provisions will only apply to covered procurements.  

The procurement bill currently states that all ‘covered procurements’ and ‘regulated below threshold contracts’ contracting authorities will be required to have regard to the fact that small and medium-sized enterprises may face particular barriers to participation.   

In reality this means that there may be potential ground for judicial review if small or medium enterprise (SME)  challenges whether a contracting authority has limited them competing for relevant work. This can happen through contracting authorities not taking into consideration the barriers or reducing the barriers SMEs could be dealing with.  

This change and introduction of covered procurements is important therefore as it has been found in the focal provision of the Procurement bill under the Objectives part in Section 12.  

How best to prepare for the new procurement bill? 

 

Government advice: 

One of the ways the government are helping local authorities prepare is through their Learning and Development program. Here the aim is to support procurement, commercial, and commissioning professionals to develop the knowledge, skills, understanding, and confidence to operate effectively within the new procurement regime. The Learning and Development program will then allow flexibilities to exploited appropriately to drive an increased value for money and social value for the taxpayer.  

In order to provide professionals with the knowledge required the government have announced they will offer a variety of resources within the Learning and Development program so all local authorities can be fully prepared. The package includes: 

• Knowledge Drops – a range of short presentations available on demand to provide overviews of the changes. These will be aimed at non-commercial leaders and others including suppliers  
• Self-guided e-learning – Aimed at commercial staff in Contracting Authorities. It is expected to involve 10 x 1 hour modules to inform users of each element of the new regime to then be awarded a Practitioner Certificate on the procurement changes  
• Deep dive webinars – A three-day intensive course for smaller groups who will have completed the e-learning modules. It will include interactive virtual webinars in small cohorts to allow learners to engage with the content. These webinars are designed to provide learners with a deeper level of understanding about the procurement changes to build confidence and skills to act as ‘super-users’ within their organisations.  

Next steps: 

In order to help with preparations for the legislation changes in procurement it is also important that local authorities consider their procurement and contract management capability you have currently across your organization. This will help to benchmark your relevant commercial and procurement operating standards against other comparable organisations. Through doing this you can also ensure all your current contract registers and details are up to date.  

Once these things have been reviewed, checked, and confirmed, your local authority can look for ways all this information can be streamlined more efficiently, and find ways that contract opportunities can be open to a variety of bidders.  

1. Invest in Procurement and Commissioning software  

 

One way this can be done efficiently with minimal disruption is through investing in digital technology. Our Access Adam Care Commissioning platform helps manage your workflow in a single platform to improve efficiency and your accuracy of provider placement.  

Our Access Adam Procurement uses a cloud based end-to-end solution to allow your teams to act quickly when located trusted suppliers to ensure you secure high quality contracts at reasonable prices.  

One of our customers, Sutton Council for example found that through using our transport management system we help helped their provider base increase. They went from obtaining roughly 4.5 bids per route to 14.4 and the number of providers within their provider base went from 17 to 32.  

This allowed Sutton Council to deliver their home-to-school transport to more children and young people to reduce waiting lists and pressure building on them, as well as offer more opportunities to small businesses to bid for the contracts.  

Wren Housing also found that through using our Housing management solution more compliant providers could be onboarded quicker leaving council workers 100% confident that individuals were being placed in accommodation that was safe, secure, and met their individual needs. 

We have currently checked over 17,500 safety certificates from 4200 different listings for Wren Housing to help place individuals in properties that best meet their needs.  

2. Understand the care market  

 

Another way to prepare for the changes under the procurement bill is for local authorities to understand the care market, and the resources they have around them.  

Without this knowledge the care needed in your community may be at risk of provider failure or might not reach the capacity it needs to.  

Like already discussed on of the things the Procurement Bill are concentrating on is local governments having more transparency and accountability for the decisions taken when commissioning any service. This is even more crucial within the care sector to ensure your local authorities collect the evidence needed to provide the quantity and quality of care and support in your area.  

Through assessing the care market through using a Social Care Landscape tool your local authority can bring together all the information you need to know about population and demand, spend and activity, capacity and availability, as well as the current care quality being delivered and potential risks.  

Here at The Access Group our PAMMS technology provides market insight reports which can identify trends that would have otherwise been missed to provide you with up-to-date business intelligence for all stakeholders to ensure that care services commissioned are the best quality for the best value for money. 

 

This market oversight can help your local authority have a better overview over your spend, activity and care quality overtime  so you can understand your care responsibilities under the Care Act and the procurement bill to deliver better care outcomes. It also will allow better care monitoring and safeguarding to ensure the best continuity of care is delivered. Our CM solution allows your local authority to gain further transparency across the market by obtaining fuller views of each individual case and gain easy access to the information you need.  

Summarising the procurement bill 

This article has reviewed what the procurement bill is and why it is important for local authorities. We have reviewed the stages which the bill has and will have to go through until it becomes law.  

We have also acknowledged some of the main changes which have taken place since both the House of Lords and House of Commons have started to review the procurement bill. This article has highlighted how the introduction of covered procurements is one of the most impactful changes and how it is now being highlighted in the main objectives part of the bill.  

The article has also summarised what some of the best next steps are including reviewing the government’s learning and development program aimed to provide all local authorities, suppliers, and bidders the knowledge they need to know about the procurement changes, as well as highlighting the importance of digital technology and commissioning platforms.  

Through discussing the benefits of commissioning software and our Access PAMMS technology we summarised how we can help streamline your procurement processes whilst ensuring all parties involved are fully compliant and can deliver the needs required.  

In order to keep up-to-date with the next stages of the procurement bill sign up for the latest updates on government’s landing page for Transforming Public Procurement. 

For more information in how digital technology can help your local authority prepare for the procurement changes, discover our local government software today.

Contact us so we can get started changing your procurement processes for the better to help deliver better outcomes, and most importantly help you be better prepared for the upcoming procurement legislation changes.