Greater flexibility afforded through the simplification of public procurement legislation means contracting authorities are also required to be more transparent and accountable at each stage of the procurement lifecycle.
The expectation is that all suppliers must register their information on the new Supplier Information System to participate in any public tender, and all notices by contracting authorities must be published to the enhanced Find a Tender Service (FTS) i.e. the Central Digital Platform (CDP). Contracting authorities can publish their notices through the CHIC eSourcing portal to the CDP or directly to the CDP.
The benefits to this new approach to transparency include:
- Visibility for prevention of fraud
- Improved approach to tender data collection
- Effective competition and collaboration
- Improved access by SMEs
- Easier access to intelligent data in one place
Diagram 1 below shows different procurement stages and required notices
There are increased number of public notices required across the procurement journey (see Diagram 1), although for CHIC managed procurements, all notices will not be applicable or require publication dependent on the route to market and value. Outlined below are the new notice requirements that CHIC Procurement can provide assistance with and publish directly through the CHIC eSourcing portal.
Preparation Stage – prior to the launch of the new regime on 24th February 2025, it is important to plan and ensure the relevant information is ready for go live, and potential publication for the following:
- Pipeline Notice– a notice setting out specified information for any public contractwith an estimated value of more than £2 million to provide suppliers with an indication of plans and expenditure for the following 18 months. A contracting authority is required to publish a pipeline notice on the central digital platform where it considers that it will, in the coming financial year, pay more than £100 million under relevant contracts. The pipeline notice must be published within 56 days of the first day of the relevant financial year, so the first procurement pipeline notice will need to be published by 26th May 2025.
- Pre-Market engagement Notice (PME) – contracting authorities are encouraged to speak with the market before commencing a procurement. Whilst not mandatory, information gathered during this stage can be invaluable as it clarifies requirements, assesses market capacity and informs a procurement strategy. When a contracting authority carries out preliminary market engagement it must publish a preliminary market engagement notice.
- Planned Procurement Notice – an optional notice and similar to a pipeline notice in that it provides advance notice of an upcoming procurement. It goes further than a pipeline notice and is designed to give as much advance information to the market as possible to enable potentially interested suppliers to determine if the upcoming procurement is something that they wish to bid for, and to provide maximum time for preparation. As with a PIN, if it publishes a planned procurement notice, a contracting authority can reduce the time period for submission of tenders (tendering period) in certain circumstances.
Award Stage – notable changes in this stage of the procurement lifecycle are:
- Contract Award Notice – this notice informs interested parties that the contracting authority intends to enter into a public contract with a specified supplier (or, where relevant, multiple suppliers). Publication of this notice commences the standstill period which provides an opportunity for suppliers to raise any concerns about, or formally challenge, the award decision before the contract is entered into. It must be at least 8- working days beginning with the day on which the contract award notice is published.
- Contract Details Notice – published after the standstill period, informs suppliers and the public that the contracting authority has entered into a contract. It provides key information about the contract that has been entered into. Where the contracting authority has entered into a public contract with an estimated value of more than £5 million, the contract details notice will give access to the contract and where relevant, sets out the three key performance indicators (KPIs) that the contracting authority regards as most material to performance of the contract.
Contract Management Stage – the new regime requires a fully transparent approach to contract performance management, and publication as applicable for notice publication during delivery of the contract, as outlined below:
- Contract Change Notice: mandatory where an above-threshold modification is made to the contract. This is a wider requirement compared to current regulations (PCR 2015) which only require contract modification notices in limited circumstances. No contract change notice is required to be published where the modification does not increase or decrease the term of the contract by more than 10% of the maximum term provided for on award or the value of the contract, in the case of supply of goods and services contracts, by 10% or less, or in the case of works contracts, 15% or less.
- Contract Termination Notice: this is mandatory and must be published within 30 days of the contract termination date (whether termination is due to expiry or otherwise). This is a new requirement.
- Payments Compliance Notes: this is mandatory and must show the contracting authority’s compliance with the 30-day payment terms. Such notices must be published within 30 days of the last reporting period (being each 6-month period on either the 31 March or 30 September)
- Contract Performance Notice: where a contracting authority has included KPIs in the contract and the contract has a value of over £5million then the contracting authority must at least once every year assess the supplier’s performance against those KPIs and publish information about the supplier’s performance. In addition, contracting authorities will be required to share information about breaches of contract or poor performance (including those which result in termination, payment of damages or a settlement agreement) by the supplier within 30 days of the breach.
Dynamic Markets- replacement for DPS (Dynamic Purchasing Systems).
The Act replaces DPS routes to market and qualification systems with a single new ‘commercial tool’ called a dynamic market. Dynamic markets have many of the features of the current DPS but have been developed to better suit the needs of contracting authorities and to add clarity.
As a dynamic market is not a public contract, the usual notices do not apply when a contracting authority is establishing or modifying a dynamic market or when the market ceases to operate. Notices relating specifically to a dynamic market are called ‘dynamic market notices’ as outlined below:
Stage 1: Dynamic market intention notice – includes information about the goods, services or works that may be procured under the dynamic marketand any technical requirements, conditions for membership of the dynamic market and how applications can be made to join.
Stage 2: Dynamic market establishment notice – this notice must be published as soon as reasonably practicable after the dynamic market has been established and includes the date the dynamic market was established, details of the suppliers who have been admitted to the dynamic market; andwhere the dynamic market has been divided into parts, the part to which each supplier has been admitted.
Stage 3: Dynamic market modification notice – this notice must be published as soon as reasonably practicable after the dynamic market has been established and includes the date from which the modification has effect;if the list of suppliers on the dynamic market is being amended, details of any supplier being added or removed and a summary explaining any other modifications being made.
Stage 4: Dynamic market cessation notice – this notice must be published as soon as reasonably practicable after the dynamic market ceases to operate and comprises basic administrative information and the date on which the dynamic market ceased to operate.
CHIC Procurement will be reviewing their current complement of DPS with new Dynamic Market routes to market, with a rolling programme of replacement, over the next 4-years until the final active date for all DPS, which now takes affect on 29th February 2029.