The Procurement Act 2023: what SME suppliers need to know

The Procurement Act 2023 replaced the previous public procurement regulations in England, Wales and Northern Ireland with a single, more flexible regime. For small and medium-sized suppliers, it changes how opportunities are advertised, how you register, how bids are assessed and how your performance on a contract is recorded.

This is a practical summary from a delivery team that bids for public sector work. It is not legal advice. The Act is supported by secondary legislation and Cabinet Office guidance that continues to be updated, so always check the current guidance on GOV.UK before relying on any detail here.

Why the Act matters to SMEs

The stated aims of the reform include making public procurement simpler, more transparent and more open to smaller suppliers. In practice, that means:

• More opportunities published in one place
• More flexibility for buyers to design a process that suits the requirement
• Stronger expectations on transparency throughout the life of a contract
• A clearer framework for excluding suppliers who are not fit to hold public contracts

None of that guarantees SMEs will win more work. It does mean the rules are more consistent, and a well-organised small supplier can compete on a fairer footing.

The procedures you will encounter

The open procedure

The open procedure is a single-stage tender. Any supplier can submit a bid, and the buyer assesses everything in one round. It suits straightforward requirements where the buyer knows exactly what it wants.

For SMEs, the open procedure is usually the easiest route in. There is no shortlisting stage to get past, but you need a complete, compliant response first time.

The competitive flexible procedure

The competitive flexible procedure lets buyers design their own process. That might include a selection stage, several rounds of bidding, negotiation, demonstrations, or dialogue with shortlisted suppliers.

The flexibility cuts both ways. A well-designed process gives buyers a better view of what you can actually deliver. A poorly designed one can be long and resource-heavy for a small bid team. Read the tender notice and associated documents carefully so you understand every stage, its timing and what is expected at each one before you commit.

Direct award and frameworks

The Act sets out limited circumstances in which buyers can award directly without competition, and it continues to support frameworks and dynamic markets. If a buyer uses a framework you are not on, you generally cannot bid for call-offs under it, so it is worth tracking which frameworks are relevant to your sector and when they reopen.

Below-threshold contracts

Many contracts that suit SMEs fall below the thresholds for the full regime. The Act still applies certain rules to these contracts, including transparency obligations for publishing opportunities and awards above certain values. The Act also limits how buyers can restrict participation in below-threshold procurements, which is intended to reduce barriers for small suppliers. Check the current guidance for the exact rules and values that apply.

Notices and Find a Tender

The Act introduces a much wider set of notices across the procurement lifecycle. Opportunities, awards, contract details, changes, performance and termination can all be published. These notices are published on Find a Tender, which is part of the central digital platform.

For suppliers this is useful:

• You can see pipeline and planned procurement notices, which give early sight of upcoming work
• You can see who won previous contracts and on what terms
• You can follow contract changes and terminations in your sector

We treat these notices as market intelligence. Planning notices in particular give a small team time to prepare, find partners and ask questions during preliminary market engagement.

The central digital platform and supplier registration

Suppliers bidding under the Act need to register on the central digital platform and provide core supplier information. This typically covers your organisation's basic details, ownership and connected persons, economic and financial standing, and declarations relevant to the exclusion grounds.

The idea is that you enter this information once and share it with buyers, rather than completing the same questionnaire for every tender. In practice:

• Register early, before you find an opportunity you want to bid for
• Keep the information up to date, and review it when anything material changes
• Make sure someone in your organisation owns the record and knows when it was last checked

Exclusions and debarment

The Act sets out mandatory and discretionary exclusion grounds. These cover matters such as certain criminal offences, insolvency, breaches of contract, professional misconduct and threats to national security. The grounds can also apply to connected persons and, in some cases, to subcontractors you rely on.

A central debarment list records suppliers that have been assessed as excluded or excludable. Buyers must check it.

Importantly, the Act also recognises self-cleaning. If something has gone wrong, a supplier can show the steps it has taken to stop it happening again. Buyers must consider that evidence.

Misrepresentation

One discretionary ground deserves particular attention: misrepresentation or withholding information during a procurement. If a supplier gives misleading information, or fails to disclose something it should have, that can itself become a reason for exclusion.

This is why we hold a firm line on accuracy. Every claim in a bid should be true, evidenced and deliverable:

• Do not claim certifications, accreditations or framework memberships you do not hold
• Do not present case studies or outcomes you cannot evidence
• Do not stretch team CVs or capacity beyond what you can actually put on the contract
• Keep a record of the evidence behind each statement in your response

Accurate bids are not just a compliance point. They make delivery easier, because what you promised is what you planned.

Conflicts of interest

Buyers have stronger duties to identify, assess and manage conflicts of interest, and to keep a record of how they did so. Suppliers may be asked to declare potential conflicts. Be open about relationships with the buying organisation, previous involvement in shaping the requirement, or anything else that could reasonably be seen as giving an unfair advantage. Disclosure early is far better than discovery later.

Payment terms

The Act strengthens prompt payment expectations in public contracts, and these flow down the supply chain. If you subcontract, you are expected to pay your own suppliers promptly too. Check the payment terms in each contract and make sure your invoicing process is ready to meet them. Clean, accurate invoices that match the contract make prompt payment much more likely. Our contract management and billing solution is built around that discipline.

Contract performance notices

For many contracts, buyers set key performance indicators and publish information about how suppliers perform against them. Poor performance, breaches and terminations can also be published.

That makes your delivery record far more visible. A practical response is to:

• Agree KPIs that are clear, measurable and within your control
• Track them internally from day one, not only when reporting is due
• Raise issues with the buyer early and keep a written record of agreed actions

How we approach bids under the Act

We register early, keep supplier information current, read every procurement document in full and only commit to what we can deliver. If you want to understand how we work with public sector buyers, see our public sector approach.

Talk to us

If you are a buyer exploring a requirement, or an SME looking for a delivery partner on a public sector bid, get in touch. We are happy to talk through how we would approach it.