Regulated procurement | UK Regulatory Outlook October 2024

Procurement Act: Litigation timing change

The Cabinet Office updated its guidance on remedies under the new Procurement Act 2023. Within this there are two timing changes to be aware of when contemplating procurement litigation under the Act:

1.    The claim form must be served within four months of the date the claim form is issued.

This is a change from the requirement under the current regulations to serve it within seven days of being issued.

A contracting authority can serve a notice on the claimant requiring (1) service of the claim form within a set deadline or (2) discontinuance of the claim.

2.    The claimant has 14 days to serve the Particulars of Claim following service of the claim form.

This has also changed from seven days from issue of the claim form under the current regulations. The time limits for service for any claims to procurements still covered by the current regulations will remain unchanged. Claims will continue to be under the existing regulations in relation to any procurements commenced before the Act comes into force on 24 February 2025 or call offs from any frameworks in place before that date.

REMEMBER: For the automatic suspension to be put in place, the contracting authority needs to be notified that a claim has been issued within the standstill period – however, the guidance has made it clear that this notification does not need to take the form of service of the claim form. ("While it is expected that a claimant will serve the claim form on the contracting authority at the same time as notifying it of the commencement of proceedings where it wishes the automatic suspension to apply, as required by section 101 of the Act, this is not strictly required").

Survey on the National Procurement Policy Statement

The Government Commercial Function has opened a stakeholder survey inviting comments on the development of the new National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS). This follows on from the government announcing the delay of the implementation of the new procurement regime as it wanted to withdraw and re-write the NPPS.

The survey closes at midday on 4 November 2024.

Guidance published on the Central Digital Platform

The Cabinet Office has published guidance and a factsheet on the central digital platform (CDP) under the Procurement Act. The CDP will be where all UK contracting authorities publish information relating to procurements, including procurement notices, and will also be used to store core supplier information.

Once registered, suppliers will input their commonly used information and may then choose to share this with authorities they wish to bid to. Over time, the CDP will be the go-to place to find not only opportunities to bid for, but also for information on contracts that have been let, how the awarded supplier is performing and how contracts are being changed.

Suppliers only need to register at the point that they want to bid for a contract after the law comes into force on 24 February 2025 ,but we recommend this is done in good time before the first bid submission is due.

Suppliers and authorities should review both the guidance and factsheet to familiarise themselves with the CDP and what it will require of them.