Regulated procurement

Public procurement is the purchasing of goods, services or works by the public sector. Until 24 February 2025, procurement processes that start before that date (and also variations to public contracts in force before that date) are regulated by a system of rules deriving from the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. A separate set of rules (but one which stems from the same origins) applies to procurement by utilities; a third regulates the procurement of concession contracts, whether by the public sector or by utilities.

Following the UK's departure from the EU and the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December 2020, the EU-derived procurement rulebook had generally been retained, with just a few changes made. However, on
24 February 2025, the UK’s Procurement Act 2023 came into force. Changes introduced by the new Act include a unified regime (as opposed to separate regimes for public procurement, utilities procurement and concessions) and general procedural simplification. Procurement law reform in the UK: Procurement Act 2023 provides more detail on the scope and key features of the new Act. The remainder of this section concentrates on the pre-Procurement Act regime, which was in force until 24 February 2025.

Note: the pre-Act regime will continue to apply to procurements that are already underway by the time the new Act enters force, even if those procurements remain ongoing at the point when the new Act is effective.

The procurement regime exists to open up public procurement to competition. It does so by setting out a legal framework of rules to govern the award of public contracts, wherever those contracts come within the scope of the rules (by virtue of their nature and subject matter) and exceed certain financial thresholds.

This section focuses primarily on the pre-Act (until 24 February 2025) national procurement regime applying to the public sector (central and sub-central government, other public-sector bodies and bodies governed by public law) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Procurement by utilities and of concession contracts are touched on where appropriate. Scotland has its own set of procurement rules, which are generally similar but with some appreciable differences.

Although the pre-Act regime will no longer regulate procurement processes that start on or after 24 February 2025, it will continue to regulate:

• procurement exercises that started before that date and are still in progress after it and
• public contracts that are the result of procurements that started before that date.

This latter feature will be relevant principally in relation to variations (i.e. changes) to contracts procured under the pre-Act regime, which will continue to govern such variations.  

This section is maintained by Christopher Brennan of Gowling WLG (UK) LLP.

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