Consultation outcome – Green paper: Transforming public procurement

The Government has now analysed the responses to the Transforming Public Procurement Green paper published in December 2020.
This publication summarises the Government response to the consultation and elaborates on its plans for how public procurement will be transformed.
The full consultation outcome can be read here.
Highlights include:
• The proposed simplification of the current legislation into a single, uniform regulatory framework was supported in the main.
• the light touch regime will be retained, following concerns raised about removing it, but changes may be made to its scope and application
• the proposed approach for excluding of suppliers for misconduct such as fraud, corruption or poor performance will be further strengthened.
• transparency requirements will be developed to ensure they are proportionate to the procurements being carried out and simple to implement, to avoid creating additional potential burden on contracting authorities, and slowing down processes and decision making.
• The proposed cap to damages in procurement challenges has not been taken forward, but other measures are being looked at to resolve disputes faster.

It is anticipated that the new regulations will replace PCR 2015 in 2023 at the earliest and that training will be provided.