As part of the event, held at the NEC on 27th February 2025, we were able to attend talks by numerous speakers from Government, public and private sector – to provide their insights as to how the regulations would impact their work.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) speaker explained how collusion and ‘cartel like’ behaviour may result in bidders being excluded from participating in procurements for up to 5 years.
Under the new regulations, there will be a centralised list of supplier organisations that have been debarred and cannot bid for public sector contracts. This will enable buyers to ensure debarred organisations do not bid for their tenders.
The CMA also provided examples of bid rigging and the impact of such practices to date. The CMA will be working closely with the debarment team, part of the Public Procurement Review Service.
Under the Act, the Procurement Review Unit now incorporates three distinct areas:
- Public Procurement Review Service (PPRS) – intended for suppliers to report poor practices relating to specific procurements. Where the PPRS identifies trends in poor practice, these can be referred to the Procurement Compliance Service for investigation. This was also previously known as the Cabinet Office ‘Mystery Shopper’ scheme and has been in operation since 2011.
- Procurement Compliance Service (PCS) – the remit for this service is to investigate common procurement compliance issues (relating to the Procurement Act 2023), that occur across numerous organisations. Findings of their work will be made public, in addition to updates being made to statutory guidance, where appropriate.
- Debarment Review Service – the responsibility of this team is the investigation of excluded or excludable suppliers and the management of the centralised debarred list of suppliers (i.e. those that have been banned from competing in public sector procurements).
There is now a duty on buyers to remove suppliers that have been debarred from their procurement processes (Sections 60 of the Act refer). Debarment can only happen after a full investigation and also approval by the responsible Minister. If however the supplier in question does not respond to the investigation, they may go straight onto the debarment list, which is a ground for mandatory exclusion.
The topic of AI is everywhere! It also impacts procurement. Discussions were held at the event about the use of AI in evaluations as a mechanism for removing bias from decision makers. It is also perceived that AI will have its place in the future of contract management. We will continue to monitor this closely, as procurement related processes potentially transition into and learn from the use of AI.