Procurement Act 2023 Explained: What Suppliers Need to Know
The Procurement Act 2023 is the most significant reform of UK public procurement in a generation. It came into force in February 2025, replacing the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and reshaping how public sector contracts above defined financial thresholds are advertised, evaluated and awarded. For any organisation tendering for public sector work in 2026, understanding what the Procurement Act 2023 changed — and what it means for how you find opportunities, write responses and compete for contracts — is essential. This guide explains the Act in plain terms, focuses on the changes that most directly affect suppliers and shows you how to compete more effectively within the new framework it creates.
For the complete guide to public sector tendering under the Procurement Act 2023, visit our pillar guide Tendering for Contracts.
What Is the Procurement Act 2023?
The Procurement Act 2023 is primary legislation that governs how public sector organisations in England, Wales and Northern Ireland procure goods, services and works above defined financial thresholds. It received Royal Assent in October 2023 and came into force in February 2025 following an extended implementation period that gave buyers and suppliers time to prepare for the changes it introduced.
Scotland operates under its own procurement legislation — the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 — and was not directly affected by the Procurement Act 2023. However, many of the principles and practices introduced by the Act align with established Scottish procurement standards, and suppliers operating across the UK will find the framework broadly consistent.
The Act replaced a complex collection of procurement regulations — primarily the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, the Utilities Contracts Regulations 2016 and the Concession Contracts Regulations 2016 — with a single, more flexible and more transparent legislative framework. Its stated objectives are to simplify procurement, increase transparency, support economic growth, promote social value and make it easier for SMEs and voluntary organisations to compete for government contracts.
The Key Changes the Procurement Act 2023 Introduced
The Procurement Act 2023 introduced a significant number of changes to UK public procurement. The changes most directly relevant to suppliers competing for public sector contracts are explained below.
Most Advantageous Tender Replaces MEAT
The single most important conceptual change in the Procurement Act 2023 is the replacement of the Most Economically Advantageous Tender — MEAT — with the Most Advantageous Tender — MAT — as the evaluation standard for public sector contracts. While both frameworks require buyers to assess overall value rather than lowest price alone, the shift from MEAT to MAT is significant in emphasis and scope.
MEAT required buyers to identify the most economically advantageous tender — framing the evaluation primarily in economic terms. MAT requires buyers to identify the most advantageous tender — a broader framing that explicitly encompasses quality, social value, environmental impact, innovation and long-term public benefit alongside economic value. This shift reinforces the importance of social value commitments, environmental credentials and broader public benefit arguments in competitive tender responses — dimensions that strong suppliers should be actively developing and articulating. Our guide to the Most Advantageous Tender explains the MAT framework in full.
New and Simplified Procurement Procedures
The Procurement Act 2023 replaced the rigid menu of procurement procedures under the 2015 Regulations with a simplified framework of three primary procedures.
The open procedure remains — allowing any eligible supplier to submit a response to a published tender without a prior selection stage. The restricted procedure also continues — requiring suppliers to pass a Selection Questionnaire before being invited to submit a full tender response. The competitive flexible procedure is entirely new — giving buyers significantly more flexibility to design their procurement process around the specific nature of the contract, including dialogue with suppliers, iterative submission stages and negotiation. The competitive flexible procedure replaces the competitive dialogue, competitive with negotiation and innovation partnership procedures that existed under the previous regulations.
For suppliers, the competitive flexible procedure is the most significant new format to understand. It introduces more opportunities for dialogue with buyers before submission — which can be valuable for understanding requirements in depth — but also more complexity in terms of what the process involves and how to compete effectively within it. Our guide to types of tendering procedures covers every procurement procedure in full.
Open Frameworks
The Procurement Act 2023 introduced open frameworks as a new form of framework agreement. Unlike closed frameworks — which are fixed at the initial appointment stage and do not admit new suppliers during the framework term — open frameworks must reassess and potentially admit new suppliers at defined intervals, at least every three years. This change directly benefits suppliers who missed the initial appointment exercise for a relevant framework. Rather than waiting for the framework to expire and be re-procured — which could mean waiting several years — suppliers can apply for appointment at the next assessment point. Our guide to framework agreements covers open frameworks and their implications for suppliers in full.
Transparency and Publication Requirements
The Procurement Act 2023 significantly strengthened transparency obligations across the public procurement cycle. Buyers must now publish a broader range of procurement notices — including pipeline notices that give advance warning of upcoming procurement exercises, contract award notices published within defined timeframes and contract performance notices that report on supplier delivery against contract terms.
For suppliers, these enhanced transparency obligations create significant market intelligence opportunities. Pipeline notices give advance warning of upcoming procurement exercises — often months before the formal ITT is published — allowing proactive preparation rather than reactive scrambling. Contract award notices confirm who won previous contracts and on what terms — giving suppliers the competitive intelligence they need to understand the market they are entering. Contract performance notices give visibility of how incumbent suppliers are performing against their contractual obligations — intelligence that can shape positioning in re-procurement competitions. Our guide to how to use Contracts Finder shows you how to access and use this published data strategically.
Supplier Debarment and Exclusion Reform
The Procurement Act 2023 reformed the supplier exclusion and debarment system. It introduced a centralised debarment list — a publicly accessible register of suppliers excluded from competing for public contracts due to serious misconduct, criminal convictions or significant performance failures. Suppliers on the debarment list are automatically excluded from all above-threshold public procurement in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The Act also reformed the grounds for mandatory and discretionary exclusion — aligning them with current legal standards and giving buyers clearer guidance on when exclusion is required and when it is discretionary. For most suppliers competing legitimately for public sector contracts, the debarment and exclusion reforms create no practical change. For suppliers with complex compliance histories, understanding the new exclusion grounds and their implications is important before completing any selection questionnaire or pre-qualification questionnaire under the new framework.
SME and Voluntary Sector Access
The Procurement Act 2023 includes specific provisions aimed at improving SME and voluntary sector access to public procurement. Buyers must have regard to the facilitation of SME participation when designing their procurement processes. Simplification of selection criteria, proportionate requirements and faster payment terms are among the measures the Act promotes to reduce barriers for smaller suppliers.
In practice, these provisions reinforce a procurement environment that is already more accessible to SMEs than the previous framework — particularly given the MAT evaluation standard that rewards quality and social value alongside price. Our guide to government contracts for SMEs covers the specific opportunities the current framework creates for smaller organisations in full.
Contract Management and Performance Reporting
The Procurement Act 2023 introduced new requirements for contract management and performance reporting — requiring buyers to publish notices reporting on supplier performance against contract KPIs for significant contracts. This transparency obligation creates both a risk and an opportunity for suppliers. The risk is that poor performance on current contracts becomes publicly visible in a way that can affect future procurement outcomes. The opportunity is that strong performance is equally visible — building a verifiable public track record that strengthens future tender responses and selection questionnaire submissions.
What the Procurement Act 2023 Means for How You Write Tenders
The Procurement Act 2023 does not fundamentally change what makes a winning tender response — specific evidence, buyer-specific tailoring, credible methodology and strong social value commitments are as decisive under the new framework as they were under the old one. What it does change is the emphasis and the context within which those qualities are evaluated.
The shift from MEAT to MAT reinforces the importance of social value, environmental credentials and broader public benefit arguments in competitive tender responses. Buyers evaluating under MAT are explicitly encouraged to look beyond economic value — making well-developed social value commitments more influential in evaluation outcomes than they were under the previous framework. Our guide to social value tender responses gives you the complete framework for developing and writing commitments that earn full marks under the MAT evaluation standard.
The competitive flexible procedure creates new opportunities for dialogue with buyers before submission — but also new demands on suppliers to engage effectively during pre-market consultation stages. Participating in pre-market engagement exercises published under the new transparency requirements gives you buyer intelligence that strengthens your tender response before the formal ITT is even published. Our guide to how to find tender opportunities covers how to monitor pipeline notices and pre-market engagement exercises in the new transparency framework.
The open framework provision creates new pipeline opportunities for suppliers who previously missed appointment windows for relevant frameworks. Monitor open framework reassessment exercises in your service areas — they represent scheduled opportunities to join frameworks that were previously closed to new entrants. Our guide to framework agreements covers how to compete for open framework appointment effectively.
What the Procurement Act 2023 Does Not Change
Understanding what the Procurement Act 2023 does not change is as important as understanding what it does. Several aspects of competitive public procurement remain entirely consistent with the previous framework — and suppliers who assume everything has changed risk overcomplicating their approach to the new landscape.
The fundamental competitive dynamic of public tendering is unchanged. Contracts are still awarded to the highest-scoring compliant submission. Quality still accounts for the majority of the evaluation score in most service contracts. Evidence still earns marks that assertions do not. Buyer-specific tailoring still earns higher scores than generic content. The writing disciplines that produce winning submissions under the Procurement Act 2023 are the same disciplines that produced them under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.
The core procurement procedures — open and restricted — remain. The selection questionnaire continues as the standard first-stage eligibility assessment. The ITT continues as the full competitive stage. Framework agreements continue as the primary mechanism for sustained pipeline access. The evaluation standards — mark descriptors, quality-price splits, social value weighting — continue to operate as they did before the Act came into force.
What has changed is the legislative framework that governs these processes, the transparency obligations that make market intelligence more accessible and the evaluation terminology that reflects a broader conception of value. These are meaningful changes — but they do not fundamentally alter what it takes to win a public sector contract. Specific evidence, precise tailoring, credible methodology and strong social value commitments remain the decisive factors in competitive evaluation. Our guide to how to win a tender gives you the complete nine-step framework that produces winning submissions under the current legislative landscape.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Procurement Act 2023
When did the Procurement Act 2023 come into force?
The Procurement Act 2023 received Royal Assent in October 2023 and came into force in February 2025 following an extended implementation period. Contracts published on or after the implementation date are governed by the Act. Contracts published before implementation remain governed by the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 for the duration of their term. By 2026 the vast majority of active public sector procurement exercises are conducted under the Procurement Act 2023 framework.
Does the Procurement Act 2023 apply in Scotland?
No. Scotland operates under the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 and its associated regulations. The Procurement Act 2023 applies in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Suppliers operating across the UK will find many similarities between the Scottish and rest-of-UK procurement frameworks — including competitive tendering principles, evaluation standards and transparency requirements — but the specific legislative basis and some procedural details differ.
What replaced MEAT under the Procurement Act 2023?
The Most Advantageous Tender — MAT — replaced the Most Economically Advantageous Tender — MEAT — as the evaluation standard under the Procurement Act 2023. MAT requires buyers to assess the full range of value a supplier offers — quality, social value, environmental impact, innovation and long-term public benefit — rather than framing evaluation primarily in economic terms. In practice, the evaluation mechanics — quality-price splits, mark descriptors, social value weighting — remain broadly similar, but the MAT standard reinforces the importance of broader value dimensions in competitive evaluation.
What is the competitive flexible procedure?
The competitive flexible procedure is a new procurement procedure introduced by the Procurement Act 2023. It gives buyers more flexibility to design their procurement process around the specific nature of the contract — including dialogue with suppliers before submission, iterative submission stages and negotiation. It replaces the competitive dialogue, competitive with negotiation and innovation partnership procedures that existed under the previous regulations. Suppliers are most likely to encounter it on complex, innovative or high-value contracts where the full specification cannot be defined at the outset.
What are open frameworks under the Procurement Act 2023?
Open frameworks are a new type of framework agreement introduced by the Procurement Act 2023. Unlike closed frameworks — which fix the supplier list at the initial appointment stage — open frameworks must reassess and potentially admit new suppliers at defined intervals of at least every three years. This means suppliers who missed the initial appointment exercise for a relevant open framework can apply for appointment at the next assessment point rather than waiting for the framework to expire and be re-procured. Our guide to framework agreements covers open frameworks in full.
Does the Procurement Act 2023 make it easier for SMEs to win government contracts?
The Act includes specific provisions to facilitate SME participation — including requirements for buyers to consider SME access in procurement design, simplified selection criteria and faster payment terms. Combined with the MAT evaluation standard that rewards quality and social value alongside price, the current framework is more accessible to well-prepared smaller organisations than previous procurement regimes. Our guide to government contracts for SMEs covers the specific opportunities the current framework creates for smaller organisations.
Written by Joshua Smith, a seasoned bid-writing expert with experience across the UK, Middle East and US, helping organisations secure the contracts they deserve through high-quality, competitive tender responses.
The Framework Has Changed. What It Takes to Win Has Not.
The Procurement Act 2023 has reshaped the legislative landscape of UK public procurement. Specific evidence, precise tailoring, credible methodology and strong social value commitments still determine who wins the contract. They always have. They always will.
We have been producing the submissions that earn the highest scores — under every procurement framework the UK public sector has operated — for over a decade. The Act is new. Our expertise is not. Let us help you win under the current framework.
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