Did you hear the Queen’s Speech on 11th May 2021?
Current 7 procurement procedures will become 3 new procurement procedures!
The new Competitive Flexible Procedure will give...… “greater flexibility for commercial teams to design their procedure to fit their procurement and will encourage innovation”
A new Procurement Bill is to be introduced in the next session of UK Parliament. The Queen, in her speech outlining the government legislative agenda, said the law would simplify procurement in the public sector.
A consultation on the green paper on procurement reform closed in March and the government is still analysing responses, but the bill is expected to be introduced “from September 2021”.
This means that buyer users need an eProcurement platform that allows them to create bespoke procurement procedures to match their needs.
Currently, we are all familiar with the following seven tender process:
- Open procedure
- Negotiated procedure without prior publication
- Restricted procedure
- Competitive dialogue procedure
- Competitive procedure with negotiation
- Innovation partnerships procedure
- Design contests
The ‘Green Paper’ discusses proposed changes to the above to simplify into just three:
1 - The “competitive flexible” procedure - a new competitive, flexible procedure that gives buyers maximum freedom to negotiate and innovate to get the best from the private, charity and social enterprise sectors.
2 - The open procedure - retain the open procedure which buyers can use for simpler, ‘off the shelf’ competitions as now (expanding its availability to suitable defence and security procurements for which this procedure is currently not available).
3 - The limited tendering procedure - retain the negotiated procedure without prior publication but renaming it as the limited tendering procedure - buyers can use in certain circumstances, such as in crisis or extreme urgency.
With further requirements proposed including publishing Contract Amendment Notices and with the new Competitive Flexible Procedure (which will largely replace your frequent common procurement routes), the aim is to give greater flexibility for commercial teams to design their procedure to fit their procurement and will encourage innovation and allow them to engage with the market more effectively and proactively.
The Mercell CTM system already allows bespoke procurement processes so we can set up the new procedures right now!
Are you ready for the change...?
Curious about the opportunities for your organisation? Get in touch.
