Preparing for procurement change

We were delighted to welcome Kieran McGaughey on Wednesday 17 April to speak to 80+ people working for EN’s members to help them understand the Procurement Act 2023 and identify key challenges and opportunities it may present.

Kieran is a commercial solicitor specialising in public procurement law. He sits on the executive committee of the Procurement Lawyers’ Association (PLA) and is National Lead for Procurement Law within Lawyers In Local Government (LLG).

The Act is the biggest change to public procurement this century and the hot topic on everyone’s minds right now.  It became law in October 2023, and is expected to go live in October 2024.  The Act brings all existing regulations into one place, although a large and complex one place, with 137 A4 pages, various sets of regulations plus rumours of up to 52 different guidance documents.

Kieran gave members a detailed walk through of the Act’s key changes from current PCR 2015 regulations:  greater transparency obligations, increased scope in terms of contract management, new language/ terminology, new competitive flexible procedure, debarment lists and dynamic markets.

EN will run a series of monthly sessions to coincide with the Procurement Act going live, which will focus on:

• Evaluation Criteria and Assessment Summaries
• Awards and Publishing Contracts
• Drafting a Competitive Flexible Procedure (Including SQQ/Common Assessment Standards)
• Notices Requirements (with detailed worked examples)
• Modification
• Frameworks and DPS
• Contract Management

Kieran McGaughey said: “It was a pleasure to deliver this training to EN’s members – many thanks to Emma for the invite. It was great to see such a good turnout with lots of audience engagement and questions. With the Act now less than 6 months away, it’s increasingly important for authorities to learn more about the new rules and the practical effect they will have”.

EN:Procure director of operations Emma Mottram said: “Whilst there is no substitute for reading the new rules enshrined in the Procurement Act 2023 (as well as those set out in the current draft Regulations and increasing number of guidance notes) Kieran gave us a great summary of the headline detail. There was plenty for Contracting Authorities to take away and considers. At Efficiency North we will be here to help our members navigate these change, and are planning a series of monthly sessions intended for Procurement Practitioners giving them an opportunity to consider how changes will affect common tasks.”

Follow Kieran on Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/kieran-mcgaughey-29383b66/