The National Procurement Policy Statement

The National Procurement Policy Statement

On 12 February 2025, the Government published the new National Procurement Policy Statement (“the NPPS”) setting out the Government’s strategic priorities for public procurement on the eve of the Procurement Act 2023 coming into force. It is this NPPS that under section 13(9) of the Procurement Act 2023 (“the Act”) contracting authorities will have to “have regard to” in the exercise of their procurement functions.

Readers will likely recall that the need to update the previous NPPS was the Government’s stated reason for delaying the implementation of the Act from Autumn 2024. A consultation was subsequently launched to obtain views on how procurement could help achieve greater value for money, deliver social value and enable collaboration between contracting authorities. The new NPPS is the output of that consultation and the Government’s subsequent work to pull together the wider strategic considerations that it is keen to ensure contracting authorities have in mind when purchasing goods, services and works.

Procurement Priorities

The NPPS emphasises the importance of public procurement as a lever supporting the delivery of the Government’s “missions”. The NPPS establishes three priorities for contracting authorities to deliver value for money. Each priority is then accompanied by actions that contracting authorities should take:

1. Driving economic growth and strengthen supply chains by giving small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and voluntary, community and social enterprises (VCSEs) a fair chance at public contracts, creating high quality jobs and championing innovation.

Contracting authorities should:

• Maximise procurement spend with SMEs and VCSEs.
• Ensure their suppliers are committed to providing high quality jobs, safe and healthy working conditions, fair pay, opportunity and progressions for workers.
• Work collaboratively across policy, delivery and commercial functions to develop a “pro-innovation mindset”.

2. Delivering social and economic value that supports the Government’s missions by working in partnership across organisational boundaries.

Contracting authorities should:

• Secure social and economic value which supports delivery of the national missions taking into account priorities in local and regional economic growth plans.
• Ensure their suppliers are actively working to the highest standards of integrity, ethical conduct and environmental sustainability in business practices.

3. Building commercial capability to deliver value for money and stronger outcomes. Contracting authorities should ensure the right commercial capability and standards are in place to procure and manage contracts effectively and to collaborate with other contracting authorities to deliver best value.

Contracting authorities should:

• Apply commercial best practice including the principles and policies in the Government’s Playbook series (where appropriate) and make decisions based on value for money and service quality when assessing delivery models and outsourcing decisions.
• Benchmark their organisational capability and workforce capacity to ensure they have the appropriate procurement and contract management skills and capacity necessary to deliver value for money.
• Use collaborative procurement agreements, where appropriate for the requirement and the market, to ensure value for money.

Many of these points will be familiar to readers who spent time understanding the previous NPPS so there is continuity here and authorities that have been taking the time to benchmark organisational capability or consider supplier diversity and ways to support SMEs will be reassured that those efforts are still relevant.

ProAct 23

With the Act going live on 24 February 2025, all contracting authorities must have regard to the new priorities as per section 13(9) of the Act, with the NPPS emphasising the importance of the new statement being read “not just by procurement teams, but by strategic leadership and key decision-makers in contracting authorities”.

To support your organisation Bevan Brittan has launched ‘ProAct 23’, a set of tools designed to assist with understanding, preparing for, and complying with the Act in England and Wales. A set of practical, detailed guidance on applying the Act in real-life situations.

For more information or to discuss how ProAct 23 can support your organisation, please contact Emily Heard or explore our ProAct 23 landing page.