Those new Public Procurement Thresholds

 Here are those new Threshold values I mentioned earlier.  They apply from 1 January 2026  and will not change for 2 years.

The values are lower in both GBP and EUR, despite global inflation being in the range of 3% to 5% (obviously significantly different in any individual country).  I have to say that I am not sure what is happening here...

The Thresholds are denominated in Special Drawing Rights (SDR) which are based on a basket of currencies including Sterling and EUR (and USD, Yen and Yuan).  So they should not change a lot.  And I cannot see whether the underlying values in SDR have changed, nor why they have not been adapted to take account of inflation.

Anyway, the new (and old) values for the UK are below.

Win more contracts - understanding the Procurement Act 2023 - 4th December 2025

 Last open course for 2025 (for me) is online on Wednesday 4th December 2025.

Full details are here.

These courses have been very popular, and so we shall run them again in 2026, but not until February at the earliest.  And there will probably be a run of other courses as well, but not until the Spring.

So if you are interested, hope to see you online.

New Public Procurement Thresholds from 1 January 2026

 And they are lower than at moment. (just a bit)

Some people says this means more competition as more contracts will be subject to the threshold and there require competition.

WELL, given that the PA2023 increases the opportunities for avoiding competition the lowering of the threshold is only a marginal step back in the direction of competion.

 

And of course the thresholds are not actually set by the UK government but the WTO GPA.

 

Given the significant inflation over the past few years this is a significant lowering of (most of) the thresholds.  I'll be interested in the response.  I suspect many contracting authorities actually would have preferred a significant increase.

Public Procurement consultation - closes 5th September 2025

 Last chance to have your input on future changes to UK Public Procurement - consultation closes 5pm on Friday 5th Sept 2025.

Now, I'm sure you have already made your input - but just in case...

The link is here.

Summer's gone (wake up Boo!) - The Procurement Act in Practice for Suppliers 9th September 2025

 Gosh, it's 2nd September already. Summer's not quite gone, but it is getting ready for back to school...

And so I assume lots of people are now keen to stop reading that summer blockbuster on the beach and start thinking again about the Procurement Act 2023.

No?

Well if you are then, you might want to come along for our first Procurement Act in Practice for Suppliers next Tuesday 9th September at PASS Procurement.

Link here - https://www.passprocurement.co.uk/event/procurement-act-in-practice-for-suppliers/

And if you are old enough to get the reference, the Boo Radleys are here

Covid and PPE Procurement

I think this is a very interesting submission from the UK Anti-Corruption Coalition to the Covid-19 enquiry.

My comments were;

Chris, great stuff. As my delegates will know, the late publication of PPE contract notices is a major gripe of mine (even allowing, as you do, for the difficult circumstances). That this was a deliberate attempt by government to escape scrutiny is (I think) an inescapable conclusion, leading to a huge loss of trust in public procurement and government. Even if no wrong doing were to be discovered, this is a terrible damage for the country. It was a deliberate choice by Ministers, who should be ashamed of themselves.
The facts that PPE was expensive, and fraudsters took advantage with sub-par products, are probably unavoidable. The damage to public trust was easily avoidable. It immediately leads people to think "there is no smoke without fire" and to suspect deliberate fraud and corruption at the highest level. In short, the exact opposite of what might have been intended.

GovPD - win-more-contracts-understanding-and-implementing-the-procurement-act-2023 5th August 2025

 There is good news and bad news about the course I run for GovPD - Winning more contracts, understanding and implementing the Procurement Act 2023.

The good news is that we are running it online again on 5th August 2025.

The bad news is that that session is already sold out.

The better news is that we have more dates scheduled - 1st October 2025 and 3rd December 2025.

But if you are interested, might be an idea to get booking.  The course is mostly focused on suppliers, but is relevant to buyers too (and I make sure to tweak the content according to the delegates).