On 24 February 2025 the Cabinet Office has issued GUIDANCE on the role of the Procurement Review Unit (PRU). The PRU will have responsibility for “oversight” of the new regime under the Procurement Act 2023. Its initial aim will be to ensure that the changes introduced by the Act are “embedded within contracting authorities”. The PRU will investigate (1) contracting authorities, to ensure compliance with the Act and (2) suppliers, for possible addition to the Debarment List. Private utilities and some NHS personal care services are, however, out of scope of the PRU. The Guidance states that the PRU is designed to deliver the following benefits:-
“- Raising standards across public sector procurement through focus on, but not limited to, early identification and rectification of systemic and institutional breaches.
- The protection of public contracts and public money from suppliers who pose risk by:
- Central consideration of ‘self-cleaning’ evidence provided by suppliers in order to assess whether the circumstances giving rise to an exclusion ground are continuing or likely to occur again
- Greater consistency and efficiency of supplier exclusions across the public sector, informed by a central debarment list and published investigation reports.”
The PRU consists of three services:-
- Public Procurement Review Services (PPRS), and focussed on suppliers’ complaints about specific procurement(s) and late payments;
- Procurement Compliance Service PCS), investigates contracting authorities’ compliance with the requirements of the Act;
- Debarment Review Service (DRS); aiming to protect public money from suppliers who pose risks by conducting investigations into suppliers to determine whether they are excluded or excludable suppliers and whether they should be added to the public debarment list. The service is also responsible for managing the debarment list.
The PCS will focus on investigating in-scope contracting authorities’ compliance with the requirements of the Act. It covers both central and wider public sector contracting authorities (such as NHS, local government and universities). The PCS will utilise the statutory powers under Part 10 of the Act to carry out investigations into a relevant contracting authority’s compliance with the Act. Where appropriate, the PCS may issue recommendations to that contracting authority as to the action it should take to comply with the Act and/or guidance that applies to contracting authorities more generally. However, a recommendation issued under the Act cannot relate to a contracting authority’s compliance with procurement objectives under Section 12 of the National Procurement Policy Statement, the duty to consider small and medium enterprises in regulated below-threshold contracts under Section 86, nor the exercise of a contracting authority’s discretion in procurements. Investigations carried out by the PCS focus on, but are not limited to: systemic (common across multiple contracting authorities) and institutional (made repeatedly by one particular contracting authority) non-compliance issues. The PCS may by notice require a contracting authority being investigated to provide relevant documents and giving assistance with an investigation as is reasonable in the circumstances.
A contracting authority may also be requested to provide progress reports (which could include an action plan), to demonstrate what actions (if any) the contracting authority has taken as a result of a recommendation. These may be published. The PCS will commence operations on 24th February 2025.
Contracting authorities are mandated to notify the PRU of suppliers they have excluded, replaced or removed from a public sector procurement and the applicable exclusion ground(s).