As the Procurement Act 2023 is now live, I would like to give our members an update on how EEM has prepared. I will also share details of our first planned procurement under the Act, alongside our wider procurement plan and information on how we can support you in implementing the new rules and staying compliant with your procurements.
Prepared by Amy Wheatley, Head of Procurement at EEM
Procurement Act: Preparation and Implementation within EEM
We have been keeping on top of our training, as well as all advice and additional publications in relation to the Act. Below are some of the steps we have undertaken to be ready for the Act's go-live and beyond.
• We were granted access to both the practitioner and advanced practitioner training, and our Procurement Team have undertaken the training modules through the Government Commercial College.
• All of the EEM Team have watched all of the Knowledge Drops.
• Our Procurement Team have attended all of the Government Commercial Function Community of Practice (CoP) webinars and training.
• Our Procurement Team have attended legal updates and training provided by Trowers & Hamlins and Kieran McGaughey via Echelon Group.
• Central Digital Platform: We have had our account approved and the Procurement Team have participated in all of the Government Commercial Function’s Community of Practice (CoP) sessions and training in relation to the Central Digital Platform, including the very recent one held on Thursday 6th February.
• We have been keeping up-to-date with the Communities of Practice message boards.
• We have had access to a user testing account on our eProcurement Portal to enable us to work through the new notices on the platform and we have attended a number of training sessions our portal provider has hosted.
• We issued a printed copy of the Procurement Act to all EEM Members.
• We have had a full legal review of our Framework Agreement and existing templates.
• We have templates ready to use for our first planned procurement under the Act.
• We will have new mini-competition templates and assessment summaries available for members to use for any future mini-competitions under new Frameworks we procure via the Act.
I hope the above gives you full confidence in continuing to use our existing Frameworks and DPS solutions and any future Frameworks or Dynamic Markets we procure.
Supporting our Members
Members can continue to access Frameworks and DPS’s as normal, safe in the knowledge that our existing solutions are compliant with Public Contract Regulations.
Please rest assured that there will be no changes to any existing contracts you have awarded via any of our current Frameworks and DPS’s and any future awards via our existing Frameworks and DPS’s will continue under Public Contract Regulations (PCR 2015) until the expiry of the Framework or DPS.
The good news for our members is that EEM Frameworks and Dynamic Markets procured under the new regime, will continue to offer a fully compliant, low-risk route for your procurement as well as being free to access and providing efficiency savings for our members.
The Act is designed to bring multiple benefits to procurement practices; however, there are additional requirements members need to understand and comply with, including increased transparency and contract management measures. Members will now need to publish additional notices when awarding a contract under any EEM Framework procured under the Act as set out below and our Procurement Team are on hand to review and support where required.
Notice requirements for Members:
• Contract Award Notice: informing the market at the conclusion of your mini competition that you intend to enter into a contract .
• Contract Details Notice: to be published no longer than 30 days post award and providing detail of the contract award. Where the value of this contract is above £5m, members will be required to publish a copy of the contract alongside this notice. A copy of the contract must be published within 90 days of the public contract being entered into.
• Contract Performance Notice: publishing information relating to the Key Performance Indicators (at least three) set for monitoring contract performance. Published at least once every 12 months during the contract period. This is only required where the value of the contract exceeds £5m.
• Payment Compliance Notice: Compulsory where a payment has been made or a sum has become payable under a public contract within 30 days of the last ‘reporting period’.
• Contract Change Notice: compulsory where a member intends to make a modification to their contract. Publication of the notice is required before a change is made to an existing contract that is above the prescribed value or contract duration thresholds set out in the act. The notice must describe the nature of the change, the impact on the contract and reasons for it being permitted under the act.
• Contract Termination Notice: to inform the market that a contract has been terminated (this is voluntary for awards under a framework) or that a contract has expired. The notice should be published within 30 days of the contracts termination.
Additional Points to Note:
Members are not obliged to publish any of the notices required for below threshold public contracts awarded under framework agreements (unless notifiable) but are encouraged to voluntarily do so.
Assessment summaries are not required to be provided to suppliers following the award of a call-off contract let via any frameworks we procure under the Act and standstill periods are not mandatory however, members will be encouraged to provide assessment summaries as a matter of best practice.
Our notices when procuring a framework under the Act will meet the requirements to comply with the Act’s standard noticing provisions when setting up and managing a framework. In summary, this will include details of all contracting authorities that may award call-off contracts under the framework during its term. This can be done either by listing the names of those authorities, or by describing categories of authorities, for example ‘all local authorities within the East Midlands’, or ‘all central government authorities as defined in the Procurement Act 2023’, or ‘all NHS Foundation Trusts’ etc.
I would like to take this opportunity to remind you that we are here to support you and can offer tailored assistance to meet your needs. Whether you require a simple reassurance check-in on any areas of uncertainty, have questions in relation to the Procurement Act or our frameworks, need a review of any notices you are submitting in relation to procurements via our frameworks, or require support building mini-competition tender packs or reviewing documentation for a selection process via our framework, we are here to help.
All support to members using our frameworks is free of charge so please do not hesitate to reach out.
EEM Procurement Update
Our first framework to be launched under the Procurement Act will be our Demolition Framework.
For the last four years, our Demolition offering has been via a DPS but we have taken the decision to move this back to a Framework taking into account that below threshold awards are no longer allowed via a DPS.
We have a mix of below and above threshold awards via our current Demolition DPS and procuring this again under the Act as a Dynamic Market would mean we couldn’t facilitate any below threshold awards which is a risk to us and our Members.
There are now greater flexibilities when designing procurement process and flexibility of an Open Framework which this procurement process would be suited to so we plan to procure an Open Framework under the Competitive Flexible Procedure to take advantage of the ability to open up the framework and re-evaluate after an initial 3 year period to give opportunity to contractors who missed the previous opportunity or new market entrants and also to give contractors opportunity to revise their submission or not submit should they no longer wish to operate on the framework.
Our planned procurements under the Procurement Act for this year are:
Demolition (EEM0036)
Planned Tender Notice Release - 21/04/2025
Planned Go Live - 08/09/2025
Print Solutions and Digital Communications (EEM0025)
Planned Tender Notice Release -21/07/2025
Planned Go Live - 17/01/2026
Insulation and Associated Works (EEM0046)
Planned Tender Notice Release -08/09/2025
Planned Go Live - 06/04/2026
Windows and Doors (EEM0073)
Planned Tender Notice Release - 06/10/2025
Planned Go Live - 20/04/2026
Lift Installs, Refurbishment & Maintenance (EEM0075)
Planned Tender Notice Release - 13/10/2025
Planned Go Live - 20/04/2026
Finally, our Procurement Team will be attending the Procurement Act Live event on Thursday 27th February, at the NEC Birmingham and we welcome any questions or discussions you wish to have on the Procurement Act or our Procurement offering in general.
https://www.procurementactlive.co.uk/
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Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions or any opportunities we can support you with as the team and I are here to support you tenders@eem.org.uk.
Amy Wheatley
Head of Procurement
Efficiency East Midlands Limited (EEM)