In August, Rebecca Evans, Minister for Finance and Local Government, announced that we will work with the UK government to include Welsh contracting authorities in the UK Procurement Reform Bill.
Since then the Procurement Reform Team in the Welsh Government has been working with its UK counterparts to fully understand the details of the UK Procurement Reform Bill to help ensure that it reflects Welsh needs.
The UK Procurement Reform Bill is being developed to similar timescales as the Welsh Government’s Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Bill (SPPP Bill). We know that developing the two Bills at the same time is confusing.
The UK Bill is focussed on the basic processes underpinning procurement so will change procurement processes and procedures and will replace the existing regulations (PCR, CCR and UCR).
The SPPP Bill aims to ensure that socially responsible outcomes are achieved from our procurement; it will enable those involved in procuring and managing contracts to focus on social, environmental, economic and cultural outcomes, including fair work.
The Procurement Reform and SPPP Bill teams are working closely together to ensure that there is minimal misalignment between the 2 bills and that they complement each other wherever possible.
If you have any questions, please e-mail: ProcurementReformTeam@gov.wales