The Cabinet Office updated Procurement Policy Notice 09/21 and accompanying guidance in December 2021, which replaces PPN 07/21. We outline its scope, associated guidance and impact for contracting authorities.
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The Cabinet Office updated Procurement Policy Notice 09/21 (“PPN 09/21”) and accompanying guidance in December 2021 (originally published November 2021), which replaces PPN 07/21.
PPN 09/21 mainly:
A copy of PPN 09/21 and its accompanying guidance can be found here.
PPN 09/21 applies immediately to ‘In-Scope Organisations’. The accompanying guidance officially replaces PPN 07/16 and its associated guidance titled “Guidance on the new transparency requirements for publishing on Contracts Finder” as well as replacing previous guidance on “Publication of Central Government Tenders and Contracts”.
The guidance is in two parts:
Part 1: applies to all contracting authorities (other than contracting authorities performing mainly Welsh, Northern Ireland or Scottish devolved functions, the procurement of health care services for the NHS under the National Health Service (Procurement, Patient Choice and Competition) (No.2) Regulations 2013, and maintained schools, academies and sixth form college corporations) and provides that these organisations must:
Contracting authorities do not need to publish information about contracts which have not been advertised, where the contracting authority considers that it was lawful not to advertise the contract. However, contracting authorities are reminded to consider whether a contract may have cross-border interest before deciding not to advertise it, and document this as part of the procurement process.
Where an opportunity is advertised, the timescales for publication on Contracts Finder must be adhered to. These depend on how the opportunity was advertised and are set out within the guidance.
Part 1 of the guidance also sets out certain minimum information which must be published in relation to contracts which are being advertised, or which have been awarded – however, it should be noted that contracting authorities are specifically directed to the PCR 2015, which contains the full scope of information which must be published.
Information must be published on Contracts Finder within a reasonable time. The guidance sets out what is considered to be a reasonable time:
For the purposes of the guidance, the contract award date is the date that the contract is signed by the last contracting party.
Contracting authorities are also recommended to try and ensure key information about contracts is presented consistently across all the platforms they use, and notices they publish.
Part 2: applies to central government authorities (other than contracting authorities performing mainly Welsh, Northern Ireland or Scottish devolved functions, the procurement of health care services for the NHS under the National Health Service (Procurement, Patient Choice and Competition) (No.2) Regulations 2013, and maintained schools, academies and sixth form college corporations).
The intention of Part 2 is to provide the public with greater visibility of government contracting by requiring central government contracting authorities to publish tender and contract documents alongside contract notices on Contracts Finder. The guidance acknowledges that publishing tender documents on an e-tendering portal is likely to meet the requirements of the PCR 2015 in respect of allowing free and unrestricted direct access to the procurement documents for interested bidders, but the government require central government organisations to go further, so that the public also have access to these documents. The guidance therefore requires that central government contracting authorities publish copies of their procurement documents on Contracts Finder – the details of these requirements are set out in the guidance, along with detailed guidance on when contract documents may be withheld from publication, in whole or in part.
Annex 1 of the guidance provides a quick reference table which clarifies the requirements for publishing on Contracts Finder, and Annex 2 contains helpful FAQs, which may be useful for contracting authorities considering their obligations under this guidance.
The guidance provides a helpful overview of the publication and transparency requirements for contracting authorities, along with useful reminders of some key points, such as the duties to publish information on Contracts Finder where below threshold opportunities are advertised, as well as the fact that contract values for the purposes of applying the thresholds for application of the PCR 2015, should now be calculated inclusive of VAT.
Although not significantly different to PPN 07/21, if your organisation has any queries about publishing requirements, or the application of the PCR 2015 to your organisation, please do not hesitate to contact our procurement team.
