Contracting authorities
Compliance you can evidence. Savings you can bank.
Procurement Act 2023 Compliance Reviews, procurement transformation and advisory, interim leadership and training for local authorities, housing associations, NHS bodies, police, universities and every organisation the Act reaches.
Where the standard now sits
The standard has moved from adopting the Procurement Act 2023 to evidencing compliance with it. The authorities in the strongest position can state, with evidence, how much of their spend is on contract, where the exceptions are and what is being done about them.
Services for contracting authorities
Know where you stand. Fix what matters. Keep it that way.
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01
Procurement Act 2023 Compliance ReviewsFixed scope, fixed fee
Analysis of contracted against non-contracted spend, identification of non-compliant spend, the savings available, and a roadmap to compliant, efficient spending and contracting for your board.
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Procurement transformation and advisoryProgrammes, advisory support and interim leadership
Act implementation, contract procedure rules, governance and controls, spend and contract data, advisory support on the decisions that carry risk, live procurements kept moving, and a senior practitioner in the seat when you need one.
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TrainingIn person, off site, online or e-learning
Procurement Act 2023 compliance, governance and financial controls, and bid and tender excellence, written by practitioners and built around your own procedures and live cases.
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How we advise
Three things we keep separate, in every recommendation.
They carry very different weight in front of a board, and most procurement advice blurs them.
I
What the Act requires.
The legislation, the regulations and the statutory guidance, cited by section, and checked against the current position rather than recalled.
II
What your own rules require.
Your financial regulations, contract procedure rules, delegations and gateways. Often stricter than the Act, and the first thing a reviewer tests you against.
III
What is simply good practice.
Worth doing, and labelled as a choice rather than dressed up as a requirement, so your leadership team can decide on the real trade-offs.
Oversight
How compliance is now tested from outside.
The Cabinet Office's Procurement Compliance Service investigates how contracting authorities comply with the Act, and publishes what it finds.
- Investigations on referral from anyone.The service looks at systemic and institutional non-compliance and considers referrals from any source, including suppliers who expected a competition and did not get one.
- Documents and assistance, on notice.A section 108 notice requires an authority to provide documents and assistance, with a minimum of 30 days to respond. Evidence that lives in one officer's inbox becomes a reconstruction exercise.
- Recommendations you must have regard to.Section 109 recommendations, and section 110 guidance, with a progress report that may include an action plan.
- Published findings.Reports and progress reports may be published on GOV.UK. Since payments over £30,000 under public contracts are also published, uncontracted spend is visible to anyone who looks.
Sources: GOV.UK guidance on procurement compliance and oversight, updated August 2026; Cabinet Office, Procurement Compliance Service scope and remit; Procurement Act 2023, sections 70 and 108 to 110.
The Act for contracting authoritiesEngland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland
Four nations, two regimes, and we work in all of them.
The Procurement Act 2023 applies to contracting authorities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The duties are the same in substance across the three: notices, records, evaluation, modifications, payment terms and oversight. The practice differs. Welsh authorities publish operationally through Sell2Wales, which feeds the UK central digital platform, and devolved Welsh authorities are exempt from publishing the full and modified contract documents while their KPI and change notice duties apply in full. Northern Ireland authorities work under the Act with their own procurement arrangements and portal.
Scotland keeps its own legislation for devolved bodies, the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 and the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015, with Public Contracts Scotland as the portal. We advise Scottish public bodies under that regime and suppliers selling into it.
We hold an interim procurement role inside a Welsh housing association, and the differences between the regimes are built into everything we advise.
Sources: Procurement Act 2023, sections 52, 53(4), 71, 75 and 77(3); Welsh Government guidance on Sell2Wales and the central digital platform; Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014; Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015.
Recent and current work
Inside authorities, not alongside them.
Interim procurement lead, housing association in Wales
A procurement transformation programme delivered from inside the organisation: Procurement Act 2023 implementation, compliance, efficiency and value for money, regular procurements, highlight reports and resource impact assessments, with the work reporting to the executive team and board.
Procurement Act 2023 e-learning, unitary authority
Three modules for officers and budget holders: scope and thresholds; transparency and reporting; evaluation and exclusion changes.
Procurement Act 2023 Compliance Reviews
Analysis of contracted against non-contracted spend, identification of non-compliant spend, the efficiency savings available, and a roadmap to compliant, efficient spending and contracting for the board.
How a review worksQuestions we are asked
Before you get in touch.
Are we a contracting authority at all?
Section 2 of the Act sets the test: an organisation is caught where it is wholly or mainly publicly funded, or subject to public authority management or control, and does not operate on a commercial basis. Charitable status, a Royal Charter or regulatory oversight do not by themselves bring a body inside it. We run the test against the published accounts, the split between grant and self-generated income and the governing document, and record the reasoning. It is the first step in every review.
Do the duties cover our older contracts?
The reporting and payment duties refer to public contracts, not only to contracts awarded under the Act, so legacy contracts still in force and still regulated are caught. A compliance review reconciles all of your spend, whichever regime the contract was let under.
How does this fit with our existing assurance functions?
Alongside them. A compliance review gives your assurance functions a reconciled evidence base rather than a sample. Transformation and training give them controls to test. Findings are written so they can go straight into your assurance reporting.
Can you present to our board, cabinet or members?
Yes. Findings, roadmaps and highlight reports are written for the leadership audience and presented by the consultants who did the work.
You also advise suppliers. Why should that reassure us?
Because we see procurement from the side that challenges it. We know what a supplier's adviser looks for in an award, a modification or a direct award, and we test your position against that before anyone else does. Client work on both sides is confidential and never crosses over.