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How does the National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS) affect Contracting Authorities?

Procurement accounts for around a third of all public expenditure, and with the publication of the NPPS a greater focus is being put on how this spending can better support the delivery of key priorities - including generating economic growth, helping communities recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, and supporting the transition to net zero carbon emissions.

The policies within the statement apply to the entire public sector, and includes central government departments, executive agencies, non-departmental public bodies, local authorities and the NHS.


Priorities identified within the NPPS, and what they mean for buyers

Social Value

As a buyer, considering the social, economic and environmental impact of procurement decisions is now more important than ever. Suppliers need to encouraged to adopt the best practices by putting a greater emphasis on social value within notices, and awarding work to bids that sufficiently contribute towards helping to deliver the priorities identified within the NPPS:

Creating new businesses, new jobs and new skills

  • Increasing opportunities for entrepreneurship and helping new and/or small businesses to grow, supporting higher economic growth and greater business creation
  • Increasing employment opportunities particularly for those who face high barriers to employment or who are located in disadvantaged areas
  • Extending training opportunities, particularly for people in industries with known skills shortages or in high growth sectors

Tackling climate change and reducing waste

  • Contributing to the UK Government’s legally-binding target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050
  • Reducing waste, improving resource efficiency and contributing to the move towards a circular economy
  • Identifying and prioritising opportunities in sustainable procurement to deliver additional environmental benefits, for example enhanced biodiversity, through the delivery of the contract

Improving supplier diversity, innovation and resilience

  • Creating a more diverse supply chain to deliver the contract, which will better support start-ups, small and medium-sized businesses and VCSEs in doing business on public sector contracts
  • Increasing innovation and the use of disruptive technologies and business models throughout the supply chain, to deliver lower cost and/or higher quality goods and services, and encourage the wider adoption of innovation
  • Contributing to the development of scalable and future-proofed new methods to modernise delivery and increase productivity

Commercial and procurement delivery

This section of the NPPS looks at making procurement more efficient for contracting authorities and suppliers. As the guidance offered here is the same as the key policies contained within the procurement playbooks, we recommend reading our summaries of these playbooks to gain a better understand of how central government agencies will be implementing them.

Skills and capability for procurement

All contracting authorities will now have to put greater scrutiny on their own processes, reviewing their capability and capacity to deliver value for money. There is now an expectation that buyers will benchmark themselves against relevant commercial and procurement operating standards.

When benchmarking, buyers should consider whether:

  • Commercial objectives are aligned to relevant policies and organisational objectives
  • Governance, management frameworks and controls are integrated, proportionate and appropriate to the commercial work and level of prevailing risk
  • Work is undertaken and assigned to people who have the required capability and capacity to undertake it
  • Business needs are adequately informed by the commercial strategy to determine when, and how to procure services and works
  • Market conditions are sufficiently understood and procurement routes align with supply capacity and capability
  • Contract management capability is sufficient and resources are proportional to complexity and risk
  • Appropriate procurement systems and data reporting enables process efficiency, robust controls and effective decision making

The full National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS) along with the associated Policy procurement Note (PPN), can be found by following this link.


Publish your contracts through myTenders

myTenders allows you to publish notices to Contracts Finder, Find a Tender Service (FTS) and the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). With our built-in notice creation wizard and triple compliance checks, we can ensure you use the correct forms for your procurement and never publish incomplete notices.

We also offer a range of consultancy services to help your procurement activities run smoothly. Whether you are new to procurement, needing support for a large project or simply running low on resources to get everything done – we can help.

For more information about myTenders and how we can help you, please contact us on 0800 222 9006.