Following the implementation of the Procurement Act 2023 on February 24 2025, I wanted to share how ESPO prepared for this significant change in public procurement legislation. As an organisation handling approximately £3 billion in customer spend annually through our framework portfolio, ensuring a smooth transition has been our top priority.

Maurice Campbell

Procurement and Commercial Director

Planning & Governance: We've established clear departmental responsibilities and implemented a robust delivery programme. Our risk assessment and mitigation strategies are in place, and I'm proud to say we've achieved organisation-wide engagement with these changes.

Resource Management: We've invested in our future by creating a new 'procurement compliance and transparency unit' and strengthened our team with additional procurement expertise. This proactive approach ensures we're well-positioned to meet the increased requirements of the new legislation while continuing to deliver value to our customers.

Careful Preparation: Our transition strategy has been methodical and thorough. A dedicated working group has systematically reviewed the Act and its accompanying guidance. We've carefully planned our procurement pipeline, particularly for the initial 12-month period following implementation.

Training & Development: We've taken a comprehensive approach to training, partnering with Bevan Brittan LLP to deliver bespoke sessions for our procurement teams. Our initial training day saw over 130 staff members from across ESPO and our member authorities participate, followed by an intensive two-day course. Our teams then received a refresher course in February 2025 to ensure everyone was fully prepared for go-live. By the time the Act was live, 56 members of staff had completed their TPP e-learning and 15 ‘Advanced Practitioners’ were working in-house at ESPO.

Looking Ahead: We've deliberately planned a measured approach to framework renewals under the new regulations, starting with smaller-value frameworks to allow us to embed new processes effectively. Our framework renewal schedule has been carefully structured to ensure a controlled transition period. 

For users of our framework solutions, it’s well worth remembering that any call-offs are made using the same legislation that applied when the framework was created, not the date of the call-off.

Supporting Our Stakeholders: We've created a dedicated Transforming Public Procurement (TPP) hub on espo.org for both customers and suppliers, which we're continuously updating. We're also maintaining active communication with all our framework and catalogue suppliers, particularly regarding the new central digital platform requirements.