A new National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS) was published on 13 February 2025 and has come into force on 24 February 2025, alongside introduction of the new Procurement Act 2023.

The NPPS sets out the strategic priorities for public procurement and how contracting authorities can support their delivery. The Procurement Act 2023 places a statutory duty on authorities to have regard to the NPPS, and ESPO’s procurement processes will contribute to achieving the policy objectives stated in the NPPS.

Maurice Campbell

Procurement and Commercial Director

Key points of the NPPS:

	Value for money: balancing effectiveness, efficiency and economy over the lifecycle of the product or service.
	Social value: creating resilient businesses and opportunities for quality employment and skills development, improving innovation, supply chain resilience and security of supply & tackling climate change and reducing waste.
	SMEs: level the playing field in public procurements by reducing or removing barriers in the procurement process.
	Commercial and procurement delivery: maintaining the right operational policies and processes in place to manage the key stages of commercial delivery.
	Skills and capability for procurement: ensuring sufficient resource availability with appropriate procurement and contract management skills, benchmarking performance against professional standards.

The revised NPPS applies from 24 February 2025. The UK Government uses the NPPS to offer strategic direction to contracting authorities. It applies in England and to certain public procurements concerning matters that are reserved from devolution in Wales. The document could be described as a Mission Statement for public sector procurement. The statement is designed to support the function and promote positive and innovative relations across diverse supply chains.

The full NPPS can be found here.