What is new in public procurement in 2026: what changes for suppliers
What changed in UK public procurement in 2026: new thresholds on 1 January, the Procurement Act in its first full year, the 2026 policy notes and what to do.
Updated on September 5, 2026
Verified on 5 September 2026.
2026 is the first full calendar year in which the Procurement Act 2023 governs new procurements across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the Act having come into force on 24 February 2025. Nothing as dramatic as that switch happened this year, but three things did change: the threshold amounts on 1 January, two new procurement policy notes over the summer, and the practical bedding-in of the Act's transparency notices. This page sets out what is actually in force, with dates, and what is still only proposed.
1 January 2026: new threshold amounts
The Procurement Act 2023 (Threshold Amounts) (Amendment) Regulations 2025 replaced most of the figures in Schedule 1 of the Act, so that they continue to track the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement. Almost every threshold fell by around 3 per cent because of currency movements (verified 2026-09-05).
| Threshold, including VAT | 2024-2025 | From 1 January 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Goods and services, central government | £139,688 | £135,018 |
| Goods and services, other contracting authorities | £214,904 | £207,720 |
| Works and concessions | £5,372,609 | £5,193,000 |
| Utilities and defence, goods and services | £429,809 | £415,440 |
| Light touch services | £663,540 | Unchanged |
A few requirements that would have been run as light below-threshold exercises in 2025 are therefore full procedures in 2026, with a published notice, a minimum tendering period and an assessment summary at the end. The detail is in the 2026 thresholds table, and the permanent thresholds page tracks later revisions. Contracts regulated by the Welsh Ministers have their own figures, set separately.
The Procurement Act 2023 in its first full year
Most of what feels new in 2026 is the Act working as designed. Five things matter to a supplier.
One registration, reused everywhere. Core company details are held once on the central digital platform and pulled into each procurement, instead of being retyped into every selection questionnaire. Buyers still run the competition on their own e-sourcing portal, so you need accounts on both.
A full notice lifecycle. Pipeline notices from large buyers, planned procurement notices, preliminary market engagement notices, tender notices, below-threshold tender notices, contract details notices, contract change notices and payments compliance notices. For a bidder this is free intelligence: pipeline and planned procurement notices tell you what is coming months ahead, and contract details notices tell you when the incumbent's contract ends.
Assessment summaries. Every bidder receives a written summary of how its tender scored against the published criteria, not just the winner's name. Read it against your own submission after every result; it is the cheapest bid coaching available.
A standstill of at least eight working days from publication of the contract award notice before the contract can be signed, which is the window for questions and, if necessary, a challenge.
Payment. Public contracts carry implied terms requiring payment within 30 days of a valid invoice, and the same term is pushed down the supply chain, which matters if you bid as a subcontractor. There is no automatic advance payment in UK public contracts, so plan working capital from the payment terms in the contract, not from a mobilisation payment.
New policy notes in 2026
Procurement policy notes bind central government departments and their arm's length bodies, and are widely copied by councils and NHS bodies. Two arrived in 2026.
| Note | Title | Date |
|---|---|---|
| PPN 022 | Procuring steel in government contracts | 13 July 2026 |
| PPN 026 | The social value model | 5 August 2026 |
PPN 026 refreshes the social value model used to score the social, economic and environmental benefits offered in a bid. If you sell to central government, rewrite your social value content against the current model rather than reusing last year's answers, and keep the commitments measurable: they end up as contract KPIs.
Several 2025 notes still shape how bids are assessed: PPN 001 on SME and voluntary sector spend targets (13 February 2025), PPN 002 on social value in contract awards (5 March 2025), PPN 017 on transparency of AI use in procurement (17 February 2025), PPN 018 on taking account of a supplier's payment approach in major contracts (24 April 2025), PPN 019 on publishing on Contracts Finder (31 March 2025) and PPN 021 on payment spot checks in public sub-contracts (8 October 2025).
Alternative tenders
The Act allows a buyer to accept alternative tenders, which meet the buyer's needs in a different way from the published requirement, but only where the tender notice or the associated documents say so and set out how they will be assessed. The rule has not changed in 2026; what has changed is that more buyers now state the position explicitly, because the Act obliges them to publish their criteria and methodology. Check that paragraph on every tender: an alternative submitted where none was invited is disregarded, and one submitted where invited but without a compliant bid alongside it is usually rejected too.
Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland
Scotland has not adopted the Act and continues under the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015 and the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, with Public Contracts Scotland as the national portal. The Scottish Parliament and Senedd elections in May 2026 produced the usual pre-election slowdown in large new awards, followed by a busier summer.
Wales applies the Act with its own threshold amounts and keeps Sell2Wales. Northern Ireland applies the Act and publishes on eTendersNI. Ireland remains under the EU directives, with the 2026-2027 EU thresholds and notices on eTenders and in the Official Journal.
What to do about it as a smaller supplier
- Complete your core supplier information on the central digital platform once, properly, and keep it current.
- Recheck which side of the threshold your typical contracts now fall on: the thresholds moved, your prices probably did too.
- Subscribe to pipeline and planned procurement notices from your five largest target buyers, not only to tender notices.
- Rewrite your social value answers against the current model, with numbers you can report on.
- Ask for the assessment summary every time and act on it before the next bid.
- If you work as a subcontractor, know the 30-day payment rule and the payment notices published about your main contractor.
Scoutee updates its classification rules whenever the thresholds or the notice types change.