Procurement Act vs PCR 2015: what changed for suppliers

Procurement Act vs PCR 2015 in one line: the Procurement Act 2023 replaced the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR 2015) for new procurements from 24 February 2025, outside Scotland. legislation.gov.uk now lists the regulations as The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (revoked). Procurements started before that date continue under the old rules (PPN 019).

This guide translates the old terms you may remember into the new ones, says what is genuinely new, and explains which rules apply to the tender in front of you. It is written for owners who last bid before 2025, or who have inherited an old answer bank. It sits alongside our guide on how to win public sector contracts.

Procurement Act vs PCR 2015: old term, new term

Regulation numbers and headings come from the PCR 2015 contents page, which marks the instrument revoked. The planned procurement notice, preliminary market engagement, procedure and dynamic market rows follow gov.uk’s procedures module; the contract notice row rests on the headings of regulation 49 (“Contract notices”) and section 21 (“Tender notices and associated tender documents”).

What moved is where your information lives. Core details go on the platform once. Contract-specific answers go in the buyer’s own questionnaire or tender documents, so read each pack to see what it asks for and how the answers are used.

What’s genuinely new for suppliers

• One platform. Register on the Central Digital Platform, which is free to use for everyone, and keep your core supplier information there: basic information, economic and financial standing, connected persons and exclusion grounds (guidance para 59).
• An early-warning notice with rules. Any buyer may publish a planned procurement notice for a single procurement. The Act treats one published between 40 days and 12 months before the tender notice as a “qualifying” notice (s.15).
• Exclusions and a debarment list. The mandatory and discretionary exclusion grounds sit in Schedules 6 and 7 (s.57). A Minister can add a supplier to a published debarment list (s.62). See exclusions and debarment.
• More notices across a contract’s life. Buyers expecting to spend over £100 million in a year publish pipeline notices of contracts above £2 million (s.93). Buyers assess and publish contract performance (s.71), shown as a contract performance notice (UK9). That notice reports performance against KPIs on contracts over £5 million, and poor performance or breach of contract (module 2). Buyers also report on their own payment record twice a year in payments compliance notices (s.69; UK17), so you can check how a buyer pays before you bid.
• Below-threshold notices, new categories. A buyer advertising a below-threshold contract must publish a notice first if it is worth £12,000 or more including VAT (central government authorities other than devolved Welsh ones) or £30,000 or more (all other authorities) (s.87(4)). The guidance says the figures match regulation 109 of PCR 2015 but “These categories have changed under the Act”: NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts now sit in the £12,000 group (para 10).

Which rules apply to the tender in front of you?

PPN 019 (updated 31 March 2025) says no new procurements will be conducted under the PCRs after 24 February 2025. Procurements started under them continue “until such a time as the contract, or commercial tool, ceases to exist”. It lists cases such as awards made under dynamic purchasing systems and under framework agreements set up under the PCRs.

So you will still see old-rules awards, framework call-offs and DPS awards. Contracts Finder still carries notices for procurements started under the old rules, while any new below-threshold opportunity “must be advertised on Find a Tender in accordance with the Procurement Act” (PPN 019, para 8).

Act notices carry UK codes, from UK1 to UK17 (e-learning module 2). UK4 is the tender notice. For each code, see Procurement Act notice types. As a rough guide to the notice in front of you:

• A UK4 tender notice on Find a Tender is a Procurement Act procurement.
• An award under a framework or DPS set up under the PCRs follows the old rules until the framework or system ends.
• A devolved Scottish authority’s notice follows the Scottish regulations (next section).

The same week can bring a tender notice from one buyer and a call-off from an old framework from another. They follow different rules, so if you are bidding for a call-off, read the framework’s own documents as well as the notice. For the detail, see Find a Tender notice types, decoded, Find a Tender vs Contracts Finder and what Contracts Finder still lists.

Scotland is the exception

Devolved Scottish authorities are excluded authorities under the Act (s.2(5)(a)), with a narrow exception for certain reserved procurement (s.115A). The Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015 are not marked revoked: legislation.gov.uk shows them up to date to 11 October 2026.

So PCR-era terms are still current in Scottish tenders. The Scottish regulations still have contract notices and contract award criteria that refer to the most economically advantageous tender. If you bid on both sides of the border, expect both vocabularies. See tenders in Scotland.

What didn’t change

• The open procedure. gov.uk’s e-learning says it was retained.
• A rule on abnormally low tenders. Regulation 69 had one. Now a buyer must tell you it thinks your price is abnormally low and give you a reasonable opportunity to show you can deliver at that price before it disregards the tender (s.19(3)(c), (4)-(5)).
• 30 days to pay undisputed invoices. Regulation 113 covered this. Now see s.68 (contracts), s.73 (sub-contracts) and s.88 (below threshold). Payments compliance notices “replace and strengthen” regulation 113(7) (para 7). See public sector payment terms.
• The £12,000 and £30,000 figures, though the categories moved (see above).

Your next step

Tell us your trade and postcode to join the free weekly list of live tenders, starting soon. On Pro (£49/month), notices that fit your trade and area are checked against what each states about insurance, certifications and location, and you get an email each morning on days with new matches.