Procurement Regulations 2024 - ThinkHouse

Chris Brennan: Well, good morning everyone. Welcome to today's ThinkHouse webinar on the Procurement Regulations 2024.

My name is Chris Brennan and I'm a legal director here at Gowling WLG and I head up our procurement practice group here. My speciality is all things public procurement. So we act for contracting authorities, suppliers and probably everybody in between as well when it comes to procurement.

Today's session is on the Procurement Regulations 2024, well, it's mostly on the Procurement Regulations 2024. As we go along, I will be mentioning one or two other little pieces of legislation as well. Also the Procurement Act 2023, itself in passing. Although today's session is specifically on the Procurement Regulations and what those do and the way those implement the machinery or some of the machinery of the Procurement Act.

So first of all, an update on where we're up to with the Procurement Act 2023, the main piece of legislation which introduces or will introduce by the time it's fully in force and all new public procurement regime in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

So as many of you, will, I think know, the act itself received royal assent on the 26th of October last year. It is now as of today, partly in force. Although most of it still isn't in force and we'll talk a little bit later on about the process from here on in terms of the remainder of the act coming into force.

Now the government, the cabinet office has indicated that the act is going to be entering full force. On Monday the 28th of October 2024, few months time so that is currently, D-day, as far as we know, in terms of the act taking full effect.

Certain types of procurement notices and some of the new central digital platform apparatus, and we will come on to look at what the centre of digital platform is later in this session, are actually, expected to be introduced not on the 28th but in phases at later points. So it won't all come into effect in terms of being able to able to use the new notices won't all come into effect on 28^th, but most of it will.

Now, so little bit of history then, first of all. When did the Procurement Act first get switched on at as it were, when did the very first parts of the act take effect? Well, the date was the 16th of January this year. And that is the date when the commencement number one regulations were made. Now those regulations activated a very small part of the Procurement Act. A very small and specialist part actually, I should say. Because the bit that those regulations activated only concerned defence and security contracts. So rather a specialist area there. Specifically those regulations confirm that the single source contract regulations 2014 remain in force, for those of you that deal with defence single source contracts. And also they bring into force certain parts of schedule 10 to the act and also section 117 which again concern single source defence and security contracts. Now, all of those provisions between them actually took effect partly on the 19th of January and partly on the first of April this year. So those are the parts which were brought into effect specifically by the, first commencement regulations, the commencement number one regulations.

So after the commencement number one regulations, what came next? Well, it was the commencement number two regulations. These were made on the 11th of March. And they brought into effect on the 12th of March a day after the regulations were made, more sections of the Act. Now, they actually brought into force a number of sections, quite a few. Each of which did different, different things. But still of course only a really small portion of the of the act as a whole. Within these provisions, I'd single out for mention section 13, and what section 13 of the act does is to allow the 2024 national procurement policy statement to be laid before Parliament.

So the National Procurement Policy Statement is a piece of procurement policy which will sit alongside the Act and set out government priorities for public procurement in terms of, well, notably sustainability, diversity, environmental, social value, that sort of thing among others. That statement is now, before parliament, and as I said, that was done on Monday the 13th of May. So once the national procurement policy statement takes effect, which is expected on the 28th of October, the same date as the Procurement Act comes into full effect. Then we will have obviously the Act and also alongside it the 2024 national procurement policy statement.

So, turning now to the Procurement Regulations 2024. So this is the main piece or so far the main piece of secondary legislation sitting alongside or which will sit alongside the Procurement Act. And the main purpose of the Procurement Regulations 2024 will be to, I suppose, activate and implement some of the machinery around the act in particular, the machinery of ensuring transparency, in public procurement and that will happen in a number of ways which will come to look at.

Now currently the Procurement Regulations are in draft. They were laid before parliament on the 25th of March 2024. There was in fact an earlier draft consulted on during 2023. Now, as I said, the intention of the regulations is to implement various procedural and I suppose mechanical aspects of the Procurement Act to do things like set out, forms of notice, the required contents of information, and components of procurement notices among a few other things of procurement notices among a few other things as well.

The practical aspects of complying with the act. In addition, of course, the Procurement Regulations are to be covered in certain sets of guidance. Some of that guidance is already published, but not all of it the rest is expected as we understand by the end of June. There'll be a number of pieces of guidance each tackling a different aspect of the act. And also in part regulations which will be published and obviously alongside the app and the regulations will all be advised to read all that.

Now the regulations are, as I said, currently in draft, so they're subject to what's called the affirmative procedure. Which means that they're going to be debated by both Houses of Parliament before they come into force. That draft may therefore change as a result of that that procedure. I suspect we might not see the draft regulations changing too drastically, but then they might change to some to some degree. So obviously everything I'm saying today about them is subject to any change that might ensue as a result of that.

Now the aspects which are covered by the regulations will include among a few others a number of key topics a number of key areas So first of all, the content requirements of new procurement notices. So as many of you may well know, the act introduces and prescribes, a lot of different forms of new procurement notices which are all really aimed at ensuring transparency around procurement in the new in the new climate.

Number two, the government governance of the new central digital platform. And that will include what happens if a supplier is unable to register its details because for some reason the platform is isn't working. I hope that that doesn't mean that they're expecting it to crash every 5 minutes but, there is that provision there as well.

Sharing of core supplier information through the central digital platform. The contents of assessment summaries which are I suppose the successor to what we might currently know as stand still notices or debrief letters contract award notifications. We'll take another, a bit of a further look at those in a while.

Light touch contracts and reservable light touch service types. Again, we'll look at those in a minute too. The list of central government contracting authorities and also the disapplication of the Procurement Act to regulated health procurement in England and I'll say more about that in a couple of slides time. So those are key topics really which the regulations will pick up.

Now, there are, provisions which will cover transition from the existing procurement regime, the public. Contracts regulations 2015 and they and the other regulations covering utilities concessions in defence. Through to the new act. Which are not included. In the Procurement Regulations 2024. So the transitional provisions around those, how we get, get from the existing regime to the new regime to the act will appear in further regulations. I understand they'll be called the commencement number three regulations. And those regulations will be made under sections 122(3)(D) and 127(2) of the act at a later point. So those regulations are still awaited and will, wait to see what those say. We in fact already know. Really what they're going to say because it's already been indicated in one of the already published sets of procurement guidance of procurement guidance, Procurement Act guidance, Procurement Act guidance that the coverage test guidance, Procurement Act guidance, that the coverage test will hinge on when the procurement basically is commenced. So if your procurement commenced under the Existing regime, it'll be governed by the current regime, the public contracts regulations to number 15, etc, as will any modifications to contracts under that regime. Whereas procurement commenced under the new act will be governed in your respect by the new Act. Worth looking in particular at paragraph 8 of that guidance for more information on that.

There are provisions on calculating percentages for the purposes of horizontal and vertical arrangements. Paragraph 2 and 3 of schedule 2 to the act. Those will also be covered by further regulations at a later point. As will methods for calculating turnover in certain situations connecting utilities contracts so, more on that, again, at a later stage. Those will be covered in subsequent regulations. And are not covered as yet in the Procurement Regulations 2024.

Now the Procurement Regulations 2024, are to be made pursuant to section 95(1) of the Procurement Act. And in fact also in relation to the, at this application of the acts to regulated health procurement. Pursuant s120. Now with that in mind, section 95(1) is already in force. And that is by virtue of the commencement number 2 regulations which brought section 95(1) into force.

However, section 95 does not confer the power to disapply the act to regulated health procurement in England. And in fact, section 120 of the act which does do that, hasn't yet been brought into force by the commencement number 2, Regs. Now because the public Procurement Regulations nevertheless will implement that disapplication. It seems to me that section 120 of the act will need to have been brought into force before the regulations can actually disapply the act to regulated health procurement in England. So the order will have to be section 120 is brought into force so that the Procurement Regulations, 2024, can then go on to disapply the act to regulate, to help, and, in goods by the time the, 28th of October comes round.

Now that's a somewhat academic point, because the NHS provide a selection regime which already applies as from the start of this year to the procurement of health care services and other things for the purposes of the NHS. But already applies and it already supplies the public contracts regulations to regulated NHS procurement. So the PCR as the public contract rates are already this applied, for now as regards NHS health procurement. However, it's going to have to be addressed again before the act comes into full force.

So moving on to some specifics of the regulations and first of all, I'm going to start with transparency tools. This really represents a big feature of the regulations and the machinery which the regulations will introduce. So the regulations and particularly part 2 of the regulations. Will stipulate the contents of Quite a lot or new information requirements and the formats the required content of a number of new procurement notices which the Act is going to introduce.

And, those notices and those information requirements will include supplier information. Contracting authority information. Information about the subject matter of contracts. Procurement notices. And also assessment summaries.

So the regulations will cover all of those areas. All those topics within part 2. So part 2 really is all about implementing the various of the acts measures to make procurement more transparent So to get information about public procurement out there into the public domain. A key initiative really of the act.

As part of that, of facilitating that. There is going to be a brand new central digital platform. That will be put in place and on it. Any notice or document or information published or given in in accordance with the provision, with the provision of the procurement act will have to appear. So it will be this literally will be the central platform for hosting. All of these notices, these documents and this information about procurement as part of the Act's transparency agenda.

Now, notices documents and information. What, does that include? What's within that? Well, regulations 5(3) sets out a list of all of it. And so within that list there are, 14 different types of, procurement notices. Some of those notices in turn are actually used or can be used in multiple different contexts in different ways. Plus information on refining award criteria, which is a new thing which can be done to an extent under the under the new act.

Copies of contracts where those are publishable. Contract performance information where that's publishable. Including assessment against KPIs and performance paper performance failure where that is publishable. And the intention as we understand it is that the central digital platform will comprise what in essence will end up being an enhanced version of the find a tender the current portal for posting procurement notices and will eventually, incorporate and subsume within it, what is currently the contract finder portal. So at the moment we have find a tender and contracts finder separately. The idea, as we understand it is that, ultimately they will all be part of one of the same central digital platform which will altogether, to get a boost as well and be required to host, all key information about public procurement.

So what happens then if a particular notice, for example, is not able to be published on an online on central digital platform for whatever reason? Well, there are provisions in the regulations that deal with that. Regulation 5(1) Is the is the regulation which requires all of the procurement notices and the and the key information. To be published on the Central Digital Platform. Now, if an authority decides to publish on an online system other than that platform, ordinarily, I suppose by default that is not a substitute for publishing on central digital platform. The overriding requirement is that all procurement information has to go on that platform.

However, publishing via an online system other than the platform is to be treated as fulfilling the requirement in regulation 5(1) to publish on the Central Digital Platform in circumstances where and notice of being sent to the central platform. But No acknowledgement is received and for whatever reason the public can't access it. But only where at least 4 hours have passed since submission. And that applies to transparency notices, Contract award notices and direct towards contract details notices Or at least 48 hours have passed since submission for everything else for all other types of notice and information.

So for that you can look at regulations 5(5) to 5(7). Now, if either of those situations were to happen, authorities would then have to cooperate in order to get notice information or information in question onto the central digital platform as soon as possible. So there is provision there just for what happens if for some reason information isn't able to be published on to the central digital platform immediately.

Moving on to supplier information. Now, regulation 6, sets out, provisions related to the, registering, and provision, by suppliers of core supplier information. So suppliers are going to be required, first of all, to register on the platform. And they're also going to be required to provide up-to-date core supplier information and to regulation 6(9). Now before tendering in an open, complex, open procedure or a competitive flexible procedure or for a place on the framework, or prior to receiving direct award. Suppliers will be required to give that up-to-date information to the authority via a particular facility provided as part of the sector platform before the end of either the tendering period or as the case may be if it's direct award, before award.

Now, if that core supplier information becomes out of date, which it might, similar provisions then apply to the updating of it by the supplier. So the owners will be on the supply to update. The, information should it become out of date and that is in regulation 6(8).Now all of that. Is subject to regulation 7. And regulation 7 applies where for some reason the central digital platform isn't working properly. And if that happens then the authority will need to obtain the required confirmations from the supplier as soon as possible, and before award. And also as part of regulation 7, 7(4) 7(5), there are special rules that apply when there is a situation of urgency that that means that that a direct award has to be made as a matter of particular urgency. And the most part, what has to be made as a matter of particular urgency. And for the most part, what that will, mean is that the updating or the provision of the information has to be made by the time the contract details notice is published.

So Supply information again now regulations 9, 10, 11 and 12 cover the specific categories of core supplier information. For the purposes of regulation 6. So regulation 9, if you look at that, you'll see that it lists out, a number of items of What is called suppliers basic information so suppliers under regulation 9 will need to register their basic information. Contact details and also more information about themselves. Regulation 10 Is suppliers' economic and financial standing information. So again, that is largely, replicatory of what currently supply might have to, complete and submit to an authority virus selection question.

Regulation 11 covers a supplies connected person information. So a lot of that is about, people with significant control over a particular supplier entity. And regulation 12, is a list of the supplies exclusion grounds information. So, regulate that, so information confirming, hopefully, that a supply doesn't meet any mandatory or discretionary grounds for exclusion from procurement procedure. So all about it's information which suppliers will need to put up on the central difficult platform under regulation 6.

Now, not all of the owners, in relation to information is placed on suppliers. Under regulation 13 Contracting authorities are to upload onto the central digital platform of various information as well. And this information has to be included in each type of notice. Which is published for procurement by a contracting authority. Including in relation to information which is published for contracts. And that includes KPI performance. So performance against key performance indicators and also information relation relating to contact change or contract termination. Again, all to be to be published. Now that information will comprise the name and the contact details of the contracting authority for a particular procurement, or if it's a joint procurement for each of them. And again, if it's a joint procurement, one authority is going to need to be the lead authority and is going to need to be identified as the lead authority in that situation. Also the name and contact details and the unique identifier and the role or any person who is carrying out the procurement on behalf of the authority or if joint the authorities. And of anyone taking or dealing with inquiries about the procurement. So a lot of information has to go up there in relation to authorities and who is running a procurement who is conducting it.

I mentioned, unique identifiers. So, what are those? Well, regulation 8 of the regulations covers unique identifiers. So, through the regulations, the Act is going to introduce a completely new system of what's called unique identifiers or unique codes allocated for each procurement by the central digital platform. So for procurement. Those are allocated at the point of the first notice just published in relation to the procurement in question. Or if it's a direct award, the transparency notice.

For contracts where information about a particular contract is published. Those generated for each contract. And so in a procurement weather might be more than one contract awarded, then there will be a unique identifier for each contract. There will also be unique identified generated for dynamic markets. And also for suppliers as well as contracting authorities. And people carrying out individuals carrying out on procurement on behalf of contracting authorities. And also agents. So there'll be a lot of different unique identifiers or different types of organization and individual to whom unique identifiers will be assigned. And that will, the intention is of course that will make navigation around the platform, and the tracking of particular procurements in particular contracts easier.

Contract subject matter. Now this is covered in regulation 14. And, under that regulation, there will be a requirement to mention or to describe the details of specific contracts subject matter in most types of notice which are published for a procurement by a contracting authority. So again, regulation 14 prescribes the information which has to be included there. And it includes first of all, an indication of whether the contract is for goods or services or works, together with descriptions of that subject matter, you know, what the good services or works are and how they are to be supplied.

Secondly, the estimated date on which the subject matter of the contract will be supplied in the period over which it will be supplied. The estimated amount of the subject matter. All relevant CPV codes. And where possible the geographical classification that is to say place a performance in the UK or elsewhere and of course the performance of a contract governed by the Procurement Act might not necessarily B in the, UK. So there is a system within regulation 14 that is prescribed for the geographical classification and identifying that.

Moving on to notices. So Regulations 15 to 41. So really a big chunk of the regulations. These will cover notices and regs 15 to 41 take each notice type in turn. I'll leave you to look at those.

I would just like to pick out though for now assessment summaries. That was a company regulations 31 and I mentioned a few minutes ago that those are really the successor to what might currently be loosely described as standstill information or debrief information. Regulation 31 will cover assessment summaries. And, and under that regulation, that information will need to cover the following. First of all, supplier details in relation to the supplier of the most. Advantageous tender. So the winning the tender, winning tender is supplied in tables. Secondly, the award criteria and the scoring details. Thirdly, scores and explanations for the scores.

Now for other assessments, that is unsuccessful tenders, unsuccessful tenderers bids. Equivalent information for those as well as a comparison against the most advantageous tender in relation to how the tender was assessed. And also in relation to the scores awarded. So as you can see, quite a lot of information will need to be included within assessment summaries. Much of it will be rather similar, I think, to what is now to be included in a standstill letter summaries under the current regulations. But again, all of this will, being in, as part of the stands to let them have to be in an assessment summary. All assessment summaries will need to be issued at the same time.

Other matters covered by the regulations. So I've already now mentioned most of them, and certainly the main ones. But there are also some other matters as well that the regulations will pick up. In, in passing.

So these include under regulation 46. The identification of what's called defence authorities. So these are not relevant to, any, to all types of, you, by any means, they're only relevant in the context of the procurement of certain defence and security contracts under section 7 of the Act. And within that specifically in relation to the direct award or permitted modification of those contracts. So that's a bit of a specialist area.

Also some provisions are included around the regulation of procurement by devolved Scottish and Welsh authorities. Some of those actually make, small amendments to the Act. Those provisions are contained in regulations 47, 49 and 50 of the regulations if you're interested in taking a look at those. But again, those don't apply to everyone where everything. So I'm not really proposing to, say more about those today.

Also a provision in regulation 48, which will regulate preliminary marketing engagement activity by private utilities. And again, that provision will, slightly amend the act in in so doing. And again, that's a bit of a niche area.

Having said that, I do want to just touch on schedule one to the regulations because this is quite significant. Light touch contracts, so under the Procurement Act. There will be a reduced regime, governing the procurement of light touch contracts. Light touch contracts under the Act are contracts for particular types of services so for the provision of particular types of services as opposed to goods or works. The provisions around light touch contracts only apply to, the procurement of the specific services which are which are listed schedule one so schedule one, also indicates obviously not only just schedule one list out, all of those services exhaustively to which they like touch contract regime under the Act will apply, but it also indicates whether the contract types in question are what's called reservable Light touch services. What we mean by that, contracts for services of a type that under the act can be reserved for public service mutuals under section 33 of the act. And if you look at that schedule one, if you click that link and look at schedule one, you'll see opposite the, list of, services identified in each case by CBV code. There is a little letter R on the right hand column and that indicates whether the service type in question whether a contract for that particular service type is reservable in the section 33 to public service.

Now, if you were to put, schedule one to the regulations to the peculiar regulations, 2024, alongside schedule 3 to the public contracts regulations, 2015 our current light touch regime, you'll see immediately that schedule one to the 2024 regs. Is rather more user friendly. Then schedule 3 in the PCRs. That's because, schedule one in the regulations lists every single service in order, bytes, eight-digit CPV code. Rather than grouping batches of service types together rather confusingly as does schedule 3 in the 2015 PCRs So hopefully that will, make it easier immediately to find out whether or not to particular service that you're procuring or that you're bidding for, is or is not a light touch contract.

Now, you might well be asking, are the services which are listed in schedule one to the Procurement regulations the same as those in schedule 3 to the PCRs. Well, I've gone through it and done the comparison? And the answer is yes, they are. However they do actually reorder the list quite significantly so that it's easier to follow. So again, that's good news as far as the 2024 regulations are concerned.

In schedule 1 the regulations, you'll also see an additional category of light touch service contracts. Which again won't apply to everything they only apply to defence and securely contracts, of course, occurred by the Act. And those, service types cover accommodation, the provision of accommodation, for defence contracts. Certain supporting and auxiliary transport services. And also personnel placement. And supply services for defence and security purposes. So again, you can browse that, that's a pleasure if you're interested in finding out more about those types of contract.

Central government contracting authorities. So these are listed in schedule 2 to the regulations. And, in effect in schedule 2 there are there are actually two lists. There is a sort of a master list on the left hand side of the main government departments which or agencies which are caught. As central government contracting authorities and on the right hand side there are the sort of almost subsidiary or related authorities. Which again also classify as central government authorities for the purposes of the act and specifically of course for the purposes of calculating procurement thresholds contract thresholds. You'll see if you look at schedule 2 that there are catch-alls for NHS trusts and NHS Foundation Trust. So Schedule 2 doesn't list out by name every single and they just trust or NHS Foundation Trust, it simply says NHS Trusts and NHS Foundation Trusts as a catch all. And there are also certain other types of public body which are also dealt with in a catch all way as well.

Now the list is again similar to that in the, the current version of Schedule 1 to the public contracts regulations 2015 but again there has been some reordering just to make it easier to follow. And again, I think it's that does help because schedule 2 to the regulations probably is easier to follow than schedule 1 to the PCR as at present.

And then works activities. Okay. So in schedule 3 to the regulations. And, and this effectively picks up on, schedule 2 to the our public contract regulations, the existing regime it's the equivalent, to that. I'm schedule 3 to the 2024 regulations lists out all activities which for the purposes of, the Procurement Act and the purposes again of calculation thresholds. All those activities which constitute works contracts, public works contracts. And again, those are categorized by CPV code. Now, if you again, put alongside one another schedule 3 to the regulations and schedule 2 to the public contracts regulations. You'll again see that they are set out rather differently from one another. And again, I think the prize for ease of reading goes to schedule 3 in the 2024 regulations. And for start in the 2024 regulations. We've lost the old, EU, statistical codes for Industry classification called the NACE codes. I'm not sure really whether anyone ever looked at those, but, suffice it to say, the Procurement Act, schedule 2 to the regulations they've gotten. And we now have in schedule 3 to the 2024 regs a drilled down list an exhaustive list of works activity type. You know, listed by code by CPD code rather than by the broader groupings. That you see in schedule 2 to the public contract regulations and again that should mean that it's much easier to identify from, schedule 3, the 2024 what type of contracts, classify as, works contracts. Much easier than it is at present in schedule 2 to the PCR. So that's again is good news.

So really that has been my whistle stop tour of the Procurement Regulations 2024. I hope you found that useful.

I think we do have a little bit of time to take, any questions or to pick up any questions that are being recorded in the in the Q&A. Right, okay, so there's some interesting questions here. We'll take them in in no particular order.

Question: So in your view, what is the biggest challenge? For a public authority under the new Procurement Regulations.

Answer: Right, okay, well, it is a, quite a radical, rethink, I think, in the number of ways of the, of the, procurement regime. I think that, possibly the biggest challenge will be the challenge on the sort of I suppose machinery side. Which will really be, I suppose, remembering, what to publish and when to publish it. So I think that's probably going to be the biggest, the immediate challenge. And the reason for saying that is that under the, act, regulations, there'll be quite a lot of things which will need to be published within a certain time within certain number of days of the thing that it would be referring to. So the award of contract they will be referring to or the or the performance issue that it will be referring to or whatever. So I think that keeping track of what needs to be published. To the central digital platform and when could be could be a challenge.

It could also be a challenge getting to grips with the new, public procurement procedures under the Act. The course is, perhaps, a, more feature of the act rather than the regulations. But again, it'll be a question of obviously publish publishing information about procurement procedures, but using the various notices under the, the regulations. And also getting used to the new notice types. You know and doing things slightly differently such as for example around assessment summaries. Using contract award notices. And so on and so forth and contract details notices. Publishing pipeline information, all that will be I think new and probably not the easiest thing to get used to straightaway.

Question: What requirements apply to suppliers in relation to maintaining currency of supplier information? And to authorities in terms of taking account of updates to supplier information as a procurement processes?

Answer: Well, we've, seen in the procurement, in, in today's talk that there is, and going to be obligation, I think it's under regulations 6 for supplies to, keep, core supplier information up to date. And It's going to be necessary awfully for them, to do that. Really, before, before the end of the tendering procedure or before a direct award as applicable. So that applies both to new supplier information and also to updating, supplier information under regulation 6. So the, the key there, I think, is regulation 6. Both in relation to new supplier information and in relation to keeping supplies keeping their up to date. So that is, the answer there, I think.

And of course ultimately I suppose that's going to be important because authorities will only be able to take into account supplier information that is up there on the on the central digital platform. And so of course they'll need to be an owners and suppliers to keep that information up to date and of course the regulations reinforce that message I think.

Question: With all new and about to be procured dynamic purchasing, purchasing systems having a cut off at October, 2028. Do you think this will be a complete re-procure or some element of transition of old to new under the new regulations?

Answer: Yes, okay, so there is, you're right there, there is a cut-off in relation to dynamic purchasing systems as at October 2028. I don't foresee much of a an element of transition after that point I think you know it will be a case of authorities having to get to know the new rules around dynamic markets. That will be the new name for dynamic purchasing systems, really from as soon as the, new rules around those come into effect. And so, by the time the, cut off for old dynamic purchasing systems come comes round. I think authorities and supplies alike for that matter will, will need to have got to know the rules around the new dynamic markets.

Question: Will it become easier to deviate away from public contract liability positions going forward under the new act? We find that public sector contracts are increasingly including unlimited liability, which is concrete in government policy. Tighter order for more work or to cap such liability, traditionally carries the risk of section 72 or regulation 72 of the public contract regs may be triggered and then used to challenge an award.

Answer: I think that's a good question. There is, as I'm sure, some of you may be aware a new, provision under the Act governing contract modifications. More of an act than the regulations. But, it's taking a look schedule 8 of the act for that. But it'll be interesting actually to see the way this sort of thing, works out in practice. I think in in many ways the ways, the ways in which regulation, 72 works, aren't too different. from many of the justifications under schedule 8 that we'll see for being able to make changes to contracts under the new act. So the answer that question is possibly not much But again, we'll have to, we'll have to see. It's always with this sort of thing going to depend on the, you know, the precise nature of the change that, your, making, or, where, that, you know, actually is compared with what was set to the market when the, when the contract was procured.

So probably, you know, hard to give a precise answer to that, but hopefully could be, could be where, where we going.

Question: What's your recommendation for the best introductory guide to Procurement Regulations?

Answer: Well, obviously there is hopefully our ThinkHouse sessions. We would say that wouldn't we, but actually we think they're quite good. So, last November I did the session on the act as well as of course today. And we have obviously more planned I'm sure in future. But one place you can look is the, government commercial function guidance on the Procurement Act. Which obviously in passing picks up the Procurement Regulations as well where relevant and those are on the transforming public procurement page of the government website. So look for transforming public procurement. Procurement Act 2023 guidance notes. As I said earlier on in the, webinar today, those are being published in batches, then of all, published as yet. The first few have been, but we can expect the rest, I think, by the end of June or thereabouts.

So hopefully that's, being enjoyable session for you. Obviously do keep, any questions coming in. If you need to contact me offline then I can take any questions that you might have there's my details and email address there. So, meanwhile, I hope you all have a great day.

Thank you very much.