The Public Procurement (British Goods and Services) Bill (Bill) is back in motion after a long delay since its first reading in December 2024. It was expected to have its second reading in the House of Commons on 27 February 2026, but it appears now that the date for 2nd reading has been moved to Friday 17th April 2026 (although the House of Commons is not due to sit that day, so it is possible the date may shift again).
The purpose of the Bill is to boost the use of UK suppliers and goods through introducing new mandatory reporting obligations in contract award notices. Whilst this may have been a good idea under the previous procurement regime, under the Procurement Act 2023 (PA23), it must be questioned whether we need more obligations in this direction? Transparency is embedded on numerous fronts in PA23, we have PPN05 permitting the reservation of below threshold contracts to local suppliers or small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and a further Procurement Act 2.0 (when parliamentary time allows) seeking to protect and enhance national interests for certain sectors and in respect of certain procurements by, among other things, enhancing social value requirements and SME target spend.
This article seeks to remind readers of the Bill and its proposed measures and to consider its potential impact.
Proposed changes
There are two main changes which the Bill seeks to achieve:
- Introduction of requirements into section 1 of the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 so that public authorities must consider when procuring public contracts:
a. how the procurement of British goods and services, including from SMEs, might improve the economic, social and environmental well-being of one or more other areas in the UK; and
b. how the authority would support good employment standards and working practices.
2. An amendment to section 95 of PA23 to provide that regulations on the content of contract award notices must include information on the following:
a. how the authority has reasonably complied with the new duties set out in 1 above;
b. for procurements of food, the proportion of food procured which originates from the UK, and
c. an assessment of how procurement thresholds in Schedule 1 of PA23 have impacted suppliers of British goods and services and on such suppliers which are SMEs in the process.
Discussions at first reading
Reflecting on the discussions at first reading, it was clear that there remains concern about the extent to which changes in procurement law have helped contracting authorities to support SMEs and British businesses. Sarah Champion (Labour MP for Rotherham) for example noted that "leaving the EU was supposed to encourage the public sector to “Buy British’ to support local farmers and reduce environmental costs" but at the time of speaking she understood that "90% of contracts deemed suitable for SMEs are awarded to large corporations. There have been debates around dividing bigger contracts so that local SMEs are more inclined to bid, as currently, there is little incentive to waste their resources on bidding." Whilst some of those corporations are likely to use domestic resources and may be British businesses, it is fair to accept that many will not be, and this reality does bring challenges for SMEs in the UK market.
In the view of Lloyd Russel-Moyle (a former Labour MP for Brighton, Kemptown) the value of the Bill’s disclosure requirements would be in putting pressure on authorities to make the "right" choice for consumers, though one has to question such a statement when the entire premise of PA23 and the objectives in section 12 is to do just that. Public procurement objectives make it clear that procurement activity across the UK is all about delivering value for money and maximising public benefit.
Interaction with PA23
The Bill creates an interesting conundrum - how far can authorities truly consider buying local? This was a topic that marked out parliamentary discussions and debate as the Procurement Bill progressed through Parliament (certainly given the post-Brexit objectives of the Johnson Government of making procurement a more domestic matter). We still have PPN 005 on reserving below threshold contracts to SMEs or for local suppliers (referred to above) and more recently the Local Government (Exclusion of Non-Commercial Considerations) (England) Order 2026 amended section 17 of the Local Government Act 1988 to enable local authorities to consider reserving below threshold contracts to local suppliers by disapplying for such contracts the provision that made locality a non-commercial consideration which they could not take account of.
In practice the duty to not discriminate against treaty state suppliers under section 90 of PA23 will be the biggest hurdle to any explicit attempt to "buy local" for more valuable (above threshold) contracts, but authorities may be able to achieve this in slightly different ways. For instance, if a requirement for goods is of a smaller scale or procured via a lotted procurement, it is unlikely to attract much overseas or wider national attention. Similarly, if the authority places ambitious requirements for low carbon emissions connected with the manufacture/ growth and delivery of goods the practicalities of achieving this for overseas suppliers might result in a more domestic bidder group and product.
Will the Bill do much at all to assist authorities in buying local? It may be easier for contracting authorities to navigate if such priorities and solutions are enshrined in the upcoming Procurement Act 2.0 legislation rather than dispersed into a British Goods and Services Act? This would certainly chime with the overall objective of making the legislative landscape for public procurement simpler and more streamlined.
Watch this space
As noted above the Bill's reading has been delayed and is now due mid-April. It has a long parliamentary process, with the potential for significant amendments, before it could have any legal effect. Therefore, it is a matter of watching this space and seeing what is to come. It seems likely though that with the existing Government desire to consider and explore further statutory measures in the social value and sustainability space (reflected in some of the measures forming part of the proposed Procurement Act 2.0) this Bill if successful will not be the only change to procurement rules coming down the line.
