In June 2026, the Government Commercial Agency published guidance explaining the new procurement notices introduced by the Procurement Act 2023. The guidance highlights the importance of transparency throughout the procurement life cycle, including the management of contracts following award.
For contractors, this creates an important change in the commercial environment. Public authorities have new obligations to publish certain information about supplier performance. This means that serious performance failures can attract scrutiny beyond the contract management team.
Historically, some suppliers have benefited from relatively informal contract management arrangements. Missed deadlines, service failures and repeated non-compliance could sometimes be managed through informal discussions without extensive documentation or formal escalation.
The new reporting requirements make that approach more difficult to sustain where statutory publication triggers arise.
Case study:
A local authority waste management contractor repeatedly fails to achieve agreed collection standards. The authority may initially seek improvement through meetings, revised working arrangements and corrective action plans. However, where the statutory conditions for reporting unsatisfactory performance are satisfied, the authority cannot simply ignore the publication requirement.
I believe that contractors should expect greater emphasis on documented service reviews, evidence-based performance assessments, formal improvement processes and management accountability. Procurement may also become more demanding about the accuracy of management information and the speed with which performance failures are corrected. The Procurement Act is reinforcing a shift from reactive contract administration towards proactive performance management.
Our course “Contractors Guide: Contract Performance Management Regime Requirements of the Procurement Act” places particular emphasis on understanding the new requirements imposed by the Act and how to ensure that contractors are able to respond to these challenges.
Check out our course here