Procurement Policy Note 08/21

The Cabinet Office recently published PPN 08/21 which lays down requirements for taking a bidder’s approach to payment into account in the procurement of major government contracts.

The PPN applies to In-Scope Organisations (i.e. all Central Government Departments, their Executive Agencies and Non-Departmental Public Bodies) when they procure goods, services or works where the annual contract value is over £5m.

In these circumstances, In-Scope Organisations must include specific questions in the Selection Questionnaire (SQ) to assess the resilience of bidders’ supply chains.

The PPN replaces PPN 07/20 and increases the minimum percentage of invoices bidders must pay within 60 days to receive a “pass” for a particular SQ question.

The specific SQ questions to be used and more detailed guidance on the PPN can be found here. It will apply to procurements advertised on or after 1^st April 2022; until then In-Scope Organisations should continue to apply PPN 07/20.

We advise contracting authorities on all manner of issues relating to public procurement and our experts are on hand to guide authorities through the intricacies of the Regulations and to advise on any other procurement related issues

Juli Lau is Legal Director and Beth Edwards is a Paralegal at Sharpe Pritchard LLP.

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This article is for general awareness only and does not constitute legal or professional advice. The law may have changed since this page was first published. If you would like further advice and assistance in relation to any issue raised in this article, please contact us by telephone or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.