Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Voluntary Community and Social Enterprises (VCSEs) have historically found it challenging to win public sector contracts.
One of the primary social value goals of the Procurement Act 2023 (PA23) is to help SMEs and VCSEs win more public sector contracts.
The aim of PA23 is to move away from the complex, rigid EU-legacy rules toward a more flexible, transparent process.
This article explains how we at Government Commercial Agency (GCA) are applying PA23 to improve opportunities for SMEs
1. Transparency and publishing procurement notices
In the past, SMEs and VCSEs have often struggled with a lack of transparency around government bidding. PA23 aims to increase transparency.
Transparency notices are now published on the Central Digital Platform. This is free to use and gives you a single place to search for all public sector opportunities.
Benefits of the Central Digital Platform:
- 18-month head start: for any contract worth more than £2 million, public sector buyers must publish a “Pipeline Notice” – this gives you up to 18 months’ notice to prepare, upgrade your team’s skills or find partners to form a consortium (an alliance of two or more organisations, that pool their resources to achieve a common goal)
- search filters: you can select specific filters like “suitability” and “small and medium-sized enterprises” to see opportunities that have been marked as particularly suitable for SMEs
- email alerts: you can set up alerts using saved searches so the platform automatically emails you the moment a notice is posted that meets your criteria
2. Using open frameworks
A framework is a list of approved suppliers that the public sector can buy from. In the past, once a framework was created, it was closed to new suppliers for years.
PA23 introduced a new type of commercial agreement called open frameworks. These are long-term agreements that can last up to 8 years. An open framework is, in effect, made up of a series of frameworks that run one after another. Open frameworks reopen at specific times to provide a new opportunity for suppliers to join.
Since PA23 came into force in February 2025, 4 open frameworks have been awarded by GCA:
Here is a list of open frameworks currently in progress.
If you miss out when a framework first starts, you do not have to wait for the framework to end. You can apply to join when it re-opens.
If you apply to join an open framework at one of these points, there are 2 advantages:
- See past questions: You can look at all the clarification questions and answers from earlier procurements
- Learn from others: You may be able to learn what worked well for SMEs that applied early if they share their experiences on social media or at Meet the Buyer events.
If you are already on the framework when it re-opens, and there is no limit on supplier numbers, you may be awarded to the next framework automatically. This means you avoid filling out the extra paperwork.
3. Addressing unfair advantages
A big part of PA23 is ensuring that no supplier receives an unfair advantage when bidding for public sector contracts, which GCA takes all reasonable steps to ensure. This is regardless of their size or position.
Managing conflicts of interest
Under PA23, GCA carefully identifies and mitigates conflicts of interest. We do this when identifying the need for a new commercial agreement, up until that agreement expires or is terminated.
All individuals involved in the procurement of a commercial agreement are assessed to find any actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest. These are automatically recorded in the Conflicts of Interest Assessment register.
At GCA, we prepare, review, and revise a conflict assessment every time we publish:
- a tender notice
- a transparency notice
- a dynamic market notice
- a contract details notice
- a contract change notice
Preventing bias
SMEs and VCSEs often worry that the company currently doing the work has an unfair advantage. This is called an incumbent bias.
If any supplier receives an unavoidable unfair advantage, or they don’t take steps necessary to avoid an unfair advantage, GCA will exclude them.
To avoid exclusion, the incumbent supplier must establish clear boundaries. Clear boundaries might include ethical walls or removing individuals working on the existing contract from the supplier’s bid team.
4. Splitting huge contracts into lots
Instead of creating one big contract, government buyers must look at whether they can split the contract into smaller parts. These smaller parts are called lots. This makes these bigger contracts more accessible to SMEs and VCSEs.
If a buyer decides not to split a large contract into lots, they may be required to explain why.
To make this work, GCA undertakes extensive preliminary market engagement with SMEs and VCSEs. This involves getting input and feedback from them as we design an agreement.
Sometimes, we also limit how many lots a single supplier can be awarded. This in turn creates more opportunities for small businesses. In fact, 12 out of the first 15 GCA contracts under this new law were split into smaller lots.
Where GCA agreements are not split into lots, this can be because:
- the holistic nature of the multiple services means breaking the agreement into lots would not be appropriate
- only having 1 lot would create the simplest process for buyers and suppliers and ensure best value
- maintaining a single lot leverages supplier relationships and maximises competition to secure value in a tight-margin market.
5. Addressing conditions of participation
Conditions of Participation assess suppliers’ legal and financial capacity and technical ability to perform the contract. They must only be set if they are proportionate, taking into account the contract’s nature, complexity, and cost.
For you, this means:
- fair qualifications: GCA assesses each lot on our agreements to decide whether Technical Ability Certificates and qualifications such as Cyber Essentials or ISO are needed. If a contract asks for a particular certificate or qualification, the government must accept equivalent proofs
- no upfront insurance costs: you may not need to pay for expensive insurance certificates such as Public and Products Liability and Professional Indemnity when you first join an agreement. You may only need to show proof of insurance once you win a call-off contract
- flexible financial proof: if you do not have audited annual accounts, you can provide alternative evidence to prove your financial capability to fulfil a contract
6. Providing clear feedback to help you improve
If you bid for a contract and do not win, PA23 helps you learn for next time. Before a contract award notice is published for a framework agreement, GCA must send every bidder who submitted an assessed tender an assessment summary.
An assessment summary breaks down your exact scores and explains why you received them. As an unsuccessful bidder, you will receive your own summary alongside a redacted copy of the winning supplier’s summary. This allows you to understand the winning tender’s relative advantages so you can improve your next bid.
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