Blog 19 - Public Sector Tendering Post Procurement Act: The Game Has Changed - Strategy & Compliance
The blog this week is from Jeremy
Tendering to the UK Public Sector Post Procurement Act 2023: Rising Compliance and Smarter Strategy
The Procurement Act 2023, which came into force on 24 February 2025, has fundamentally reshaped how public sector organisations buy goods, services and works. For suppliers, this isn’t just a legal update—it’s a strategic inflection point in our approach to growth and our funnels.
We’re now operating in a landscape where compliance is king, and the burden of proof lies squarely with the bidder. If you’re still waiting for tenders to land in your inbox and hoping to “convince” buyers with a few quality responses, you’re going to struggle.
The New Compliance Reality
Under the new regime, contracting authorities are under greater pressure to:
Ensure suppliers meet specific, documented requirements.
Demonstrate transparency and accountability throughout the procurement lifecycle.
Manage supplier performance and risk more rigorously.
This has led to a surge in compliance questions—sometimes hundreds per tender—each requiring detailed scored responses. These aren’t optional extras and they aren’t yes/no or pass/fail. They’re now central to bid evaluation.
We’re seeing fewer open-ended quality questions and more structured compliance demands. And every response must be:
Complete and aligned with the specification.
Evidence-based, with supporting documentation.
Value-adding, showing how your solution meets public benefit goals.
Strategic Implications for Suppliers
This shift isn’t just operational—it’s strategic. Here’s how suppliers must adapt:
1. Engage Early and Influence Procurement Design
If you’re not engaging with clients pre-tender, you’re missing the chance to shape how your services are procured. This is especially critical now, as buyers themselves are navigating the new rules.
Use thought leadership, PR, and direct engagement to help clients understand how to procure your services effectively—without creating unnecessary barriers.
2. Map Your Funnel and Prioritise Opportunities
The game has changed. You need to:
Map your pipeline under the new regime.
Understand how clients will buy—expect more competitive dialogue, pre-bid meetings, and post-tender interviews.
Prioritise key opportunities and deploy capture planning early.
3. Make Smarter Bid/No-Bid Decisions
With bid costs rising and compliance risks increasing, you must be more selective. Ask:
Can we meet all compliance requirements?
Is this opportunity aligned with our strategic goals?
Do we really have the resources to deliver a high-quality, compliant bid? You probably can't take punts anymore.
4. Prepare for Precision Bidding
Where you do intend to bid, gear up properly. You’ll need:
Robust content libraries for compliance responses.
Clear win themes aligned with buyer objectives.
Complete Solutions that already meet all the clients compliance requirements, hopefully because you helped shape them.
Human engagement—buyers want to see the real people behind the proposal, especially as AI-generated content becomes more common.
The Role of Leadership in Our Discipline
Unfortunately, our professional body the APMP, lack the senior influence needed to shape government policy. In the UK the chapter is run by well meaning but busy volunteers. Despite significant revenue, they can't field an employed senior bidding professional with gravitas and capacity to engage effectively at the right level independantly. That means it’s on us—senior bid professionals—to lead the conversation.
We must:
Advocate for smarter procurement practices.
Help clients co-solution and shape tenders.
Push for direct awards where appropriate, to avoid excessive bid costs and inefficiencies.
Final Thoughts: Compliance as a Strategic Lever
Compliance isn’t just a box-ticking exercise—it’s now a strategic differentiator. Suppliers who can demonstrate readiness, capability, and alignment with public sector goals will stand out.
But it requires effort. Precision. Engagement. And leadership.
If you’re preparing to bid under the new regime or want to reshape your approach to your pipeline, funnel and strategy, let’s talk.
📞 Book a call or connect with Jeremy Brim on LinkedIn to explore how Growth Ignition can support your public sector growth.
Other Resources
We’re on a mission to help companies like yours win more work.
Here are some other free resources that should help you too. Feel also free to share them with friends and colleagues:
Bid Writing Training Interactive Webinar Boot Camp - A condensed one day bid writing training webinar that aims to help attendees improve their ability to write winning tenders and proposals. Book your place here.
Bid Writing Training - Learn to write winning tenders here.
Writing Crown Commercial Services Bids - Learn to tackle the challenges of writing CCS tenders here.
Our free work winning Podcast, the Red Review, can be found here.
You can also follow Jeremy on LinkedIn for hints, tips and insights here.
100% Typo Guarantee—Our blog posts are free-range. It was hand-crafted with love and sent out unfiltered. There was no review queue, no editorial process, no post-post revisions. Therefore, I can pretty much guarantee that there is some sort of typo or grammatical error or literary snafu. Got a business to run and a four year old to Dad. Sorry.