Public Contract Regulations
The Procurement Act 2023 (PA2023) sets out UK Government Regulations and was implemented into UK law to replace the previous Public Contracts Regulations 2015 on 24th February 2025. The new Procurement regulations have been named as the Procurement Regulations 2024. (PR2024)
Under PR2024 Coventry University will need to demonstrate a more detailed focus to deliver value for money, maximise public benefit, share information about policies and decision making, act with integrity, treat supplies the same (unless a valid justification is provided), and remove and reduce barriers for SMEs.
The PR2024 procedures set out in the regulations must be followed before awarding certain contracts when the value is above a certain threshold. The contracts should be advertised on Find a Tender, which is the central database for UK Government notices. Thresholds are set at regular intervals by the UK Government and the current thresholds are set out below.
From 1st January 2025 the PA2023 thresholds were set at £214,904 inc. VAT (£179.086 Exc. VAT) for goods and services, and £5,372,609 inc. VAT for works (£4,477,174 Exc. VAT).
Classification of types of contracts
There are three types of contracts under Regulations:
I. Supplies – essentially the purchase or hire of goods (including electricity and gas).
II. Services – which fall into three categories with different levels of regulation applying:
- Part A: Priority Services i.e. those in which EU-wide competition could most realistically be undertaken and to which the Regulations apply in their entirety.
- Part B: Residual Services i.e. those that cannot so easily be subject to EU-wide competition and which there is a more limited application of the Regulations as set out in Regulation 5 ‘Application’.
- Mixed Services where there is a mix of Part A and Part B, it is the element with the greater financial value that determines the classification. If the values are equal it is a Part B procurement. Schedule 3 of the Regulations lists Part A (Categories 1-16) and Part B services (Categories 17-27).
