Regulated procurement | UK Regulatory Outlook April 2026

Cabinet Office publishes new Contract Management Playbook 

The Cabinet Office published its Contract Management Playbook on 26 March 2026. It is aimed at contracting authorities, providing commercial, finance, operational, project delivery, policy and other professionals with guidelines, rules and principles to help them avoid the most common errors in managing contracts and optimise contract outcomes. 

It covers the full contract lifecycle, offering strategic and operational guidance on performance management, change management, risk, supplier relationships and exit planning. 

For suppliers, the playbook is a valuable resource when preparing bids for public contracts, offering practical insight into how contracting authorities assess and manage contracts and enabling suppliers to tailor their proposals to meet the standards and outcomes that government is looking for. 

Respondents back tougher social value rules in public procurement overhaul 

The government has published its response to the "Growing British industry, jobs and skills" consultation. It provides a general round-up of responses to each proposal rather than providing any comment on the government's position in light of responses. The government will use consultation to inform future planned reforms, with any future legislative proposals dependent on parliamentary time.  

Respondents to the consultation broadly supported mandatory, publicly reported social value KPIs, geographic targeting of social value benefits, a standardised list of social value criteria, and mandatory prompt payment enforcement of 30-day terms throughout the supply chain with quarterly publication of payment data. 

Government announces public procurement reform package 

The Cabinet Office has announced a package of measures aimed at ensuring that the £400 billion spent annually by the public sector supports British jobs, skills and national security, following the public consultation referred to above and building on the introduction of the Procurement Act 2023 in February 2025. 

The package includes: 

• new guidance for central government organisations procuring from the steel, shipbuilding, AI and energy infrastructure sectors on the appropriate use of national security exemptions to secure supply chains;
• new transparency requirements to confirm the use of UK steel at the point of contract award, or provide a robust justification where steel is to be sourced overseas; and
• work with the National Shipbuilding Office to develop a new commercial framework for shipbuilding with a predictable pipeline of work for domestic shipyards. 

The government also intends to introduce a new Public Interest Test for outsourced service contracts over £1 million, secondary legislation to reinstate the "Two-Tier Code" protecting workers' pay and conditions on outsourced contracts, and a redefined social value framework to deliver community-led benefits and employment opportunities.  

A package of AI tools will also be introduced to streamline procurement processes and reduce the administrative burden on practitioners, suppliers and SMEs. 

Below-threshold suppliers required to register on the Central Digital Platform from April 2026 

From 1 April 2026, suppliers awarded notifiable below-threshold contracts must register on the Central Digital Platform (CDP) and obtain a unique identifier, which contracting authorities are required to include in the relevant Below-Threshold Contract Details Notice.  

The requirement applies to contracts with an estimated value of at least £12,000 for central government and £30,000 for sub-central government. 

Registration is required at the point of contract award rather than as a condition of participating in the procurement, and suppliers who have previously registered do not need to do so again.  

For businesses yet to register, doing so is straightforward but should not be left until a contract award is imminent, as contracting authorities cannot proceed with below-threshold awards under the new regime without a valid CDP identifier in place. 

Two new payment reporting requirements for contracting authorities 

Two new payment reporting requirements now apply to contracting authorities under the Procurement Act 2023. 

Under section 70 of the Act, from 1 April 2026, contracting authorities are required to publish details of individual payments over £30,000 (including VAT) made under public contracts procured under the Procurement Act where the procurement procedure commenced on or after that date.  

Payment data must be published on the CDP via a single payment report spreadsheet within 30 days of the end of each quarter, meaning the first reports, covering 1 April to 30 June 2026, are due by 29 July 2026.  

Contracting authorities may update the spreadsheet as often as they like between quarters but are only required to publish the data quarterly. Published data will identify the supplier by name, along with the value of each payment net of VAT and the date of payment.  

The regime applies to call-off contracts awarded under frameworks or dynamic markets established under the Act where those call-offs commenced on or after 1 April 2026, but does not extend to the frameworks or dynamic markets themselves, nor to below-threshold or exempted contracts. 

Under section 69 of the Act, contracting authorities are also required to publish UK17 Payments Compliance Notices reporting their average invoice payment times and demonstrating compliance with the 30-day payment standard. Unlike the section 70 requirement, which captures data on individual payments under specific contracts, the UK17 notice reports aggregate payment performance across the authority as a whole. The first reporting period ran from 1 October 2025 to 31 March 2026, with the first notices due by 30 April 2026. 

These new requirements bring greater visibility of how promptly contracting authorities are paying their supply chains.