The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Baroness Twycross) (Lab)

My Lords, in moving these regulations, I start by acknowledging the substantial contribution of the noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Rolfe, in bringing the new procurement regime to fruition. This statutory instrument represents the final legislative step in implementing the Procurement Act 2023, the new public procurement regime responsible for over £385 billion in public contracts annually. Commencing on 24 February 2025, the new regime brings our public procurement procedures in line with the Government’s mission-driven approach and will support economic growth by establishing a simpler and more transparent system. It will deliver better value for money across the public sector, lowering costs and burdensome red tape for businesses, and creating a prosperous environment for government and businesses alike. The legislation being discussed today is a technical statutory instrument, with the purpose of updating existing procurement references in a wide range of UK legislation to align with this new regime. For example, references to the Procurement Contracts Regulations 2015 throughout UK law will now reference the Procurement Act 2023. These types of consequential amendments are, as noble Lords will be very familiar with, a routine and necessary aspect of implementing primary legislation. The SI updates the schedules to the Act to ensure compliance with our international obligations. The threshold values are being revised to bring them in line with the current thresholds applied to public contracts, set by the WTO’s government procurement agreement. This merely amends the Act to match the values that we currently apply to public procurement contracts. Additionally, the regulations amend Schedule 9 to update the list of specified international agreements, which identify which countries’ suppliers have the right to access UK public procurement. This implements updates to the UK’s market access coverage in our trade agreements with Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Albania, removing access to contracts for healthcare services and enabling the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023, introduced in January last year, to work as intended. These updates to the threshold values and schedule allow contracting authorities to correctly grant access to suppliers from partner nations. Further technical amendments include updating the list of central government authorities to reflect the recent machinery of government changes, ensuring that the departmental structures are accurately represented in the new regime. In addition to these technical adjustments, this instrument enhances transparency in public procurement. It supplements the transparency requirements established by the Procurement Act 2023 and Procurement Regulations 2024 on detailed procedural points, including matters such as the issuance of tender documents, direct award procedures, contract modification requirements, self-cleaning procedures and payment compliance notices. These measures provide clarity on specific processes, required by the new regime, which are intended to open up more public sector opportunities to a wider variety of businesses, which helps to drive down costs and promote innovation. This instrument updates how key performance indicators are handled in contract details and performance notices. These changes will help improve how suppliers are evaluated, giving the public sector better information to make more effective decisions to promote value for money. Finally, the regulations outline how to calculate whether the sale of excess electricity, gas or water produced as a by-product of a non-utility activity falls under the Act when the operator wants to sell it to a network. It explains the calculations needed to determine eligibility for vertical and horizontal arrangements, exemptions and the utility contract exemption for affiliated persons. Given the highly technical nature of the instrument, I was somewhat surprised that an amendment of regret was put before the House in respect of these regulations specifically. The powers under which the regulations are made are limited and do not allow for more substantive policy measures to be introduced. The instrument introduces no additional burdens for business and simply ensures that the Act can be implemented smoothly and efficiently. The regulations have been reviewed by the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments and the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee, neither of which has drawn any special attention to it. Contrary to the amendment proposed by the noble Lord, Lord Robathan, the Act introduces a number of reforms to make it easier for small businesses to access public sector supply chains and removes unnecessary burdens and costs. It introduces an obligation on contracting authorities to have regard to the particular barriers facing SMEs through the procurement life cycle and to consider what can be done to overcome them. In particular, the Act makes bidding easier for SMEs by requiring bidding companies to submit their core credentials only once on to a single digital platform, saving them time and money. It makes it clear that contracting authorities may not, in most instances, require audited accounts to test the financial standing of bidders, nor require insurance relating to the performance of a contract to be put in place prior to contract award. This will encourage start-ups that are not legally required to file audited accounts but can instead show financial capability by other means. The Act ensures that prompt payment flows down the supply chain, making it more and not less viable for SMEs to get involved.