Procurement Act 2023

The Procurement Act 2023 came into force in February 2025 and replaced the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCRs 2015) as the primary legislation governing public sector procurement in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It significantly strengthens the social value obligations placed on both commissioners and suppliers, and introduces new transparency and delivery evidence requirements that directly affect how social value is reported.

This page covers how the Procurement Act 2023 affects social value reporting and how Impact supports compliance. It is not legal advice. Consult your legal team for guidance specific to your organisation's contracts and obligations.

Who does it apply to?

The Act applies to contracting authorities, central government departments, NHS bodies, local authorities, and other public bodies in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and to the suppliers who bid for and hold public contracts with them. If your organisation bids for or currently holds public sector contracts above the relevant thresholds, this legislation affects you.

Scotland operates under separate procurement legislation (the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014). The guidance on this page applies to England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

What changed from the old rules?

The PCRs 2015 required contracting authorities to consider social value, but in practice this was inconsistently applied. The Procurement Act 2023 raises the bar in four important ways:

Social value must be explicitly weighted in award criteria, not just considered as a pass/fail threshold.
Transparency obligations are significantly expanded, contracting authorities must publish more information about how contracts are awarded and what social value has been promised and delivered.
Suppliers must evidence delivery, not just commitments, the focus has shifted from what you promise at bid stage to what you actually deliver during the contract.
Supply chain social value is now in scope, contracting authorities can require social value reporting from sub-contractors as well as prime contractors.

The five social value obligations it creates

Obligation	What it means in practice	How Impact supports it

Obligation	What it means in practice	How Impact supports it
Weighted award criteria	Social value must carry a defined percentage weighting in your tender evaluation score, commonly 10–20%.	The Tenders feature allows commissioners to build structured social value requirements directly into their tender process, with defined activities and measurable commitments from bidders.
Delivery evidence	Suppliers must be able to demonstrate that social value committed at bid stage has been delivered during the contract.	Activity logging, Log Validation, and the Goals feature create an auditable record of what was committed, what was logged, and what was approved, directly comparable against bid commitments.
Transparency reporting	Contracting authorities must publish information on contract awards, modifications, and performance, including social value outcomes.	The Reporting and Dashboards features allow you to generate structured outputs showing social value delivery by contract, activity, or time period, ready for publication or commissioner submission.
Supply chain inclusion	Contracting authorities can extend social value requirements to sub-contractors within the supply chain.	The Social Value Calculator and Bids features enable prime contractors to collect social value data from sub-contractors without requiring them to have platform access. Supply chain contributions can then be aggregated into project-level reporting.
Consistent measurement	The Act encourages use of established frameworks so social value can be compared across contracts and suppliers.	MeasureUp provides a standardised proxy value framework aligned with UK social value practice, and the platform also supports TOMs, the Social Value Model, and bespoke custom frameworks.

Setting up your account for Procurement Act compliance

If you are responding to or managing public sector tenders, the following setup checklist will ensure Impact is configured to support your obligations under the Act.

Setup checklist for procurement-facing organisations

Create a project for each contract, this keeps delivery data attributable to the right commitment and commissioner.
Set up activities using MeasureUp or your framework of choice so all metrics are consistently defined and measurable.
Create goals that mirror the specific social value commitments made in your tender response, numeric or monetary, linked to the relevant activities.
Enable Log Validation if your commissioner requires an audited approval process for logged data.
Set a Reporting Period aligned to your contract duration so dashboards automatically reflect the right timeframe.
Use the Tenders feature if you are a commissioner managing supplier social value commitments and want to track delivery end-to-end.
Use the Social Value Calculator to collect supply chain data from sub-contractors without requiring them to have platform access.

Frequently asked questions

Does the Act specify what percentage weighting social value must carry?

No, the Act does not mandate a specific weighting. The Cabinet Office's Social Value Model recommends at least 10% for central government contracts, and many local authorities apply 10–20%. Your commissioner will specify the weighting in their tender documents.

Do we have to use a specific social value framework?

No specific framework is mandated by the Act. Central government typically uses the Social Value Model. Local authorities may use TOMs, their own bespoke framework, or MeasureUp. Impact supports all of these, see Conversions and Metrics Frameworks for a full overview.

We're mid-contract, do we need to change anything?

If your contract was awarded before February 2025, it is generally governed by the PCRs 2015. New contracts and contract extensions awarded from February 2025 onwards fall under the Procurement Act 2023. Check your contract terms and seek legal advice if you're unsure.