The Cabinet Office has provided a couple of early Christmas gifts with the publication of two new Public Procurement Notes: 

1. PPN 12/23, which sets out new requirements for contracting authorities following North Macedonia’s accession to the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) as well as amendments to two Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV) codes to address outdated language; and 
2. PPN 11/23, which sets out the new thresholds that apply for the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, Utilities Contracts Regulations 2016, the Concession Contracts Regulations 2016 and the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011. The new thresholds will be:

The Concession Contracts Regulations 2016

• Concession contracts £5,372,609

Whilst PPN 12/23 may not be significant in its impact for many contracting authorities, it is worth being aware of the requirement to extend the same treatment to any bidders from North Macedonia as it already would to bidders from other GPA member states. 

For PPN 11/23, it is important that all contracting authorities and utilities are mindful of these revised thresholds which will apply from 1 January 2024. This may mean revisiting assessments for procurements which were due to launch early in the new year to check whether they now fall above the increased thresholds and are therefore subject to additional obligations. 

As a reminder, the values above refer to the estimated contract value including VAT. As identified in the PPN, there remains a contradictory position when it comes to advertising opportunities and publication of contract award notices where the position remains that these should be detailed exclusive of VAT. This conflicting position is expected to be addressed when the Procurement Act 2023 takes effect in Autumn 2024 when notices will be provided using values inclusive of VAT but until then contracting authorities and utilities should be mindful of the difference to avoid inadvertent issues.