After the political chopping and changing of the last few weeks, we now finally seem to have a settled Government in Westminster once more. However, you do have to wonder what impact all the changes have had on the future of the Procurement Bill.
The responsibility for the Procurement Bill rests with the Minister for the Cabinet Office, but it’s been musical chairs at Cabinet Office, since September 2022. On 6 September, Michael Ellis departed, to be replaced by Edward Argar.
However, no sooner had Mr Argar warmed his chair, for a mere 38 days, than he found himself unseated and replaced by Chris Philp, who himself only managed to last for a meagre 11 days before the music resumed, and Jeremy Quin found he was the last one sitting.
In fairness to Jeremy Quin, he is perhaps better placed to manage the Procurement Bill and the major reforms it will bring, having previously been responsible for the Government Commercial Function and other cross-government programmes and, more recently, having spent over 2½ years as Minister of State for Defence Procurement.
Given Jeremy Quin’s extensive experience in public sector procurement matters and in particular in Defence Procurement, you can’t help wonder whether the Procurement Bill will sail easily through the Commons once it arrives there, or if there will be some significant changes to the Bill before it finally gets presented for Royal Assent.
What will be most interesting to see is whether there is any change to the Defence-linked elements of the Procurement Bill, given the Defence sector is effectively losing a full set of dedicated regulations [Defence and Security Public Contract Regulations 2011] and being shoehorned into the same set of rules that will apply to the rest of the public sector, as well as to Utility companies.
Meanwhile, as the Bill progresses through the House of Lords, an amended version of the Procurement Bill was published on 26th October 2022.
The Procurement Bill [as Amended in Grand Committee], will now progress to the Third Reading in the House of Lords, before it will be sent to the House of Commons and the Review and Committee stages will be revisited by Members of Parliament.
One can’t help thinking that it may be a long and bumpy ride ahead in the next few months.
