The Procurement Act 2023 for suppliers
Four parts of the Act change how a supplier bids, and BidProof is built around each of them. This is a summary to help you prepare, not legal advice: the Act, its regulations and each tender's documents decide.
Assessment summaries
Every supplier whose tender was assessed receives an assessment summary (section 50). It gives your score for each award criterion, explained by reference to your tender, and, if you did not win, information on how the most advantageous tender scored against the same criteria.
Summaries are sent to each supplier privately and are not published. That makes them the best record of why you won or lost, and most suppliers file them and move on. BidProof records each criterion against the answer you used, so you can see which answers lose marks across bids.
The standstill period
Before most contracts are entered into, the buyer must observe a standstill period of eight working days beginning with the day the contract award notice is published (section 51). A working day excludes weekends and bank holidays in any part of the United Kingdom (section 123).
BidProof works out the end of the standstill from the award notice date you record, so you know how long you have to raise a concern.
Exclusion grounds
A supplier can be excluded on mandatory grounds (Schedule 6) or discretionary grounds (Schedule 7), and the grounds extend to connected persons such as directors and persons with significant control.
BidProof reads Companies House changes for your company each day and tells you which part of your declaration each change touches, so a new director or a late filing is checked before a buyer asks.
The Central Digital Platform
Suppliers register their core supplier information once on the Central Digital Platform and share it with a buyer through a share code or a file, as the tender documents say. When the information changes, you update it and create a new share code.
BidProof keeps your share code with the rest of your evidence, so it is in date and to hand for every bid.