Procurement Regulations 2015

Procurements commenced under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 must continue to be procured and managed under that legislation. This means any procurements that have started prior to the effective date of the new legislation (currently 24 February 2025). A procurement is commenced when a Contract Notice has been published prior to the effective date of the new legislation.  

Resulting contracts or contracts already awarded under the PCR2015 should continue to be managed (including modification and termination) under that legislation. This includes call-offs from frameworks tendered under the PCR2015.

Public Contract Regulations 2015

View Procurement Policy Notes (PPNs)

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Transition to the new regulations

For guidance on transitioning from PCR2015 to PA23 you can refer to the Government’s Transitional and Saving Arrangements Document.

For more information on transition please refer to our Transition & Planning Tile 

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Below-threshold procurements

While the Public Contracts Regulations (PCR) 2015 does not mandate the full suite of rules for below-threshold contracts, there are still principles of transparency, equal treatment, and non-discrimination.

Contracting authorities have much more flexibility in how they procure below-threshold contracts, meaning they can adopt procedures that are simpler, quicker, and more proportionate to the value of the procurement. However, they must still comply with their internal procurement policies and ensure that they shall treat bidder’s equally and without discrimination and shall act in a transparent and proportionate manner.

Chapter 8 of the PCR 2015 sets out the below-threshold regime. Procurements that are subject to the below threshold regime are:

  • Procurements whose value falls below the financial thresholds that apply for the purposes of the PCR 2015 (regulation 5). View Thresholds here. 
  • Procurements whose value (inclusive of V.A.T.) are estimated to be not less than £12,000 (central government authorities); or
  • Procurements whose value (inclusive of V.A.T.) are estimated to be not less than £30,000 (sub-central contracting authorities or NHS Trust)

The below sets out a summary of the rules under PCR2015 for below-threshold procurements:

Publication of contract opportunities
There is no mandatory requirement to advertise below-threshold contracts in the Find a Tender Service (FTS), the UK's e-notification system. However, contracting authorities often advertise such contracts on local or national portals, or on their own websites, to ensure transparency.

If a Contracting Authority chooses to advertise an opportunity it must publish the information on Contracts Finder  even if it doesn’t advertise in any other way. If a contracting Authority has advertised elsewhere then the opportunity must be published on Contracts Finder within 24 hours of the time when it first advertises the contract award opportunity in any other way.

Assessing suitability 
A pre-qualification stage must not be included in a procurement for the purpose of reducing the number of candidates to a smaller number who are to proceed to a later stage of the process.

However, the contracting authority may ask candidates to answer suitability assessment questions to ensure that suppliers meet requirements or minimum standards of suitability, capability, legal status or financial standing. The suitability assessment questions must be proportionate to the subject-matter of the procurement, avoiding unnecessary complexity.

Publication of contracts awarded
If a contract is awarded, a notice must publish the details of the award on Contracts Finder within a reasonable time.

Standstill Period
The formal standstill period, which applies to above-threshold procurements, does not apply to below-threshold contracts. However, authorities may choose to introduce a voluntary standstill period to allow for review.