NI Executive publishes Public Procurement Policy Statement

On 6 June 2025, the Northern Ireland Executive published its Public Procurement Policy Statement, outlining a revised strategic framework for public procurement.

Replacing the 2002 policy, the Statement is intended to align procurement activity with the Executive’s Programme for Government.

While the UK-wide Procurement Act 2023 took effect in April 2025, it applies only partly to Northern Ireland, with the Statement aiming to provide more comprehensive direction.

The document sets out four core principles to underpin procurement decisions:

1. Accessibility – The Executive aims to make public contracts more accessible to smaller businesses by streamlining the pre-qualification process, ensuring fair cash flow in contracts and allocating contractual risk appropriately.
2. Efficiency and Effectiveness – The Statement proposes improving procurement performance by developing performance metrics, monitoring Major Capital Projects, building procurement capability and maintaining strong financial controls.
3. Social Value – The Executive plans to embed social, economic and environmental goals in business cases, conduct market and community engagement, utilise grant funding and require each department to develop a Green Growth strategy.
4. Transparency – Departments or Centres of Procurement Expertise (CoPEs) will be obliged to publish an annual procurement pipeline with contract details and estimated tender dates and, by 30 June each year, report annual statistics on contract awards.

Governance and oversight arrangements are to be reviewed by 31 December 2025, with interim measures in place until then.

Additionally, the Executive proposes to establish a Procurement Review Service by June 2027 to allow suppliers to raise concerns where they believe procurement policy has not been followed.

If you have any questions or comments about the Policy Statement, please contact Curtis Large, RSUA Policy and Public Affairs Officer, at curtis@rsua.org.uk