The procurement termination notice is a new requirement under the Procurement Act. There was no equivalent notice under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR). This may explain why some organisations are missing occasions when they should publish one.
As a reminder, if a contracting authority decides not to award a public contract after publishing a tender notice or transparency notice, but before entering into the contract, the Procurement Act requires it to publish a procurement termination notice. Contracting authorities must publish this notice as soon as reasonably practicable after deciding to stop the procurement process.
The requirement to publish a procurement termination notice only applies where a tender notice or transparency notice has previously been published. As a result, some procurements do not require this notice, including framework call-offs and below-threshold competitions. Although there is no requirement to publish a notice when cancelling a pipeline notice, organisations may still choose to do so to provide greater transparency to the market.
Last month, the Government issued two new Procurement Policy Notes (PPNs):
PPN 024 comes into force on 1 April 2027. PPN 025 came into effect immediately in June 2026. Neither PPN is mandatory for NHS organisations to implement. However, organisations may wish to consider them where relevant.
If you have any questions about these notices or Procurement Policy Notes, please get in touch.
By Ruth McColl, Assistant Director – Procurement, Assurance and Compliance