Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what penalties or sanctions apply to contracting authorities that fail to publish pipeline notices under section 93 of the Procurement Act 2023.

Pipeline notices are required to be published under the Procurement Act 2023 (the Act). Where a contracting authority has a third-party spend of more than £100 million, it is required to publish a pipeline notice for every procurement with an estimated value of more than £2 million.

Information published in procurement notices will be viewable, free of charge, in an accessible format. It will be clear which contracting authorities are publishing the pipeline notice in the pipeline view on the central digital platform.

The Procurement Review Unit (PRU), established to exercise the procurement oversight powers in Part 10 of the Act, may investigate a contracting authority's compliance with the Act. Non-compliance, including failure to publish a pipeline notice, may lead to an investigation and the results may be published by the PRU. The PRU may make recommendations to the contracting authority in order for them to achieve compliance. The contracting authority must have due regard to these recommendations and may be required to submit a progress report if directed by the PRU.