EU
Procurement Directives
A call for evidence and public consultation on the EU Procurement Directives is underway until 7 March 2025. The aim is to evaluate the legislation to assess whether the rules are working as intended. The Directives will be evaluated against the criteria of effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, coherence and EU added value. Views are also invited from the Office of Government Procurement in Ireland to inform its engagement in the overall consultation process.
Construction Products Regulation
The revised Construction Products Regulation has been published in the Official Journal of the EU and applies from 8 January 2026. Certain provisions apply earlier (from 7 January 2025), to drive development of harmonised technical specifications and performance standards.
The Regulation provides harmonised rules on the placing or making available on the market of construction products. As regards public procurement, the Commission will be empowered to adopt implementing acts specifying minimum mandatory environmental sustainability requirements for procurement of construction products, in order to incentivise supply and demand of environmentally sustainable products.
UK
Procurement Act 2023
The UK's Procurement Act 2023 will come into force on 24 February 2025 and will replace the existing procurement statutory framework in the UK. The UK Government has published guidance on the covered procurement objectives at section 12 of the Act, which are intended to guide contracting authorities' decision-making, assisting effective and efficient public procurement with high standards of integrity, while at the same time recognising the importance of value for money and the need to obtain best value from procured goods, services and works.
This article contains a general summary of developments and is not a complete or definitive statement of the law. Specific legal advice should be obtained where appropriate.