Small contracts, real rules: what the Procurement Act guidance on below-threshold really asks of you
Most public sector buying by volume happens well below the headline thresholds, and for years it was the part of the process nobody looked at very hard. The Procurement Act 2023 guidance on below-threshold contracts changes the temperature. It does not impose a full tendering regime on a £15,000 purchase, but it does put a national notice on the front of it, a deadline on the back of it, a ban on pre-tender supplier filtering in the middle, and a duty to think about SMEs before any of it starts. That combination is easy to underestimate.
The notifiable line is the line that matters
Two numbers decide most of the workload. A regulated below-threshold contract becomes notifiable at £12,000 or more including VAT for central government authorities, and £30,000 or more including VAT for everyone else. Below those figures the publication obligations fall away. At or above them, advertising triggers a below-threshold tender notice and award triggers a contract details notice.
The practical risk is that these values are low enough to sit inside ordinary operational buying, handled by budget holders rather than the procurement team. If your delegation limits allow a service manager to place a £20,000 order without central involvement, then a notifiable contract can be advertised, awarded and delivered without anyone applying the notice rules. Reconciling delegation thresholds with the notifiable figures is unglamorous and is the single highest value thing most authorities can do with this guidance.
Two routes, and the trap between them
The guidance is genuinely permissive about approach. An authority can award without competition or request quotes from a targeted group of known suppliers, and there is no requirement to publish a below-threshold tender notice where it invites quotes, proposals or tenders from a closed group of pre-selected suppliers. That is a real flexibility and it reflects how low value buying actually works.
The condition attached to it is where teams get caught. That freedom holds only where the procurement is not advertised in any other way. Post the opportunity on your own website, push it through a regional portal, mention it in a trade publication, and you have advertised. At that point the below-threshold tender notice is required, and it must go on the central digital platform before the other advertising, not alongside it and not afterwards. Choose one route consciously, then stick to it.
Suitability checks and the SME duty
Section 85 removes a habit rather than a rule. Plenty of authorities front their smaller competitions with a short supplier questionnaire covering legal status, financial standing, technical capability, misconduct and insolvency. On regulated below-threshold contracts that filter can no longer be used to restrict who may submit a tender. The reasoning in the guidance is proportionality: these checks are resource intensive for buyers and a real barrier for SMEs and voluntary sector suppliers. The exception is below-threshold works contracts above the relevant goods and services thresholds in Schedule 1.
Section 86 then asks for something more thoughtful. Before inviting tenders, consider what would stop a small supplier bidding and whether it can be removed or reduced. It is a consideration duty, so nobody can force a particular answer, but a bare assertion that barriers were considered is weak evidence. A short record of the specific points examined, insurance levels, turnover requirements, response length, timescales, and what was changed as a result, is proportionate and it is the kind of thing that holds up when an unsuccessful bidder asks.
The deadlines nobody diarises
Publication after award is where compliance quietly fails. The contract details notice must be published as soon as reasonably practicable after entering into the contract, with backstops of 30 days for central government authorities, 90 days for other authorities and 120 days for light touch contracts. Those are generous windows, which is precisely why they get missed: nothing feels urgent in week two, and by week twelve the buyer has moved on.
Section 88 adds the payment dimension, applying implied prompt payment terms to below-threshold contracts in the same way as sections 68 and 73 do for public contracts. Contract templates for low value work are often the oldest documents in the organisation, so this is worth a deliberate check rather than an assumption. Between the notice deadlines and the payment terms, the fix in both cases is systematic rather than heroic: put the obligation in the workflow and stop relying on memory.
The takeaways
- Notifiable starts at £12,000 including VAT for central government and £30,000 including VAT for other authorities.
- Closed group quotes need no tender notice, but only if the procurement is not advertised in any other way.
- If you advertise, the below-threshold tender notice goes on the central digital platform first.
- No pre-tender supplier suitability filter under section 85, and record your section 86 thinking on SME barriers.
- Contract details notice within 30, 90 or 120 days depending on the authority and contract type.
Want the full breakdown?
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