One Act, four nations: the question to ask before you draft a notice

The rules travel with the arrangement

The operative principle is that contracting authorities carrying out a procurement under a devolved or transferred procurement arrangement are bound by the rules that apply to the contracting authority establishing the procurement arrangement. A reserved authority calling off from a framework set up by a devolved Welsh authority follows the Welsh rules, because it has stepped into a devolved Welsh procurement arrangement.

That is a sensible design. It means a framework has one rule set for its whole life rather than shifting according to who happens to be buying from it this month. But it inverts the instinct most teams have, which is to look at their own organisation and assume their own regime applies. The classification question is about the arrangement, and it should be settled and written down when the arrangement is created, not when the first call off is drafted.

Wales is not a footnote

Procurement is largely a devolved matter, and the Welsh Government has the power to determine the rules by which certain procurements are conducted and contracts managed. The most visible consequence is at policy level: the national procurement policy statement does not apply to procurement carried out under a devolved Welsh procurement arrangement or by a devolved Welsh authority, except where the arrangement is reserved. The Wales procurement policy statement applies instead.

It does not stop there. The guidance records differences in the content that must be included in notices published under the Act, and notes that the Welsh Government has made its own procurement regulations producing further differences. It then does something guidance rarely does and points readers elsewhere: the Welsh Government produces its own guidance on the Act, and devolved Welsh authorities should refer to it for further information.

The practical failure mode is a team in Wales working entirely from UK level guidance and templates, producing a technically competent process aimed at the wrong policy statement and the wrong notice content. Nothing about the Act flags that error while it is happening.

Scotland is a different regime, mostly

Devolved Scottish authorities are generally excluded from the application of the Act, and Scottish procurement legislation continues to govern them. That is the headline and it is usually the right assumption. The complication is the exception, introduced by the Procurement Regulations 2024, which creates a limited application where Scottish authorities take part in joint procurements with non Scottish authorities or use frameworks established by reserved authorities. Schedule 9A sets out which sections apply in those cases.

So a Scottish authority can, in a specific set of circumstances, be following parts of an Act it is otherwise outside. That is exactly the situation where nobody checks, because everyone involved is confident of the general rule. Northern Ireland has its own version of the same pattern: transferred Northern Ireland authorities follow the Act with specific exemptions, and the national procurement policy statement does not apply to their arrangements.

What good practice looks like

Make classification a documented step, not an assumption. Record whether the organisation is a devolved Welsh authority, a transferred Northern Ireland authority or a devolved Scottish authority, and record the arrangement type for every framework, dynamic market and joint procurement. The definitions are in the Act at sections 111, 112 and 2(6) to 2(7), and section 114 deals with the arrangement classification itself.

Then make that classification visible where it is needed. The person drafting a call off notice two years after a framework was established has no way of knowing which regime it carries unless someone recorded it. Tagging the establishing authority and the applicable rules against the arrangement is a small piece of administrative hygiene that prevents a category of error that is otherwise almost undetectable until challenge.

Finally, for anyone operating across boundaries, budget the time to read the devolved material. The Act is the shared framework, not the whole answer. In Wales in particular, the Welsh Government's own guidance and regulations are part of the compliance picture, and the UK guidance says so plainly.

The takeaways

• The rules follow the procurement arrangement, so participants must apply the rules of the authority that established it.
• The Wales procurement policy statement replaces the national procurement policy statement for devolved Welsh authorities and arrangements.
• Devolved Welsh authorities must also read Welsh Government guidance and regulations, which change notice content and other requirements.
• Devolved Scottish authorities are generally outside the Act, but the Procurement Regulations 2024 apply parts of it to cross border joint procurements and reserved frameworks.
• Record authority status and arrangement type against every framework and dynamic market so call off users apply the correct regime.

Want the full breakdown?

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