Issue - meetings

The Board considered a report of the Operational Director, Finance, which provided an update on:

·       procurement activity in 2022/23, with an outline of the key actions taken during the year – Members were referred to Appendix A, which presented a total of 167 contracts awarded with their values;

·       the progress achieved in delivering the Council’s Procurement Strategy – Appendix B provided updates on progress against the planned actions and demonstrated strong progress against all four themes of the Strategy. The Strategy document had been reviewed and minor changes had been made were necessary to reflect changes in activity and terminology. It was proposed that the refreshed version of the Strategy would be extended to cover the period until 2025. Following the update of the Council’s Corporate Plan, the Strategy would be fully updated; and 

·       the Procurement Bill – received Royal Assent on 26 October 2023, officially making the Bill into an Act of Parliament. Secondary legislation would be presented to Parliament in early 2024, and it was anticipated that the new regulations would come into effect from October 2024.  The report outlined some of the key points within Act.

          RESOLVED: That

1)    the update on procurement activity and progress against the Procurement Strategy action plan be noted; and

2)    the Board approves extending the existing Procurement Strategy until 2025 pending the completion of the update of the Corporate Plan and implementation of the Procurement Act 2023.