NHS Provider Selection Regime coming into force in January 2024

The Department of Health and Social Care has announced plans to introduce the Provider Selection Regime regulations into Parliament on 19 October 2023. Subject to parliamentary scrutiny, the DHSC intends for the PSR regulations to come into force on 1 January 2024.

In its announcement that DHSC confirmed that until the PSR is in force, relevant authorities should continue to follow the current rules (the Public Contract Regulations 2015 and the Procurement, Patient Choice, and Competition Regulations 2013) for any healthcare contract award. In short, this means that for any procurement exercise initiated under the current rules, then it should be complete under those rules.

The new rules will be introduced by regulations made under the Health and Care Act 2022. Once the PSR is in force, it will replace the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and the Procurement, Patient Choice and Competition Regulations 2013 for the procurement of healthcare services by relevant authorities.

The Department of Health and Social Care’s response to their supplementary consultation on the detail of the proposed regulations was published on 13 July 2023 and you can read our article here.

Public procurement law is more generally undergoing reform, which will cover all other procurements by relevant authorities. You can read more about this on our Procurement Portal, which can be accessed here.