What are Pipeline Notices? (Procurement Act 2023)

The 2023 Procurement Act requires contracting authorities to publish an annual procurement Pipeline Notice if they intend to spend more than £100 million on goods, services, or works contracts in the coming fiscal year.

The Pipeline Notice should include details of procurements expected to be made in the next 18 months valued at £2 million or more.

This article takes a look at what pipeline notices are, what information they contain, and how suppliers can use them to do more business with government.

Skip ahead to read about:

What is a Pipeline Notice?
When should a Pipeline Notice be published?
What should a Pipeline Notice include?
Where are Pipeline Notices published?
What are the supposed advantages of Pipeline Notices?
What does this all mean for buyers?
How can suppliers benefit from Pipeline Notices?
Looking forward

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This article is part of a series of articles on the 2023 Procurement Act.

Head to Tussell's Procurement Act Hub for all the information and resources you need to get Procurement Act ready.

📜 What is a Pipeline Notice?

The Procurement Act 2023 introduces a range of new pre-procurement notices aimed at promoting early market engagement.

These include the Planned Procurement Notice, the Preliminary Market Engagement Notice and the pipeline notice.

Published annually, the pipeline notice lists almost all planned procurements for the whole financial year (and the first half of the next financial year) where the estimated contract value exceeds £2 million.

⏰ When should a Pipeline Notice be published?

The Procurement Act 2023 stipulates that all above-threshold contracting authorities will be required to publish their first annual pipeline notice by May 26th 2025 (56 days into the FY 25/25 financial year).

Subsequent pipeline notices must be published annually. And, going forward, each subsequent notice must also be published within 56 days of the start of the financial year on which they report.

Above-threshold contracting authorities include any public sector buyer that expects to to spend more than £100 million on goods, services, or works contracts in the coming fiscal year.

Had the Procurement Act been live in FY 23/24, at least 500+ public sector buyers would have met this threshold (according to data from Tussell's market intelligence platform).

If authorities are unsure as to whether they will hit the £100 million in procurement spending, the Cabinet Office encourages them to produce a pipeline notice anyway.

Private utilities and transferred Northern Ireland authorities are not required to publish a pipeline notice.

❓ What should a Pipeline Notice include?

A pipeline notice should act as a procurement pipeline to inform suppliers of almost all expected contracts the buyer expects to award in the coming fiscal year and the first half of the following fiscal year, likely to be valued at £2 million or more.

This only includes contracts where a tender or Transparency Notice would be published.

Thus, contracts that are intended to be awarded via a call-off contract under a third party’s framework through a competitive selection process and contracts awarded under certain types of utilities Dynamic Markets needn't be included in a pipeline notice.

In instances of joint procurement, a lead authority should take responsibility for pipeline reporting.

Read our explainer: What is a Transparency Notice?

A pipeline notice should include individual details relating to each relevant upcoming procurement likely to occur within the 18-month period it covers.

The Cabinet Office recognises that not all information is likely to be known at the point of publication of a pipeline notice. Therefore, the expectation is that this information would be less detailed than any subsequent tender or transparency notice.

Whilst not a requirement of the legislation, the Cabinet Office encourages contracting authorities to review and update their pipeline notices throughout the year, adding new procurements above the £2 million threshold.

Contracting authorities may also voluntarily choose to include:

Relevant procurements likely to occur after the 18 month window;
Relevant procurements expected to fall below the £2 million contract value;
Procurement above £2 million where publication of a tender or transparency notice is not required.

📍 Where are Pipeline Notices published?

Pipeline notices are to be published on the Cabinet Office's Central Digital Platform which includes 'Find a Tender'.

They may also be published on e-procurement portals.

Pipeline notices will also be available on Tussell along with other pre-market notices and detailed insights spanning all stages of the procurement cycle.

✅ What are the supposed advantages of Pipeline Notices?

According to the Cabinet Office, pipeline notices are supposed to support SMEs and VCSEs by providing them with time to plan for future work.

However, as contracting authorities are under no obligation to include contracts with an estimated value below £2 million, it is difficult to see how pipeline notices will positively impact many small businesses.

On the other hand, enforcing advanced foresight of upcoming procurements is positive news for larger suppliers.

The idea of promoting early market engagement is a concept that runs throughout the Procurement Act 2023.

Planned Procurement Notices and pipeline notices both offer unique solutions to this challenge.

However, whilst some experts praise the introduction of these new notice types, others have raised concerns that pipeline notices may confuse suppliers by providing poor quality information too far in advance.

With contracting authorities publishing their intention to award contracts up to 18 months in advance, one can see how this might be the case.

This is further exacerbated by the fact that public sector buyers are under no legal obligation to inform the market if one or more of these upcoming contracts is scrapped or altered beyond recognition.

🏛️ What does this mean for buyers?

For contracting authorities, the new procurement regime introduces new complexities and increased publishing obligations.

Pipeline notices are likely to be a resource-intensive endeavour, as they will require forward planning to the tune of at least 18 months.

If buyers continue to update their pipeline notices throughout the financial year, the pressures on time are likely to be further increased.

There is some suggestion that the new notice type will increase participation in the tendering process and lead to a larger supplier pool.

In theory, this should encourage a more competitive landscape which may be reflected in lower prices.

However, whether this actually materialises remains to be seen.

💼 How can suppliers benefit from Pipeline Notices?

For suppliers regularly bidding on contracts valued at over £2 million, pipeline notices may prove to be a useful tool for anticipating upcoming opportunities.

However, it is important to remember that pipeline notices are likely to incomplete and become quickly outdated.

The usefulness of pipeline notices is also contingent on buyers having enough time to include accurate and detailed information.

For this reason, they should be analysed in conjunction with broader spend, framework, contract analysis.

Other pre-procurement notices such as Planned Procurement Notices and Preliminary Market Engagement Notices should also be made use of.

Tussell takes the mystery out of public procurement by enabling suppliers to build out data-driven business development plans and procurement pipelines by aggregating, cleaning and augmenting procurement and invoice notices from 100+ online portals and sources..

Learn how Tussell can help you build out your 6, 12, 18 and 24 month pipeline by booking a team with the Tussell team.

🌅 Looking forward

The introduction of mandatory pipeline notices is one of the many changes brought in by the Procurement Act (2023).

If you're worried about how the Procurement Act will affect your business you're not alone.

Tussell provides data-driven insights on the public sector market so that, no matter how the procurement landscape changes, you'll always be ahead on the top frameworks, upcoming opportunities and trends in your market.

Book a demo with the Tussell team to learn how you can start using data to drive sales, future-proof your business and de-risk your public sector strategy.