By Emma James, chief product officer at Digital Modus
When the Procurement Act 2023 (PA 2023) came into effect, it represented a significant reform to public procurement, making it more flexible, transparent and streamlined.
With the PA 2023 Commencement No. 4 introduced earlier this year bringing the remaining transparency, payment compliance, and contract performance notice obligations into force.
On paper, the Act promised to usher in a new era of openness, fairness, and value for money across public sector procurement.
Demanding new levels of collaboration, data capability, and digital maturity from suppliers and teams.
For NHS organisations facing ongoing financial pressures, increasing demand for services and ambitious productivity targets, these reforms represent both a compliance challenge and an opportunity to modernise procurement practices.
Even though notice was given to prepare for the Act’s implementation, the challenge is that the digitisation of the new notices and requirements were not ready on day one.
With pressure on organisations to modernise their contract management and procurement processes, the Act’s principles of transparency and efficiency could function as a catalyst to drive positive change, but they must be underpinned by a combination of the right technology, robust governance and a truly collaborative culture.
Realising these benefits will require more than compliance alone.
Success will depend on high-quality data, digital capability and closer collaboration across procurement, finance and operational teams.
A moment of digital opportunity
For the NHS, the PA 2023 is both an opportunity and a test.
NHS organisations collectively spend more than £30 billion each year on goods and services, making procurement one of the largest areas of operational expenditure across the health service. Yet many are still constrained by legacy systems, fragmented data, and manual processes that are burdensome, making compliance admin heavy, time-consuming and costly.
The feedback on the PA 2023 paints a mixed picture.
The commitment to openness by publishing pipelines, tracking supplier performance, and ensuring fair competition is widely supported. However, turning these principles into practice has exposed long-standing gaps in data management, digital infrastructure, and capacity within teams.
Transparency leading to accessibility
Emma James
The Act’s central promise is transparency, but we know transparency isn’t just about publishing notices or data sets. It’s about making procurement information accessible, meaningful, and actionable.
That means being able to connect procurement data with other systems: finance, inventory management, contract management, and supplier relationship management.
Without that integration, compliance risks becoming a reporting exercise rather than a driver of improvement and sustainable procurement outcomes that deliver value.
This juncture is where smarter use of technology can make all the difference.
Modern digital procurement platforms can act as the connective tissue between disparate systems, creating a more complete and reliable view of procurement activity.
With Agentic AI, agents work hand in hand with analytics and automation to support procurement teams with important tasks such as tracking supplier performance, monitoring contract delivery, and highlighting any issues, all using a single, reliable source of truth.
This level of transparency becomes a critical tool in gaining insight and delivering real tangible benefits.
Effective supplier and contract management is increasingly important for NHS organisations, where procurement decisions can have a direct impact on service resilience, operational efficiency and ultimately patient care.
Building a collaborative culture
Digital advancement is an essential part of this new phase. But, of course, the cultural side of procurement reform is equally important, and it’s a blend of the two that will create the best results. Procurement teams often operate under intense pressure.
They are balancing statutory duties, challenging saving targets, reduced budgets, vacancy freezes, and evolving expectations from patients.
The PA 2023 adds another layer of complexity, asking teams to be not just compliant, but to be strategic.
To make that shift, the NHS needs environments where procurement, finance, and service leads work more collaboratively.
Data should flow freely across trusts and departments as well as being easy to access, and digital tools can, and should, support that collaboration. This cultural change doesn’t happen overnight, but it starts with visibility and shared understanding.
Transparency is a thread that weaves through every part of the evolution of the sector.
When teams can see the same data, track the same supplier relationships, and measure the same outcomes, conversations change and goals align.
Decision-making becomes easier, quicker, and more in line with the needs of the patient. It also helps organisations make better-informed decisions about where to invest resources and how to maximise value from constrained budgets.
Data-driven procurement
As the final obligations of the Procurement Act are introduced, the next phase of reform should focus on enabling smarter, data-driven procurement.
Organisations hold a wealth of information on suppliers; spending patterns, service outcomes and contractual obligations, but much of it is locked away in various PDFs and spreadsheets in siloed systems (and filing cabinets!).
Unlocking that data is critical to achieving the PA 2023’s objectives. It’s also where technology partners can play a transformative role.
There is now an opportunity for the NHS to work with suppliers to build a clear, connected view of their procurement landscape.
Spend analytics can reveal opportunities for aggregation and savings. Supplier dashboards can identify risks and highlight top performers. Automated workflows can ensure compliance checkpoints are built into every stage of the process.
In practice, this means less time spent chasing paperwork and more time focused on strategic decisions and patient outcomes. It also supports wider NHS objectives around productivity, financial sustainability and delivering greater value from public spending.
The next steps for the sector
The PA 2023 is already encouraging greater consistency, better governance, and a renewed focus on value for money. The next step is to turn compliance into genuine efficiency.
NHS organisations will now need to invest not just in process change, but in digital capability and cultural alignment. The future of procurement lies in data, collaboration, and trust.
Trusts that embrace this shift, supported by the right technology, stand to gain most from the drive for transparency.
As this new era unfolds, the real measure of success will be how effectively we use this new guidance to deliver better outcomes for public services and the patients they serve.
Those organisations that successfully combine transparency, digital innovation and collaborative working will be best placed to deliver both operational efficiencies and improved outcomes for patients.
