Direct Awards
What does the Procurement Act imply for awarding directly to a supplier?
The Cabinet Office guidance on Direct Award unpacks the only circumstances in which a public body may place a contract with a named supplier without running a competitive tender. Under the Procurement Act 2023 competition remains the default, but Section 41 and its supporting Schedule 5 set out a small family of legitimate “justifications” for going straight to contract. They include ground tested scenarios that planning teams will recognise: adding modules to an existing proprietary planning platform, extending a live system in an emergency, or buying a prototype to test a brand-new digital product. The Act now makes the process more transparent than under the previous rules. Before signing anything the authority must publish a transparency notice on the new central digital platform, then wait out an eight-day standstill period once the award notice goes live, unless one of the narrow urgency exceptions applies.
When can you award directly in planning?
For local planning authorities this matters because digital planning software often sits in a mature estate where a single supplier holds the intellectual property, or where continuity of service is critical to statutory decision making. The guidance explains when those factors do or do not justify bypassing an open tender. It also reminds buyers that even a valid justification cannot be used if the chosen company appears on an exclusion list, and they must still avoid technical specifications that lock out overseas firms unfairly. In plain terms: you need a solid, written reason that fits one of the Act’s headings, you must tell the market what you plan to do, and you must give other suppliers a short window to challenge if they think the justification is weak.
Carrying out a Direct Award
Planning officers will not carry out most of these steps on their own. The commercial or procurement team will draft and publish the notice, check whether the supplier is excluded or excludable, and confirm that the contract value and scope stay within the limits of the chosen justification. Your role is to be clear about why direct award is being proposed, to supply any technical evidence on single supplier issues, and to plan realistic timescales that factor in the mandatory notices and standstill. Read the full guidance if you need the legal detail, but this summary should tell you whether direct award is open to you and what conversations to start with procurement colleagues.