Pulling the plug: cancelling a procurement properly under section 55

Not every tender ends in an award. Funding moves, budgets don't stretch, specifications turn out to be wrong. Under the old rules, abandoning a procurement was a quiet, private act. Under the Procurement Act 2023 it isn't.

If you've published a tender or transparency notice - or even a contract award notice - and then decide not to award before signing, section 55 requires a procurement termination notice on the central digital platform, as soon as reasonably practicable. Regulation 37 keeps the content light: the decision, and the date you made it. Link it back to the originating notice, or you leave exactly the broken data record the section exists to prevent.

Suppliers who were invited to tender should be told directly as well. There are no assessment summaries (section 50 is engaged by an intention to award) and no standstill period, so your letter carries all the weight.

If a retender is likely, anything that shapes the new requirement is preliminary market engagement under section 16. Offer the same access to every interested supplier, record what was said, and expect to publish a section 17 notice.

Weighing up whether to terminate a live procurement? Get in touch — we'll make sure the notices, the correspondence and the decision record all stand up afterwards.