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The competitive flexible procedure, explained: the Procurement Act's new way to tender

2026-07-08

If you bid for UK public contracts, one change in the Procurement Act 2023 reshapes almost every competitive tender you will enter: the competitive flexible procedure. It swapped a menu of rigid, one-size-fits-all routes for a blank canvas the buyer designs themselves — which means no two tenders need look alike. Understanding it is the difference between being surprised by a process and being ready for it.

From five procedures to two

Under the old Public Contracts Regulations 2015, a buyer picked from a fixed set of procedures — open, restricted, competitive procedure with negotiation, competitive dialogue and innovation partnership — each with its own prescribed stages and timetable. The Act sweeps that away. Since 24 February 2025 there are just two competitive tendering procedures:

• The open procedure — in the Act's own words, "a single stage procedure whereby any interested party can submit a tender and the authority will decide whom to award the contract to on the basis of that tender." One round, everyone bids, the best tender wins. It suits straightforward, well-defined requirements.
• The competitive flexible procedure (CFP) — "any other competitive tendering procedure the contracting authority considers appropriate for the purpose of awarding the public contract." In other words, everything that is not the simple open route.

The government's guidance is blunt about what has gone: "There is no longer a restricted procedure, competitive procedure with negotiation or competitive dialogue procedure but it is possible to adopt a similar approach in practice as part of a competitive flexible procedure." The old shapes did not vanish — they became tools a buyer can assemble at will.

What "flexible" actually means

There is no fixed template for a CFP. The buyer designs a bespoke process — single-stage or multi-stage — to fit exactly what they are buying. They can build in a shortlisting round, a dialogue phase, negotiation, product demonstrations or prototypes, and successive refinements of the tender — or none of these. A CFP for a complex IT transformation might run several rounds with negotiation; a CFP for a simpler service might be barely more involved than the open procedure.

That freedom is the point — and the catch. As a supplier you can no longer assume you know the stages from the procedure's name. You have to read the specific process each buyer has set out.

The rules that keep it fair

"Flexible" is not "anything goes." The Act wraps the freedom in guardrails that protect bidders:

• The stages are published up front. "A contracting authority should clearly set out the stages involved in a CFP within the tender notice or associated tender documents" — including whether negotiation will happen and when. If it is not written down before you bid, it cannot be sprung on you later.
• It must be proportionate. The procedure has to be "a proportionate means of awarding the public contract, having regard to the nature, complexity and cost of the contract," and should not be "overly burdensome." Every stage should have a genuine commercial purpose.
• Award criteria are fixed in advance. The buyer sets the award criteria, the assessment methodology and the relative importance (the weightings) before tenders come in, and awards to the most advantageous tender (MAT) — the successor to the old "most economically advantageous tender." Tenders can be refined through the process, but the yardstick they are measured against cannot move once set.
• Equal treatment. "All suppliers should be treated equally (unless a difference between the suppliers justifies different treatment)" — the same information, and the same opportunities to negotiate or refine.

Shortlisting: the one thing only a CFP can do

There is a practical trigger that forces a CFP. A buyer may only limit the field before inviting final tenders — shortlist down to the strongest candidates — under the competitive flexible procedure. The open procedure cannot do this: everyone who bids is assessed. So whenever a buyer wants a "select, then bid" shape, they must use a CFP, applying conditions of participation — proportionate tests of a supplier's capacity or ability — to decide who progresses.

Negotiation and dialogue, when the buyer allows it

A CFP can include negotiation — "the process of aiming to reach a mutual agreement through structured discussion" — typically to sharpen price, quality or contract terms. It "can occur at any stage of a CFP regardless of the number of suppliers," though it usually follows an initial down-selection. Any subject can be negotiated provided it is proportionate and relevant, and every supplier still in the running gets the same opportunity. Crucially, the buyer only has this option if they signalled it in the published procedure — so read the notice for the word "negotiation."

What a CFP looks like in practice

The common shapes you will meet:

• Single-stage, with a twist — one tender round, perhaps with a clarification stage or a demonstration.
• Select then bid — a first round on conditions of participation to shortlist, then invited tenders from the shortlist.
• Dialogue or negotiation — a shortlist, structured discussions to refine solutions, then final tenders.
• Successive rounds — the field narrowed at each stage against the published criteria until a winner emerges.

Open procedure vs competitive flexible procedure

What it means for you as a supplier

Three habits protect you under the new regime:

• Read the procedure, not just the specification. The tender notice and documents now define a bespoke process. Map the stages, deadlines, any shortlisting gate and any negotiation round before you commit.
• Qualify early. Where there is a shortlisting stage on conditions of participation, your accreditations, financial standing and track record decide whether you even reach the tender round.
• Aim at the weightings. Because the award criteria and their relative importance are published up front, you can see exactly where the marks sit before you write a word — and point your bid straight at them.

This is exactly the reading Bidvane does for you. For every matching tender it pulls out the procedure, the stages, the deadline and the published selection criteria, then checks them against your profile — so a bespoke, multi-stage CFP arrives as a plain-English brief and a ready-to-bid checklist, not forty pages you have to decode. As always, verify the detail against the official tender documents before you submit; the analysis gets you to the decision fast, it does not replace the pack.

Sources: GOV.UK — Competitive Tendering Procedures (guidance) · GOV.UK — The Competitive Flexible Procedure and Negotiation · Related: The Procurement Act 2023 is live — what changed for suppliers

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