Wales has locked in spring 2026 switch‑on dates for its overhauled public procurement regime. The core socially responsible procurement duty and linked contract clauses begin on 25 March 2026, with annual reporting from 1 April 2026. Welsh Government published the accompanying draft guidance and opened consultation on 16 December 2025, signalling the move from policy to enforceable rules.

Why this matters here: scores of Northern contractors and service firms sell into Welsh public bodies every year - from civil engineering and facilities management to tech and professional services. From March, bids into Wales will need to show concrete social value plans and fair work credentials, not just fine words. In March 2025 the minister trailed an early‑2026 go‑live; this timetable is now confirmed.

The 2023 Act sets the tone in plain language: a contracting authority ‘must seek to improve the economic, social, environmental and cultural well‑being of its area’ by running procurement ‘in a socially responsible way’. Those duties sit alongside specific actions for major construction and outsourcing contracts, and an objective‑setting framework in Schedule 2 that authorities must publish and then deliver against.

From 25 March 2026, Wales brings into force the socially responsible procurement duty, the social public works and workforce clauses, requirements to publish a procurement strategy, an expanded contracts register and powers for procurement investigations. Earlier steps in March and June 2025 set up the public procurement subgroup and the regulation‑making powers that underpin this final phase.

From 1 April 2026, each contracting authority must publish an annual socially responsible procurement report, and Welsh Ministers will publish a national overview. This dovetails with the UK Procurement Act 2023 regime in Wales, which adds contract performance and payments compliance notices across procurements regulated by Welsh Ministers.

On scale, Welsh Government estimates around £8 billion a year is spent through public procurement. For Northern firms used to cross‑border work, that means tenders will probe fair pay, training, local employment and environmental outcomes - and, crucially, how you will evidence delivery over the life of the contract.

Thresholds are coming into clearer view. Draft model Social Public Works Clauses published in November point to a £2 million entry point for construction, with standard terms on prompt payment, sub‑contracting, skills, environment and transparency. Final thresholds and wording remain subject to consultation, but the direction of travel is obvious.

Transparency will tighten. Draft guidance sets out what must sit inside procurement strategies, how contracts registers should be maintained, how ‘works’ and ‘workforce’ clause notifications flow to Ministers, and how investigations will run. Suppliers should assume performance data will be more visible and line up their reporting systems now.

For bidders, the statute isn’t abstract. Authorities must take ‘all reasonable steps’ to meet their socially responsible procurement objectives on prescribed contracts. In practice, that rewards credible social value plans rooted in Wales’s Well‑being of Future Generations goals, backed by trackable KPIs and supply‑chain payment discipline.

Key dates and actions: consultation on the guidance closes on 10 February 2026. Between now and 25 March, Northern suppliers targeting Wales should refresh bid templates, map social value KPIs to the Welsh well‑being goals, sanity‑check sub‑contract payment terms and prepare for contract performance reporting from April. The groundwork laid in 2025 means the rules will bite quickly in 2026.