Insights

As a result of the Procurement Act 2023, the UK procurement regime  changed on 24 February 2025. To read about the key changes, please see our article Understanding the UK’s New Procurement Regime in 2025.

The UK’s new Procurement Act 2023 (the “Act”) takes effect from 24 February 2025. Our view is that while there are a small number of important differences, which we discuss below, the majority of the processes outlined in previous legislation, remain unchanged, despite some changes in terminology.

On 18 September 2024, the UK Supreme Court handed down its judgment in UniCredit Bank GmbH v RusChemAlliance LLC [2024] UKSC 30.  The judgment considers several significant issues relevant to international arbitration.  Primarily, though, it reaffirms: (i) the English court’s strong support for arbitration, in general; (ii) the steps it is prepared to take to hold parties to their agreement to arbitrate; and (iii) the current position for determining the governing law of an arbitration agreement, in the absence of an express election by the parties.