Wales has set final go‑live dates for its Social Partnership and Public Procurement regime. Under a Commencement No. 4 Order made on 16 December 2025, the remaining duties take effect on 25 March 2026, with annual reporting from 1 April 2026. This completes implementation of the 2023 Act across Welsh contracting authorities.

The scope is broad. Contracting authorities include councils, health bodies and other public organisations listed in Schedule 1, which was brought into force earlier in 2025. Suppliers that sell to these bodies should assume the new rules will apply to most above‑threshold tenders in Wales.

At the centre of the reforms is a statutory duty to carry out procurement in a socially responsible way. Authorities must set and publish objectives that maximise contributions to Wales’s well‑being goals under the Well‑being of Future Generations Act 2015, and then take reasonable steps to meet them on prescribed contracts.

Major construction moves onto a clearly defined footing. A “major construction contract” is any works contract with an estimated value of £2,000,000 or more (inclusive of VAT). For these projects, authorities must consider model social public works clauses, take reasonable steps to include them, and manage delivery against them through the life of the contract.

Those model clauses span prompt payment, targeted employment, compliance with employment rights (including National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates), training, SME opportunities and environmental improvements. Welsh Government has consulted on the draft text ahead of publication of the final clauses.

Outsourcing is tightened through a new public services outsourcing and workforce code. For services transferred out, authorities must consider social public workforce clauses that protect transferring staff, ensure fair terms for new starters, and flow those protections into subcontracts; they must also notify Ministers if they decide not to include them and explain why.

Procurement strategies become mandatory. Each authority must publish and annually review a strategy explaining how it will meet its social objectives in procurement and how it will make payments promptly-normally within 30 days of invoice-creating a formal link between policy intent and day‑to‑day contract management.

Transparency rises via a contracts register. Authorities must create and publish a register of “registrable contracts” with key information such as award date, supplier, value, scope and term, subject to limited commercial safeguards; the finer points will be set in regulations.

Compliance will be monitored. Welsh Ministers gain an explicit power to investigate how an authority undertakes procurement, require documents, and publish findings or recommendations-adding oversight to the new reporting cycle from April 2026.

This Welsh regime sits alongside the UK Procurement Act 2023, which went live on 24 February 2025. Additional UK duties ramp up in 2026: contract performance notices from 1 January 2026 and payment compliance notices for Welsh‑regulated procurements from 1 April 2026, reinforcing the focus on delivery and prompt payment.

What changes for suppliers? Expect bid documents to test concrete social outcomes, particularly on £2m‑plus works and outsourced services. Contract performance evidence-prompt payment through the tiers, workforce terms, training delivery and environmental measures-will carry more weight at award and post‑award stages. For SMEs, the prominence of prompt payment and subcontracting objectives should help cash flow and access, but it also raises expectations on record‑keeping and reporting.

Practical next steps for 2026 tenders: align project KPIs to the model social public works clauses; map subcontract flow‑downs so workforce protections and payment terms are enforceable; prepare a single source of truth for performance, payment and workforce data that can populate contract registers and year‑end reports; and refresh pricing to reflect delivery of social outcomes rather than treating them as add‑ons.