The Light Touch Regime is the simplified set of procurement rules that applies to health, social care and other person-centred services in UK public contracts. England and Scotland now run it under different legislation: the Procurement Act 2023 in England, and the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015 in Scotland. Care providers bidding on both sides of the border need to understand where the rules diverge.

At a glance: In England, light touch contracts are governed by the Procurement Act 2023, in force since 24 February 2025, with official Cabinet Office guidance on light touch contracts. In Scotland, procurement remains devolved and the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015 continue to apply, alongside the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014. Two live tenders show the contrast in practice: Hounslow's £232m Adult Home Care Service in England and West Dunbartonshire's £23.7m Foundations for Change framework in Scotland.

What is the Light Touch Regime?

The Light Touch Regime is a recognition, carried through successive UK procurement rules, that buying social care is not like buying stationery. Services delivered to people with care and support needs justify longer contracts, more flexible procedures and greater weight on continuity and quality. Both English and Scottish rules give commissioners that flexibility for defined categories of social, health and education services identified by CPV code.

For providers, the practical effect is the same headline in both nations: commissioners design their own procedures, quality weightings run high, and contract terms run long. The detail underneath differs, and that detail is where cross-border bidders make errors.

How does the Light Touch Regime work in England under the Procurement Act 2023?

Since 24 February 2025, English light touch contracts sit under the Procurement Act 2023, which replaced the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 for new procurements. Light touch contracts are identified by the CPV codes listed in the Act's secondary legislation, with a higher financial threshold of £663,540 including VAT before advertising obligations apply.

The Act gives English commissioners notable freedoms on light touch contracts: exemption from the mandatory standstill period, longer permitted framework durations, a User Choice direct award route under Schedule 5 for individual care placements, and award on the most advantageous tender rather than the old most economically advantageous tender formula. Notices appear on Find a Tender in the new UK notice formats. Our guide to navigating the standstill period covers the award-stage mechanics in detail.

How does the Light Touch Regime work in Scotland?

Procurement is devolved, so the Procurement Act 2023 does not apply to Scottish contracting authorities. Scotland continues to run light touch procurement under the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015, supplemented by the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, which adds the sustainable procurement duty and community benefit consideration for larger contracts.

In practice, Scottish care tenders still use the pre-2025 vocabulary English bidders may have retired: the Single Procurement Document for selection, the Most Economically Advantageous Tender for award, and TED-derived notice formats published through Find a Tender and Public Contracts Scotland. Tenders are submitted through the PCS or PCS-Tender portals, and policy expectations such as Fair Work First and community benefits are embedded as contract performance conditions.

What are the practical differences for care providers?

| Feature | England (PA23) | Scotland (PCS(S)R 2015) | | --- | --- | --- | | Governing rules | Procurement Act 2023 | Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015 | | Selection stage | Procurement-specific questionnaire | Single Procurement Document (SPD) | | Award basis | Most advantageous tender | Most economically advantageous tender | | Mandatory standstill | Exempt for light touch | Standstill applies | | Workforce policy lever | Social value themes | Fair Work First | | Community obligations | Social value commitments | Community benefits | | Typical portals | ProContract, In-Tend, Atamis | PCS / PCS-Tender | | Care regulator cited | CQC | Care Inspectorate |

The regulator row matters as much as the procurement rows. A Scottish evaluator reading CQC references, or an English evaluator reading Care Inspectorate references, immediately recognises a recycled bid. Workforce registration differs too: SSSC registration in Scotland against the English position where care workers are not individually registered.

Worked example: Hounslow Adult Home Care Service (England)

The Hounslow Adult Home Care Service tender shows English light touch flexibility at full stretch. The London Borough of Hounslow, jointly commissioning with its ICB, has published a UK4 tender notice under the Procurement Act 2023 for a contract worth £232m over a possible 8 years, scored 90% quality and 10% price.

An 8-year term and a 90/10 weighting are exactly the freedoms the Light Touch Regime exists to provide: continuity of care justifies the duration, and the service's human stakes justify the quality emphasis. Our analysis of the Hounslow tender breaks down the bid strategy in detail.

Worked example: Foundations for Change (Scotland)

The West Dunbartonshire Foundations for Change framework shows the Scottish version. The council has published an F21 social and other specific services notice under the 2015 Regulations for a £23.69m, 6-lot flexible framework supporting adults aged 18 to 65, scored 80/20 on the MEAT basis with SPD selection, Fair Work First conditions and community benefit expectations.

The notice even uses its light touch justification openly: the 60-month term exceeds the standard 4-year framework ceiling, justified on continuity of care and workforce sustainability for people with complex needs. Our bid strategy analysis for Foundations for Change covers the lot structure and Scottish compliance detail.

What stays the same on both sides of the border?

The fundamentals of winning do not change at the border. Both regimes leave commissioners free to weight quality heavily, and both of these live examples put 80% or more of the marks on method statements. Across 200+ UK health and social care submissions, the same disciplines decide outcomes in both nations: map every printed requirement, mirror the specification's structure and language, anchor every claim to a named role, system, timeframe or measure, and evidence outcomes rather than intentions.

Cohort-specific evidence also travels. When we supported a provider onto the Bradford Council Mental Health Supported Living Provider List, 6 of 8 questions scored full marks on the strength of recovery-focused operational evidence. The same evidence discipline wins Scottish mental health lots; only the statutory wrapper changes.

How should providers adapt their bid library for cross-border work?

Maintain 2 statutory wrappers around 1 operational core. The operational core is your delivery evidence: rotas, escalation routes, training matrices, outcomes data and case examples. The wrappers are the nation-specific layers: regulator and registration references, workforce registration, commissioning legislation, procurement vocabulary and policy commitments such as social value in England or Fair Work First and community benefits in Scotland.

Before any submission, run a contamination check for the wrong nation's terminology. A find-and-replace is not enough: structures such as safeguarding referral routes, inspection frameworks and self-directed support options need rewriting, not relabelling. Our pre-submission review runs exactly this check, alongside scoring every answer against the published criteria.

Frequently asked questions

Does the Procurement Act 2023 apply in Scotland?

No. Procurement is devolved, and Scottish contracting authorities continue to procure under the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015 and the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014. The Procurement Act 2023 governs procurements by English authorities and certain reserved UK bodies, so cross-border bidders work under 2 different rulebooks.

What is the Light Touch Regime threshold?

In England, the Procurement Act 2023 light touch threshold is £663,540 including VAT, well above the standard services threshold. Scotland applies its own higher threshold for light touch services under the 2015 Regulations. Most care frameworks and home care contracts sit far above both thresholds and are fully advertised.

Is the SPD the same as an English selection questionnaire?

They serve the same purpose, screening bidders on experience, capacity, compliance and financial standing, but the SPD is a standardised Scottish document with its own structure and references. On Foundations for Change, the SPD is assessed pass/fail, so a single gap eliminates a bid before quality evaluation begins.

Do Scottish care tenders still use MEAT?

Yes. Scottish tenders are awarded on the Most Economically Advantageous Tender basis under the 2015 Regulations. England moved to the most advantageous tender formulation under the Procurement Act 2023. The practical evaluation mechanics are similar; the terminology in your responses should match the regime you are bidding under.

Can the same case studies be used in English and Scottish bids?

Yes, and they should be, provided each is rewrapped for the audience. Outcomes evidence, staffing models and quality data transfer across the border. Regulatory references do not: cite Care Inspectorate and SSSC contexts for Scottish evaluators and CQC contexts for English evaluators, and adjust statutory references to match.

Bidding under the Light Touch Regime in England or Scotland? Our evaluator-trained writers work exclusively in UK health and social care and hold a 92% win rate across 200+ submissions under both regimes. We build nation-correct, specification-mirrored responses with named operational evidence. TenderLab Ltd, Companies House 17184263. Book a free consultation.

Related content

• Live UK health and social care tenders
• Bid writing service
• Pre-submission review
• Navigating the standstill: a provider's final award guide
• Hounslow Adult Home Care Tender 2026: provider qualification analysis
• West Dunbartonshire Foundations for Change Framework 2026: bid strategy
• 12 tender writing tips from an evaluator-trained bid team

Further reading

• Procurement Act 2023 on legislation.gov.uk
• Cabinet Office guidance on light touch contracts
• Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015 on legislation.gov.uk
• Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 on legislation.gov.uk
• Fair Work First guidance from the Scottish Government