The sustainability landscape is changing fast in 2026. As environmental and social governance becomes increasingly central to public sector procurement, a major driver of this shift is the new PPN 002 framework.
Building on the foundations laid by Covid-era PPN 06/20, PPN 002 tightens the rules, ensuring that social value isn’t just a vague – or even empty! – promise made during the bidding process, but a legally binding, heavily monitored component of government contracts.
If your business bids for public sector work, understanding this framework is essential. Let’s examine how PPN 002 will impact businesses, the core rules you need to know and what you need to watch out for to stay competitive.
In short, Policy Procurement Note 002 is the latest version of the UK government’s Social Value Model. While its predecessor (PPN 06/20) successfully introduced the concept of evaluating social value during the procurement process, PPN 002 takes a decisive next step and ensures that social value is embedded into contracts and measured over time.
Here are three things you need to know about PPN 002:
PPN 002 is mandatory for all central government departments, their executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies from the end of October 2025, and applies to all contracts valued over £139,688.
While mandatory for central government, expect a ripple effect. Other public sector bodies, such as local authorities and NHS trusts, are heavily encouraged to adopt the framework, meaning you will likely see these standards across all public sector bidding.
Under PPN 002, social value counts for 10% of the total evaluation score in tender assessments.
Crucially, this 10% is just the entry level figure. Contracting authorities are free to apply a much higher weighting if social value is particularly relevant to the contract at hand. If your business cannot demonstrably prove its sustainability and social impact, you’re immediately one step behind.
This is where the biggest shift lies for businesses. Under PPN 002, social value commitments are no longer just a hurdle to clear at the procurement stage – they’re now a formal, binding part of your contract.
Once you win a bid, your promises must be actively tracked throughout the entire lifespan of the contract. This requires rigorous data collection to feed into:
The transition to PPN 002 introduces a significant compliance and data-management burden. It’s easy to make bold sustainability claims to secure that 10% weighting, but failing to meet your SRMs and KPIs post-award puts you in breach of contract. This could lead to financial penalties, early contract termination and severe reputational damage that locks you out of future government bids.
To succeed under PPN 002, you need continuous, auditable and transparent data collection.
At Axiom, we know that capturing, tracking and reporting on sustainability metrics can be a time-consuming headache – but it doesn’t have to be.
Our sustainability software is here to help you seamlessly transition into the PPN 002 era. Axiom allows you to easily track your Standard Reporting Metrics (SRMs) and monitor your KPIs in real-time, helping your government bids and proving compliance throughout the contract.
Ready to future-proof your public sector bids?
As the only complete solution for ESG and social value, Axiom is perfectly placed to help turn PPN 002 from compliance into a genuine competitive advantage.
Unlike other platforms, AXIOM is built with social value reporting at its core. We understand the complexities of measuring social impact and provide the tools and expertise to make reporting simpler, faster and more effective. Contact us today to find out how we can help.
AXIOM is a powerful cloud-based platform that helps your business monitor, analyse and improve sustainability performance.
Using specialist technology, we equip businesses with a tool which enables them to track their environmental and social performance whilst also improving governance – identifying and mitigating risks associated with business operations and relationships.
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