# UK republished PPN 017 under new procurement terminology while preserving its optional AI-transparency questions The UK’s February 17, 2025 PPN 017 update retained optional questions for surfacing AI use while aligning terminology and timing with the new procurement regime. Canonical: https://rangoon.ai/insights/archive-uk-ppn-017-ai-procurement-transparency-february-2025/ Author: Rangoon Editorial (https://rangoon.ai/insights/editorial/) Published: 2026-10-24 Updated: 2026-10-24 Event date: 2025-02-17 Tags: [UK government](https://rangoon.ai/insights/tags/uk-government/), [AI procurement](https://rangoon.ai/insights/tags/ai-procurement/), [government acquisition](https://rangoon.ai/insights/tags/government-acquisition/), [AI governance](https://rangoon.ai/insights/tags/ai-governance/) Source note: Historical reporting: Cabinet Office published the updated PPN 017, Improving transparency of AI use in procurement, on February 17, 2025. The publication says it provides optional questions to identify AI use in procurements and the delivery of government services, and its HTML text says it applies to central government departments, executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies. It changed references for Procurement Act 2023 and Procurement Regulations 2024 terminology, told in-scope organizations to note its provisions from February 24, and explicitly said the update was not a policy change or new call for action. The note did not create a blanket disclosure law, decide a tender outcome, require a supplier award, or prove that a buyer had identified all AI uses in a contract. Image: AI-procurement disclosure path. Original Rangoon explanatory diagram: Source boundary: dated primary release reporting; original editorial analysis. No vendor interface, photograph, measurement result, or endorsement implied. ## Key takeaways - PPN 017’s questions remained optional tools for central-government procurement transparency, not automatic contract conditions or a certification. - The update aligned terminology and February 24 timing with the new procurement regime, and explicitly did not change policy or create a new call for action. - Its content links supplier AI use, confidential tender information and proportionate controls to ordinary commercial governance. ## Cabinet Office republished its transparency note for the new procurement regime [source 1](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ppn-017-improving-transparency-of-ai-use-in-procurement) [source 2](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ppn-017-improving-transparency-of-ai-use-in-procurement/ppn-017-improving-transparency-of-ai-use-in-procurement-html) Cabinet Office published PPN 017, Improving transparency of AI use in procurement, on February 17, 2025. The publication describes it as optional questions to help identify AI use in procurements and in government-service delivery. Its HTML text says the note applies to central government departments, executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies, which it calls in-scope organizations. The February update aligned terminology with the Procurement Act 2023 and Procurement Regulations 2024, and says in-scope organizations should note the provisions from February 24. It also explicitly says the update is not a policy change or new call for action. The event was therefore a revised operational publication, not a fresh legal duty, contract award or proof that any bidder used AI. ## Optional questions were designed to expose use and control issues without prescribing one supplier answer [source 2](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ppn-017-improving-transparency-of-ai-use-in-procurement/ppn-017-improving-transparency-of-ai-use-in-procurement-html) The PPN explains that AI tools and products are increasingly part of commercial activity and that government needs to identify and manage associated risks and opportunities. Its optional questions are intended to help buyers recognize AI use in procurements and service delivery, including when suppliers use AI in performing a contract. The note also asks buyers to consider proportionate controls against use of confidential contracting-authority information, or nonpublic information, as training data for AI systems—for example, confidential tender documents used to train future tender-response tools. This is a specific disclosure-and-control prompt, not a finding that such misuse occurred in a given tender. The document does not publish a model clause that automatically solves data handling, evaluate every vendor practice, or replace a buyer’s own information-security and procurement analysis. ## The revision marked a timing and terminology transition without claiming a substantive policy reset [source 1](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ppn-017-improving-transparency-of-ai-use-in-procurement) [source 2](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ppn-017-improving-transparency-of-ai-use-in-procurement/ppn-017-improving-transparency-of-ai-use-in-procurement-html) The February publication says PPN 017 was updated to reflect terminology introduced by the Procurement Act 2023 and Procurement Regulations 2024, and says in-scope organizations should note the provisions from February 24. It also directs users of procurements commenced and contracts awarded before that date to PPN 02/24. Those are the actual 2025 transition details, and the note explicitly says they do not constitute a policy change or a new call for action. That prevents the archive from treating a reissued policy note as a new disclosure mandate. The HTML text points readers to separate guidance on when a procurement is “commenced,” which is the appropriate place for statutory timing analysis. Determining which instruments apply to a specific procurement still depends on its facts and the relevant legal materials. ## Transparency questions support commercial oversight but cannot alone prove responsible AI delivery [source 1](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ppn-017-improving-transparency-of-ai-use-in-procurement) [source 2](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ppn-017-improving-transparency-of-ai-use-in-procurement/ppn-017-improving-transparency-of-ai-use-in-procurement-html) PPN 017 places AI awareness inside familiar commercial activity: buyers need information to assess risk, protect confidential material and manage contracts. That is useful procurement assurance, but disclosure is only one input. A supplier can describe an AI feature without proving its security, reliability, training-data status, accessibility, fairness, operational monitoring or fitness for a public-service decision. Conversely, a buyer’s use of the optional questions does not establish that it banned all AI, selected the safest tool or achieved a public benefit. The publication does not set a common audit method, independent verification process or product-performance threshold. The historical event is best described as a Cabinet Office mechanism for surfacing AI use and associated controls in in-scope procurement, alongside—not instead of—case-specific due diligence and contract management. ## Sources 1. [GOV.UK: PPN 017: Improving transparency of AI use in procurement](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ppn-017-improving-transparency-of-ai-use-in-procurement) 2. [GOV.UK: PPN 017: Improving transparency of AI use in procurement (HTML)](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ppn-017-improving-transparency-of-ai-use-in-procurement/ppn-017-improving-transparency-of-ai-use-in-procurement-html) ## Related reading - [UK’s AI Playbook expanded government guidance to ten principles across selection, deployment and assurance](https://rangoon.ai/insights/archive-uk-government-ai-playbook-february-2025/) - [UK’s third-party AI assurance roadmap mapped professionalization, information access and a planned innovation fund](https://rangoon.ai/insights/archive-uk-trusted-third-party-ai-assurance-roadmap-september-2025/) - [UK published an AI cyber-security code with 13 voluntary principles and an implementation guide](https://rangoon.ai/insights/archive-uk-ai-cyber-security-code-january-2025/) ## More information - [Documentation index](https://rangoon.ai/llms.txt) - [AI access and policies](https://rangoon.ai/ai/) - [Source repository](https://github.com/hypler-dev/rangoon)