This was defined (at the time) as the customer taking full responsibility for key decisions at the Main Gate stage for projects <£50m, only referring projects >£100m to 2* level for approval, although the general thrust was for different approaches for projects with different scales of complexity and risk. This would allow more attention to be given to larger expenditures with higher levels of risk.
Feedback from both DE&S and MoD Centre suggests that things moved in this direction following the formal launch of Smart Acquisition, but have now swung back to a point where small projects follow nearly as complex a process of assurance, scrutiny and approvals as larger ones.
Increased delegation of project approvals have been largely reversed, as the system appears to be increasingly aimed at slowing down / throttling expenditure, irrespective of the circumstances.