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Visitengland announces tourism superstar 2024 finalists.

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VisitEngland has today 18 January revealed the 10 superstars to make the shortlist of its annual search to find the unsung hero of England’s tourism industry.

VisitEngland’s Tourism Superstar competition, now in its 12 th  year, seeks out champions currently working in tourism who provide unforgettable visitor experiences, as well as showcasing the variety and quality of England’s tourism offer and destinations.

The 10 finalists were selected out of dozens of submissions from employers and destinations across England covering all areas of tourism. The finalists now go on to compete for the title of Tourism Superstar, decided by a public vote this year run on VisitEngland’s website.

VisitEngland Director Andrew Stokes said:

“We have the most wonderful people working in our industry and Tourism Superstar is about recognising those individuals who go the extra mile to make visitor experiences truly special. Whether discovering a city from its waterways, exploring a destination led by volunteers, running a cycle hire non-profit or showcasing culinary delights with food tours, these individuals truly go above and beyond in their roles as tourism ambassadors. 

“I congratulate the 10 finalists and wish them every success in the competition, though of course they are all superstars already. I also encourage everyone to get involved and cast their votes once the competition opens.”

VistEngland’s Tourism Superstar 2024 finalists are:

• Emily Williamson, Pub Tours Ltd, Peak District 
• Field Sport UK, Leicestershire
• Sue & Ian Rainford, Brickhouse Farm Cottages, Lancashire
• Pete Chambers, The Coventry Music Museum
• Lily-Rose Sheppard, Paddlesport Guide, Roundhouse Birmingham
• Isle of Wight Ramblers: David Howarth, David Yates and Linda Jones
• Liam White, Animal Manager, Fairytale Farm, Chipping Norton
• Robert Dennis Brown, Dalby Forest Cycle Hub, North York Moors National Park
• Bury St Edmunds Tour Guides
• Amy Whitfield Triple A Food Tours, North East of England

The public will be able to vote for their favourite superstar on VisitEngland’s website from mid-February when the competition officially opens. Short films of all the finalists, carrying out their duties in their tourism roles, promoting their local destinations will, be shown on VisitEngland’s website to support with voting. Voting closes at the end of English Tourism Week (ETW). ETW takes place from 15-24 March 2024. 

The superstar with the highest number of votes is crowned winner at the end of the competition with the Tourism Superstar award handed out in spring at the VisitEngland Awards for Excellence event. 

For more information on VisitEngland’s Tourism Superstar 2024 finalists go to:  https://www.visitbritain.org/working-us/visitenglands-tourism-superstar…

Tourism is one of England’s largest and most valuable industries, supporting hundreds of thousands of small-to-medium sized businesses, employing 2.6 million people and, in 2022, generating £66 billion for the economy in domestic visitor spending.

Charlotte Sanders

Senior Press Officer, London, UK

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Selling to the Government

The UK began taking part in the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) January 1, 2021, following the Brexit transition period which ended on December 31, 2020.

The UK public sector is currently obliged to undertake electronic invoicing initiatives. In 2015, the Small Business, Enterprise, and Employment (SBEE) Act was passed which includes clauses that endorse e-Invoicing as beneficial to the UK economy.

In the UK, it is mandatory for all public sector organizations to advertise their procurement opportunities worth over £12,000 (~$15,000) on Contracts Finder ( https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder ). For high-value public sector contracts worth over £138,760 (~$175,000), you may use Find a Tender ( https://www.gov.uk/find-tender ). For more public sector contracts, consult the UK Government’s guidance on different ways to sell to the public sector.

After finding a relevant public sector contract, all potential bidders must fill out the Procurement Policy Note: Standard Selection Questionnaire. Consult the Crown Commercial Service Action Note for completion guidance and the form itself. Organizations that satisfy bidding requirements through the Standard Selection Questionnaire are then provided with an Invitation to Tender from the relevant government agency. The Tender will provide relevant contract details, selection processes, due dates and submission information. For further information, see the Model Invitation to Tender . After responding to the Tender, your response will be evaluated and scored. Contracts are awarded to those with the highest point score.

Note that the UK Government is in the process of adopting a new Procurement Bill that may change the UK’s public procurement regime. See the UK Government’s summary guide The Procurement Bill - a summary guide to the provisions - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) on the provisions of the Procurement Bill or the UK Parliament’s legislative portal (bills.parliament.uk/bills/3159) for more information and updates.

U.S. companies bidding on foreign government tenders may also qualify for U.S. Government advocacy. Within the U.S. Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration, the Advocacy Center coordinates U.S. Government interagency advocacy efforts on behalf of U.S. exporters in competition with foreign firms in foreign government projects or procurement opportunities. The Advocacy Center works closely with our network of the U.S. Commercial Service worldwide and inter-agency partners to ensure that exporters of U.S. products and services have the best possible chance of winning government contracts. Advocacy assistance can take many forms but often involves the U.S. Embassy or other U.S. Government agency officials expressing support for the U.S. exporters directly to the foreign government. Consult the Advocacy Center’s program web page on trade.gov for additional information.

Defense Procurement

The UK Ministry of Defense (MOD) publishes information on its projects, procurements, and Industry Days on its Defence Sourcing Portal (www.contracts.mod.uk/web/login.html). The portal is available to U.S. subscribers who establish an account. Opportunities with the MOD can also be found on Contracts Finder ( www.gov.uk/contracts-finder ) by performing a keyword search. The European Defense Agency (EDA) also maintains an online database of defense procurement opportunities with governments and leading manufacturers throughout Europe. The EDA Electronic Bulletin Board (eda.europa.eu/procurement) is available free and without subscription. 

U.S. defense companies may require more project lead time than these resources provide, and detailed guidance is often needed to understand the procedures and bid evaluation criteria. On a case-by-case basis, the U.S. Embassy’s Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC) may be able to provide insight, guidance, and advocacy in support of U.S. defense contractors competing for sales and cooperative development programs for military equipment and services. ODC can be contacted by telephone +44 20-7894-0737 or email [email protected] . You may also visit their website for further information: uk.usembassy.gov/embassy-consulates/government-agencies/odc

Digital Market Place - Information Technology (IT)

Digital Marketplace ( https://www.gov.uk/tendering-for-public-sector-contracts/sell-through-digital-marketplace ) is an online procurement database for IT work, web hosting, work through the cloud, or purchasing datacenter space. Digital Marketplace uses framework agreements to award contracts. There are different framework agreements for different IT services.

G-Cloud ( https://www.gov.uk/guidance/g-cloud-suppliers-guide ). Network, Software, and Cloud technology and support.

Digital Outcomes and Specialists ( www.crowncommercial.gov.uk/agreements/RM1043.8 ). IT specialist work or user research services for specific projects. https://www.crowncommercial.gov.uk/agreements/RM1043.8

Crown Hosting Data Centers (www.gov.uk/guidance/the-crown-hosting-data-centres-framework-on-the-digital-marketplace). How to apply to sell cloud hosting, software, and support to public sector buyers.

G-Cloud framework agreements operate slightly differently from other framework agreements. G-Cloud frameworks allow buyers to pay for services as they use them rather than being tied to long-term, inflexible contracts.

Suppliers should apply to the specific frameworks (www.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk) in which they want to compete for work.

Financing of Projects

London is a major source of international project financing. The UK is seen as a safe haven and attracts substantial investment for key infrastructure projects.

UK importers carefully consider the volume and price of their purchases. Therefore, U.S. exporters should consider offering competitive prices and should coordinate closely with their UK business partners to explore available opportunities to finance trade transactions.

Multilateral Development Banks

Price, payment terms, and financing can be a significant factor in winning a government contract. Many governments finance public works projects through borrowing from the Multilateral Development Banks (MDB). The Guide to Doing Business with Multilateral Development Banks overviews how to work with MDBs. The International Trade Administration (ITA) has a Foreign Commercial Service Officer stationed at each of the five different Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs): the African Development Bank; the Asian Development Bank; the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development; the Inter-American Development Bank; and the World Bank.

Learn more by contacting the:

Commercial Liaison Office to the  European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

Financing Web Resources

U.S. Government International Financing Programs (www.trade.gov/finance)

Exim Bank Country Limitation Schedule (www.exim.gov/resources/country-limitation-schedule)

DFC (www.dfc.gov)

Trade and Development Agency (www.ustda.gov)

SBA’s Office of International Trade (www.sba.gov/about-sba/sba-locations/headquarters-offices/office-international-trade)

USDA Commodity Credit Corporation (www.usda.gov/ccc)

U.S. Agency for International Development (www.usaid.gov)

UK – Visit England Contracts

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• Public procurement in the UK post Brexit

Public procurement in the UK post-Brexit: What public bodies and suppliers need to know

Find a tender service (fts).

The recently published PPN 08/20 has confirmed that from 23:00 of 31 December 2020 a new e-notification service, 'Find a Tender', will be used to post and view public sector procurement notices. This service will replace the existing requirements to publish notices in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU).  Public bodies that use a third party ‘eSender’ to manage procurement notices will only be able to continue to use them provided the relevant eSenders have integrated with Find a Tender. In a guidance note dated 10 November 2020 , the Cabinet Office has provided a list of eSenders that have integrated with the Find a Tender Service. Public bodies that do not use an eSender (or who use unintegrated eSenders) will need to register with the service in order to publish tenders directly. This can be done by creating a buyer’s account on Contracts Finder. Furthermore, all existing Contracts Finder accounts will automatically be given access to publish notices on Find a Tender. For ongoing procurements which commenced before the end of the Brexit transition period, public bodies should continue publishing notices relating to those opportunities in the OJEU (e.g. where a contract notice was issued in late 2020 but the contract will be awarded in 2021). The Cabinet Office also asks for these to be sent to FTS but this is not a legal requirement.

Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)

While the above described changes are relatively straightforward, it is important to bear in mind that these are just the first amongst a number of potential changes that may be introduced in the New Year.  In October 2020, it was announced that the UK would be joining the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) at the end of the Brexit transition period. The GPA is the procurement agreement within the framework of the World Trade Oreganisation (WTO), to which the UK will soon become an independent member, having previously been represented in the WTO as a collective via its membership of the EU. The UK's accession to the GPA is significant as it sets the stage for a number of more material changes to the wider public procurement regime.  As a member of the EU, public procurement in the UK has hitherto largely been regulated by EU rules, deriving from a series of specific EU Directives and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). One of these Directives was the Public Contracts Directive 2014/24/EU (the "PCD") which was codified in England and Wales in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (the "PCR 2015").  The terms of the PCD (and by extension the PCR 2015) are subject to the GPA, a plurilateral agreement within the framework of the WTO aimed at mutually opening government procurement markets among its parties by ensuring open, fair and transparent conditions of competition in the government procurement markets of its 48 signatories. As per the terms of the TFEU, the UK had been part of GPA through its EU membership and not a party in its own right, meaning that its engagement with other GPA members was subject to the terms agreed by the EU on behalf of all its member states. However, in preparation for the end of the UK-EU transition period, the UK government has confirmed its membership of the GPA as a fully independent member. In achieving its aim of mutually opening up government procurement markets among its members, the GPA contains a set of minimum procurement standards which all signatories to the agreement must commit to. As a signatory to the GPA, many significant UK public procurement opportunities will therefore need to continue to be open to suppliers in other GPA member countries such as Canada, Hong Kong and the US. The GPA is comprised of two parts: 

• The main rules which establish minimum standards for ensuring non-discriminatory and transparent award procedures as well as remedies for mistreated suppliers; and
• The market coverage schedules for each GPA party, which set out what procurement opportunities (including categories of contracting authorities, goods, services and works, value thresholds and any exceptions) each member country has agreed to open up to other GPA parties (and therefore be subject to the agreed standards of non-discrimination and transparency). The UK is currently in the process of agreeing the content of its market coverage schedule ahead of its accession to the GPA, albeit as a former member through the EU this should not require material change.

In formulating the PCD, the EU built on the minimum standards of the GPA (to which it was a signatory) by adding a number of additional rules which were ultimately flowed down into UK law via the PCR 2015 (and its Scottish and Northern Irish counterparts). However, with the UK's accession to the GPA as an independent nation, the UK government is, in theory at least, at liberty to strip back any additional rules in the PCR which are over and above the minimum standards set out in the GPA. In attempting to understand what kind of changes to the UK procurement regime may be introduced after Brexit, UK policy-makers will need to distinguish between (i) the aspects of the current UK procurement rules which derive from the minimum standards set out in the GPA; and (ii) the aspects of the PCR 2015 which derive from the more robust regime adopted by the EU in its formulation of the PCD. The fundamental principle of the GPA is that where the procurement of particular goods, services or works are covered by the terms of the GPA, the procuring part cannot discriminate in favour of domestic entities or between entities of different parties to the GPA. This fundamental principle should, therefore, continue to apply to any future post-Brexit UK procurement regime (for as long as the UK remains party to the GPA).  Broadly speaking, the GPA sets out various rules relating to the tendering process, including:

• public bodies must publish a notice specifying the goods, services or works to be procured ( Article VII , GPA) on a freely accessible platform;
• public bodies have a choice of 3 broad categories of procurement procedures. They may either use "open tendering", under which all interested suppliers may submit a tender; "selective tendering" under which only qualified suppliers are invited to submit a tender; or "limited tendering" under which the procuring entity contacts specific suppliers of its choosing. The more specific conditions attached to these procedures are set out at Articles IX and XIII of the GPA ;
• public bodies must observe a number of specific rules aimed at preventing discrimination between suppliers which regulate the process of negotiations, impose minimum deadlines for the tendering process, and regulate how public authorities set out their technical specifications ( Articles X-XII , GPA ); and
• all member countries must also provide domestic review procedures which allow suppliers to challenge decisions made in relation to the tendering process ( Article XVIII , GPA ).

While the GPA is not very prescriptive in relation to how its member nations choose to implement the above rules into their local procurement regimes, public bodies and suppliers can expect the above listed principles to continue to be broadly incorporated in the UK's post-Brexit procurement regime. 

Potential changes to the UK regime

As the PCR 2015 include a number of provisions which are not strictly required under the GPA, some of the changes that public bodies and suppliers could potentially see (in due course) include:

• Below threshold coverage under the GPA: Unlike the PCR 2015, the GPA does not mandate any rules covering below threshold contracts. It is possible that the obligations of public bodies in relation to below threshold procurements may be modified;
• Rules relating to contract modification: Although the GPA contains transparency rules in relation to advertising and competition, it does not contain any explicit detailed rules on modifications to concluded contracts (such as are currently set out in regulation 72 of the PCR 2015);
• The choice of procedures: The current list of procedural options may be simplified to just 3 broad categories: "open", "selective" and "limited" by bringing the current "restricted", "negotiated" and "completive dialogue" procedures under one "selective" banner;
• Remedies and procedures for challenge: The GPA is not as prescriptive as the PCR 2015 in relation to remedies available and the procedures employed by member states in dealing with challenges. There could be a change in the legal body responsible for dealing with procurement challenges in the first instance. Furthermore, as the only remedy mandated by the GPA for aggrieved suppliers following a breach of the rules by public bodies is damages, other current remedies such as declarations of ineffectiveness, may be removed or modified; and
• Scope of coverage: The list of public bodies, goods, works and services subject to procurement rules may be varied depending on the UK's finalised market coverage schedules.

The above list of potential areas of change are by no means exhaustive and are, at this stage, speculative. The Prime Minister has, however, expressed a desire to "fundamentally change" the public procurement rules in the long term. Nevertheless, assuming that the essential structure of the rules ( i.e. the GPA minimum standards of open, fair and transparent tendering of public contracts) stay in place, it remains possible that the changes introduced by the UK Government will ultimately prove to be less of a radical overhaul of the procurement rules and instead serve to provide much needed clarity on certain areas of ambiguity under the current rules. It is also important to note that unlike the State aid regime, as of 1 January 2021, the PCR shall continue to remain in force unless and until revoked by subsequent legislation by the UK Parliament. 

Jonathan Branton

Colin murray, james lupton, alexander rose.

• Bradley Martin
• Adelani Ayoola

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England's Premier NHS Procurement Event

3 july 2024 - nec birmingham - 09:00 - 16:00.

Bringing together England’s Healthcare Buyer & Supplier Communities

The scale of NHS Commercial activity at national, regional and local levels across England is significant, with around £35 billion spent across over 80,000 suppliers.

P4H England 2024, England’s leading NHS procurement event, will provide extensive skills development, networking, collaboration and product showcase opportunities for organisations that are actively working to develop both existing and new opportunities across the healthcare sector.

This one-day event will bring together procurement, commercial and supply chain professionals to engage across a range of interactive event features to drive collaboration, in support of leveraging the full value of the NHS collective buying power.

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Market and supply chain innovation zone, our speakers.

Supplier Relationship Manager

NHS North of England Commercial Procurement Collaborative

Ruth joined the North of England Commercial Procurement Collaborative (NOE CPC) in June 2022, she has spent the last 30 years working in the pharmaceutical, medical device industry ranging from global organisations to SME’s and early start ups in the UK and North America holding a wide variety of roles from clinical to sales and marketing and general management. Before joining she worked in stakeholder relations and communications for a mid-sized pharmaceutical company. NOE CPC is a member of NHS Procurement in Partnership (NHS PiP) which is the collaboration between four NHS procurement hubs including NHS Commercial Solutions, East of England NHS Collaborative Procurement Hub and NHS London Procurement Partnership (NHS LPP)

Simon Rowland

Sustainability Manager

NHS London Procurement Partnership

NHS London Procurement Partnership (NHS LPP) is one of four national procurement hubs serving the health community in London and beyond. Its members extend across the acute, community and mental health sectors, as well as primary care and clinical commissioning. NHS LPP delivers the services that help hospitals to run efficiently including business intelligence, clinical digital solutions, workforce, medicines, estates, facilities and corporate services, professional services, sustainability and social value, procurement shared services, business intelligence and systems enablement. NHS LPP supports its members and other trusts to make sustainable decisions that help keep our money in the NHS and invested where it matters - on valuable frontline staff, services and most importantly, patients.

Anchors Programme Lead

NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care

Neil Hind has worked across various private and public sector organisations advising and delivering on various procurement, programme and sustainability programmes. He is also a Member of the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply and holds an MBA from the University of Liverpool. He has previously held the roles of the Head of Procurement for the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, was Head of Procurement at NHS England whilst implementing a new Commercial and Procurement team, and was the GM NHS Procurement Programme Director, setting up one of the first ICS procurement teams within the NHS. More recently he has been supporting Net Zero for Carbon & Social Value Projects for NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care and is now their Anchors Programme Lead looking at system approach in embedding the Anchor principals that includes social value.

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Alexandra is Head of Sustainable Procurement and Supply Chain at NHS England and NHS Improvement, where she leads the team responsible for delivering a net zero Carbon Footprint Plus for the NHS, which comprises over 60% of total emissions. In 2020, the NHS became the world’s first national health system to commit to become ‘carbon net zero’. Carbon Footprint Plus includes the NHS’ wider supply chain, aiming for an 80% reduction in emissions by 2036-2039 and Net Zero by 2045. Following the release of the ‘Delivering a Net Zero Report’, Alexandra has led the development and implementation of activities to achieve net zero carbon, drive social value and eradicate modern slavery across the supply chain. Before joining NHSEI, Alexandra led on the strategic and operational implementation of green plans for NHS organisations across the country, as well as some of the largest decarbonising infrastructure projects in the health sector enabled by procurement frameworks. Alexandra holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Policy from Edinburgh University, she graduated with honours from Boston College in the USA, and has previously led the award-winning sustainability programme at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.

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Caroline has worked in procurement since 1998, moving in the year 2000 from a manufacturing environment to the NHS, initially at the Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust. It was during this time that Caroline became CIPS qualified. In 2006 she joined the predecessor of the North of England Commercial Procurement Collaborative (NOE CPC) as Project Manager for the pilot project “Growing the Region’s Businesses with NHS Investment”, NOE CPC’s unique partnership with the Regional Development Agency, Yorkshire Forward. The project was shortlisted for two prestigious awards; the HSJ Awards and Government Opportunities (GO) Awards Since the successful completion of the Yorkshire Forward project, Caroline has worked in a number of roles at NOE CPC, including Procurement Training Specialist, delivering training to both businesses and NHS staff on public sector procurement, and as a Category Manager. Caroline's current role as Head of Training, Events and New Business Development involves developing NOE CPC's relationships with both existing and new members, and delivering a programme of procurement training and other events for NOE CPC members and other NHS procurement professionals.

Operations Director

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Will Laing is the Operations Director for the NHS Workforce Alliance, jointly reporting to the senior management of all five partner organisations, and responsible for the overall success of the Alliance in driving positive outcomes across all areas of workforce management for the NHS. Previously, Will was the Account Director – Department of Health and Social Care for Crown Commercial Service, during a period where the engagement between the health sector grew significantly. Will has an extensive background in NHS procurement since taking his first role with NHS Supplies North West division in 1995. From 2000 to 2010, Will worked in various commercial and managerial roles in the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency (PASA), which has given him insight into the challenges and opportunities in the NHS. Will led several categories in the 2004 NHS Supply Chain Excellence programme, introduced the first national agreement for Agency Nurses in 2007, and in 2008-10 represented the NHS in leadership roles in the OGC’s collaborative category management in energy and fleet.

Michelle McCann

Chief Sustainability and Innovation Officer

Michelle is Executive Director of Sustainability and Social Value at NHS London Procurement Partnership. She’s contributed a huge amount to the social value movement across a long and varied career, initially working in finance and education, and now heading up a team tasked with creating more sustainable procurement practice within the National Health Service in London.

Lee Jackson

Managing Director

North West London Procurement Services

Lee is an experienced international executive, bringing a broad suite of experiences and capabilities from his career across financial services, aviation, engineering, retail, health and the wider public sector. Those experiences in a wide range of predominantly change and innovation roles provide Lee with a unique perspective that through his strategic transformational leadership enables him to push the status quo and quickly understand the business to make a sustainable impact. Lee is an authentic leader who leads with a value focus to build trusted and enduring relationships. Throughout his career, Lee has been drawn to roles where the underlying business or team requires transforming or repositioning, evolving the organisational culture and operating model to attain the highest standards whilst building solid foundations for future growth. Lee possesses excellent stakeholder management skills and is skilled at navigating complex organisations. Lee is a strong tactician with a reputation for running at problems, equally able to operate at a strategic level and flex his approach between the two, as the business requires. More recently, at the NHS Lee led the establishment of the multi award winning shared Procurement service for North West London across England’s largest Independent Care System Improving service user experience, access and population health outcomes through effective procurement.

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NHS England, officially the NHS Commissioning Board, is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care. It oversees the budget, planning, delivery and day-to-day operation of the commissioning side of the National Health Service in England as set out in the Health and Social Care Act 2012.

Tracey Crammond

HCSA Women in Procurement & Supply Chain Network

The HCSA promotes the work of procurement and supply chain staff at all levels in healthcare. The Association provides training events and educational seminars, sponsors awards and hosts two high-profile annual conferences. The governance of the Association rests with the board of Trustees. The Executive runs the day to day business of the Association supported by a National Council of Regional Coordinators, Specialist Area Coordinators and National representatives from across the U.K. HCSA is a registered charity in the UK, is entirely self-financed through a combination of income from conferences, seminars, other training events and advertising.

Event Partners

HCSA Women's Network

The HCSA Women in Procurement & Supply Chain Network (Women’s Network) has been created to celebrate the achievements of women in Procurement and Supply Chain in the NHS/Healthcare. Our primary aim is to address women’s issues in the workplace and work to drive positive change. The network supports diversity, inclusion and gender balance, supporting equal opportunity and participation at all levels and in all aspects.

GS1 UK is one of 116 independent GS1 standards organisations operating worldwide. In healthcare, GS1 standards are used to uniquely identify every person, every product, and every place. This enables products and medical devices to be identified, tracked and traced, through the supply chain to the patient, from the point of manufacture. Data is commonly captured in a barcode which is scanned at the point of care. And because it is standardised, the data is accurate, consistent, and interoperable. It is this accuracy and standardisation of data that improves traceability and patient safety, reduces unwarranted clinical variation, and drives operational efficiencies across industry. To learn more about how GS1 standards work in practice, download the Scan4Safety evidence report at: healthcare.gs1uk.org/scan4safety. You can also find out more on our website at: www.gs1uk.org/healthcare. Email us at: [email protected] Follow us on Twitter at: @gs1uk_hc https://twitter.com/gs1uk_hc

NHS Commercial Solutions are a not for profit procurement shared services hub that works to unlock collaborative solutions across the NHS and the wider public sector. Based in the South East, we support acute, mental health, community, ambulance trusts, and also commissioning organisations. Since we formed in 2007, our solutions have saved over £270 million pounds for our customers, based on year one project savings alone. We provide end to end services across the full procurement cycle. Combining data analytics with our dedicated category specialists’ in-depth knowledge of supply markets and stakeholder needs we work with our stakeholders to identify key value opportunities in a range of categories. We also operate an Integrated Procurement Service for two Mental Health Trusts, and have a consultancy services practice

NHS North of England Commercial Procurement Collaborative (NOE CPC)

Established in 2007, and wholly owned by the NHS, NHS North of England Commercial Procurement Collaborative (NOE CPC) provides collaborative and bespoke procurement solutions to the NHS and other public sector organisations. Through category expertise and harnessing our collective buying power we delivers comprehensive, compliant and innovative procurement solutions which save the NHS money. Our award-winning procurements include ready to access framework agreements, bespoke project support and free to access agreements.

London Procurement Partnership

We are uniquely owned collectively by all our members, as opposed to one organisation. This affords our members the benefit of equal status and input into our vision, structure, products and services through a series of membership forums and the governance of a member-led Steering Board. As a trusted advisor, we align priorities with national and regional agendas, including the NHS Long Term Plan, the Central Commercial Function (CCF) and the move to Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) and Integrated Care Systems (ICSs). We collaborate with our members to provide local, regional and pan-London opportunities that bring rewards in sharing of good practice, leveraging common needs and spending power and working together towards shared aims, all of which develops relationships, knowledge, and ultimately supports the whole health system and economy. NHS LPP delivers the services that help hospitals to run efficiently including business intelligence, clinical digital solutions, workforce, medicines, estates, facilities and corporate services, professional services, sustainability and social value, procurement shared services, business intelligence and systems enablement. We support our members and other trusts to make sustainable decisions that help keep our money in the NHS and invested where it matters - on our valuable frontline staff, services and most importantly, patients.

NHS England provides national leadership for the NHS. Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we promote high quality health and care for all, and support NHS organisations to work in partnership to deliver better outcomes for our patients and communities, at the best possible value for taxpayers and to continuously improve the NHS. We are working to make the NHS an employer of excellence and to enable NHS patients to benefit from world-leading research, innovation and technology.

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ENGLANDS LEADING HEALTHCARE PROCUREMENT EVENT

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Procurement Act 2023 Changing landscape, issue 1: the context of the forthcoming new public procurement regime

Welcome to the first bulletin in our Changing Landscape series where we look at the changes soon to be made to the public procurement regime in England, Wales and Northern Ireland by the Procurement Act 2023 ("the Act").

Between now and next Autumn, we'll be publishing a series of bulletins looking at the key features of the Act, and at what public bodies and suppliers can be doing now in order to prepare themselves for a seamless transition to life under the new regime.

What is the Procurement Act, and what will it do?

In simple terms, public procurement is the spending of public money on goods, services and construction work. It is governed by a complex set of rules which require public bodies to follow particular procedures when selecting suppliers, and to conduct procurement in particular ways so as to ensure value for money. The rules also impose requirements aimed at ensuring that public procurement is fair on suppliers, so that all eligible suppliers bidding for public contracts have a fair crack at the whip. The procurement rules which currently apply in this country date from the time when the UK was a member of the European Union (EU), and embody EU rules (directives) on public procurement dating from 2014 – which every EU member state at that time (including the UK) was required to implement in its own national laws. In the UK (other than Scotland), these laws currently comprise four main pieces of legislation, each of which governs a different broad type of public procurement (public contracts, utilities sector contracts, defence and security contracts, and "concession" contracts in which operating risk is handed over to a contractor in return for the right to make money from operating an asset).

Now that the UK is no longer part of the EU, it is free to replace the current EU-derived rules with new ones of its own. The Act received Royal Assent on 26 October 2023. When the Act comes into force, it will represent a radical overhaul of the law governing public procurement in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The aim of the Act is to create a body of procurement rules that better serve the UK's particular interests than the current EU-derived procurement regime which currently applies. The Act is currently expected to come into force in October 2024. The Act contains the power for the Government to determine the precise date on which the Act will come into force, and also the power to bring different parts of it into force on different dates (section 127).

The Act does not extend to Scottish devolved authorities; Scotland has instead decided to retain its own current public procurement regime. The Scottish procurement regime is also derived from the EU procurement directives, and is principally based on them (with some Scottish domestic legislation supplementing the directives-based framework).

The Act itself does not represent the whole body of domestic procurement law that will apply once it is in force. Secondary legislation – that is, sets of Regulations – will be needed in order to supplement a number of the Act's provisions in order to give full effect to them; the power to make such regulations is given by the various sections of the Act where the secondary legislation is required.

The secondary legislation is not yet in settled form; drafts were subject to consultation during 2023 and will be finalised over the coming months.

Scope of the Act

As mentioned above, four separate key pieces of procurement legislation together make up the existing procurement regime which the Act will replace. They are:

• The Public Contracts Regulations 2015, which govern most public procurement currently undertaken and cover the bulk of government contracting – for example, central government procurement; local authority projects such as highways, waste services, and care services; and, for now, much NHS procurement;
• The Utilities Contracts Regulations 2016, which apply to procurement by utility companies in connection with their regulated activities (such as the provision of gas and electricity) and to the procurement of transport infrastructures such as high-speed rail;
• The Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011, which govern the procurement of contracts in the defence sector and for various national security purposes; and
• The Concession Contracts Regulations 2016, which apply to the procurement of so-called "concession" contracts, where a contractor agrees to run a particular asset (for example, a leisure centre, event or attraction, or a toll road) and thereby exploit it for profit – while in return taking on significant operating risk in doing so.

All four have been amended to some extent during their period in force, most notably to incorporate changes made necessary by Brexit. When the Act enters force, all four of these sets of Regulations will be revoked (Schedule 11 of the Act), and the four regimes brought together into one (albeit with some sector-specific provisions retained) in order to consolidate them as much as possible. The result – despite the consolidation – is still a weighty Act.

As outlined above, further secondary legislation (more Regulations) will be required in order to implement various parts of the Act. These will include Regulations which prescribe:

• the various forms of notices which procurers will have to publish about their procurement, as part of a drive for better transparency which the Act will introduce;
• the subject-matter of so-called "light-touch contracts" – those which, by their nature, can benefit from a lighter set of rules around their procurement; and
• specific "crisis" situations which, if and when they arise, would allow the direct award of some contracts (this clearly builds on learnings from the COVID-19 pandemic, which threw into sharp relief some of the limitations of the exiting regime around the ability to make direct awards).

As well as consolidating into one Act all of the areas of procurement currently governed by separate rules, the Act will expressly exclude some types of procurement from its scope altogether. Of these, a number are already excluded from the scope of the current rules – for example, certain types of financial and legal services, and most research and development contracts. However, one area of procurement – namely that of healthcare services for the purposes of the NHS in England – has spent the last decade being (in effect) dual-regulated by both the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and by the NHS (Procurement, Patient Choice and Competition) (No. 2) Regulations 2013. The two regimes have overlapped in some respects but differed in others – with confusing results. From 1 January 2024, NHS procurement will come under its own, all-new "Provider Selection Regime" ("the PSR") – and the Public Contracts Regulations will no longer apply to it. Later in 2024, when the Act comes into force, NHS procurement will fall outside the scope of the Act and instead will continue to be regulated only by the PSR.

Principles and objectives of procurement under the Act

Anyone involved in public procurement will be familiar with the EU-Treaty-based principles which apply to procurement that the current regimes regulate – namely equal treatment, transparency, non-discrimination, mutual recognition, and proportionality. Procurement has to be conducted in accordance with these principles.

In the new Act, these principles will broadly continue to survive as themes, and several of the Act's provisions pick up on them by creating particular obligations. However, the general principles of procurement have been somewhat recast by the Act, which refers to particular "objectives". The Act will require contracting authorities to have regard to the importance of the following "objectives":

• delivering value for money;
• maximising public benefit;
• sharing information for the purpose of allowing suppliers and others to understand the contracting authority's procurement policies and decisions; and
• acting, and being seen to act, with integrity.

Suppliers are to be treated the same unless a difference between them justifies different treatment, and contracting authorities will have to take all reasonable steps to ensure different treatment does not confer an advantage or disadvantage on a supplier. Contracting authorities will have to have regard to the fact that small and medium-sized enterprises may face particular barriers to participation, and consider whether such barriers can be removed or reduced. All contracting authorities are to have regard to the National Procurement Policy Statement ("NPPS"), published and updated by the Government from time to time. This, in effect, places national procurement policy on a legal footing, as contracting authorities who conduct public procurement will effectively be required to comply with the NPPS unless they have a good reason not to.

Value thresholds will continue to apply to public procurement under the Act, just as they do currently. On 1 January 2024, some of the UK procurement thresholds will increase very slightly, to the following (inclusive of VAT):

New procedures

The current procurement regime provides for seven different procurement procedures in total, each appropriate for a different situation. The Act will replace these seven procedures and replace them with three, namely:

• A single-stage procedure without restriction on who can tender – an "open procedure";
• Such other competitive procedure as the contracting authority considers appropriate for the procurement in question – a "competitive flexible procedure". This procedure allows contracting authorities to design a form of procedure that works best for their particular procurement; and
• Direct awards, which are available in some specific situations.

Whatever the procedure chosen, it must be a proportionate means of awarding the contract having regard to the nature, complexity and cost of the contract. Contracting authorities will be under a duty to consider dividing large contracts into smaller lots, so as to facilitate access to public contracts for smaller businesses.

Procurement under the Act will lead to the award of a public contract to the supplier that submits the "most advantageous tender" in a competitive tendering procedure, as opposed to (at present) the "most economically advantageous tender". The fact that the Act recasts the language in this way when referring to a winning bid underlines the fact that contracting authorities may identify the winner by using award criteria that reach well beyond factors that are merely financial. It is likely that social value, the environmental and net-zero-related aspects of bids, and other broad policy-driven factors are likely to feature large in the award decisions of many contracting authorities in future.

The duty to "Treaty State" suppliers

Even though the Act is (in a sense) a product of Brexit, the duties which it will impose on contracting authorities when undertaking procurement will not extend only to UK suppliers. Free Trade Agreements to which the UK is party exist with a significant number of other countries of the world, and, where those agreements concern procurement, UK contracting authorities must not discriminate against those countries' suppliers. The full list of specified international agreements (on the basis of which duties to "Treaty State" suppliers arise under the Act) is set out in Schedule 9. It is of course possible that, in time, the list could be added to.

The countdown to October 2024

The Cabinet Office has indicated that six months prior notice will be given before the Act is brought into force, so that there is enough time for contracting authorities and wider public procurement markets to gear up.

The Act's landing page can be accessed here . The Government Commercial Function is running a learning and development programme - to be rolled out between now and when the Act comes into force - comprising (in this order) a series of free, on-demand knowledge drops of up to an hour each; a self-guided e-learning course ending in the opportunity to gain a Skilled Practitioner certificate of achievement; a three-day, virtual advanced course of deep dives into the Act and its key themes; and finally the launch of "Communities of Practice" – events that provide opportunities for groups to come together and foster collaborative learning by sharing best practice, innovative approaches and challenges. We can expect to hear more on the timings for the launch of these initiatives over the coming weeks and months.

Details of the Cabinet Office's learning and development programme can be found here . To complement it, we will be publishing a series of insights on key aspects of the new Act in further editions this "Changing Landscapes" series.

If you have any questions or need support with navigating these latest developments, get in touch with Christopher Brennan, Alison Richards, Alexi Markham or Robert Breedon.

• [email protected]
• T:  +44 (0)121 393 0431
• Download vCard for  Christopher Brennan

• [email protected]
• T:  +44 (0)121 393 2153
• Download vCard for  Alison Richards

• [email protected]
• T:  +44 (0)20 3636 7821
• Download vCard for  Alexi Markham

• [email protected]
• T:  +44 (0)370 730 2862
• Download vCard for  Robert Breedon

Related Insights & Resources

Procurement Solutions for the Public Sector

OUR PURPOSE

Procuring for you

Collaboration is at the heart of everything we do. We work in partnership with North East local authorities on the strategic procurement of high value goods and services in order to deliver savings, maximise efficiencies and promote best practice.

Our procurement solutions are the result of extensive consultation with the public sector, suppliers and end-users, so that we deliver positive outcomes for the communities we serve. 

Latest news

9th April 2024

NEPO named finalists in four categories at the Go Awards 2024

NEPO’s public procurement excellence is recognised as it’s shortlisted in four categories at this year’s prestigious Go Awards.

09 Apr 2024

• Social Value
• Case Studies

8th April 2024

NEPO welcomes new procurement coordinator to Professional Services category

Rhian Hepple joins NEPO as procurement coordinator to our Professional Services category.

08 Apr 2024

3rd April 2024

Revolutionising road management: NEPO launches highway surveys framework agreement

A groundbreaking new highways framework has arrived at NEPO, providing a wide range of infrastructure survey solutions to public sector organisations across the UK.

03 Apr 2024

4th March 2024

National Careers Week: Professional development opportunities in procurement

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04 Mar 2024

1st March 2024

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We are excited to be joining Invest Newcastle at MIPIM this month.

Find us at the Newcastle Pavilion (Stand C19.C) alongside more than 20 public and private sector organisations at this three-day conference held in Cannes.

01 Mar 2024

5th February 2024

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NEPO has launched an exciting new solution that will accelerate the development of electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure in the North East and across the UK.

05 Feb 2024

7th December 2023

NEPO strengthens Open team

NEPO has made two new appointments to support its new, advanced e-portal Open, ahead of its full roll out next year.

07 Dec 2023

4th December 2023

NEPO and EDF join forces to help improve lives of families in Tees Valley

Vulnerable families in Tees Valley will now be able to enjoy the newly refurbished accommodation, thanks to staff from NEPO and business energy supplier EDF.

04 Dec 2023

29th November 2023

NEPO Supplier Partnership Programme unveils the gateway to success in public sector tendering

The programme has officially kicked off with a half-day event aimed at helping local and regional suppliers take the first step into working with the public sector.

29 Nov 2023

21st November 2023

NEPO Supplier Partnership Programme launched to help regional suppliers win public sector opportunities

A new support programme is available to businesses across the region, focussed on helping them find and win more opportunities to supply the public sector with goods and services.

21 Nov 2023

17th November 2023

NEPO branches out to help plant Great Northumberland Forest

More than 300 tree saplings have been planted in Northumberland by local procurement organisation NEPO and business water supplier Wave.

17 Nov 2023

6th November 2023

New appointment to construction team

Kirstie Mactaggart has taken on the role of relationships and partnerships specialist in the construction team to help drive business forward in the UK construction industry.

06 Nov 2023

24th October 2023

New communications team announced

NEPO has appointed a new communications team to support its ambition to be recognised as a national leader in procurement, technology and social value delivery.

24 Oct 2023

11th October 2023

NEPO retrofit solutions perfect for decarbonisation funding

Public sector organisations that are bidding for decarbonisation funding are encouraged to get in touch with NEPO to find out what retrofit solutions could help them reach their net-zero ambitions.

11 Oct 2023

3rd October 2023

Tough mudder raises over £1K for Anxious Minds charity

A team of fitness fanatics from North East Procurement Organisation (NEPO) has raised £1,000 by taking part in a ‘Tough Mudder’ for Anxious Minds, its 2023 charity of the year.  

03 Oct 2023

22nd September 2023

NEPO and Bunzl Greenham team up to clean beach

The NEPO team rolled up their sleeves to help supplier Bunzl Greenham clean up unwanted litter on the Durham Heritage Coast.

22 Sep 2023

19th September 2023

New procurement colleagues announced

We are continuing to bolster our procurement team with new appointments, as a consequence of both growth and internal progression.

19 Sep 2023

12th September 2023

NEPO suppliers offer support to those affected by RAAC

North East procurement specialist, NEPO, is working with contracted suppliers to offer solutions to establishments affected by Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC).

12 Sep 2023

6th September 2023

NEPO offer support to closed schools in the North East

NEPO are available to support the establishments unfortunately affected by potentially dangerous concrete (RAAC) to offer our services in any way possible.

06 Sep 2023

31st August 2023

NEPO announces first-ever in-house legal role appointment

NEPO has announced the appointment of its first in-house legal counsel, as the organisation continues to expand.

31 Aug 2023

9th August 2023

NEPO pipeline of opportunities (Aug to Dec 2023)

NEPO has summarised the procurement activity planned for the period August to December 2023.

09 Aug 2023

25th July 2023

From grass to glass: local dairy farm educates North East school children

NEPO Milk & Dairy supplier, Embleton Hall Dairies, invited local schoolchildren to learn about the journey of their milk from the farm to their classroom.

25 Jul 2023

12th June 2023

New £800 million Construction Framework Will Deliver Infrastructure Ambitions

NEPO has launched a new £800m Construction Framework to deliver the North East and UK’s infrastructure ambitions.

12 Jun 2023

5th June 2023

Open Scoops Digital Service Delivery Award

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05 Jun 2023

25th May 2023

NEPO Strengthens Open Team with Key Appointments

NEPO has strengthened the team that will deliver its Open e-procurement platform.

25 May 2023

15th May 2023

£27 million of social value commitments secured in last 12 months

Keith Lamb, social value and supplier coordinator at NEPO, explores the positive impact of its social value delivery, which has been recognised at a national level.

15 May 2023

11th May 2023

In Conversation With Jenny Robins

We talk to Jenny Robins, Operations Specialist at NEPO

11 May 2023

4th May 2023

New starters and internal promotions announced at NEPO

NEPO has bolstered its team with a set of new appointments and promotions as part of its NEPO 2025 strategy to help deliver the region’s ambitious growth plans.

04 May 2023

28th March 2023

Two North East local authorities trial HVO in diesel engines

Your NRG, sole supplier to NEPO307 Liquid Fuels, is trialling the supply of Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) fuel at Northumberland County Council and Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council to power a number of street sweepers and refuse collection vehicles.

28 Mar 2023

1st February 2023

Embedding early payment programmes in procurement

With the Procurement Bill set to strengthen prompt payment within the public sector, and widespread impact of the rising cost of living, Early Payment programmes can help both buyers and suppliers unlock efficiencies.

01 Feb 2023

27th January 2023

We're growing! Come and join our team as In-House Lawyer

We're seeking an In-House Lawyer to join our friendly team. Closing date for applications is Thursday 16 February 2023.

27 Jan 2023

24th January 2023

NEPO pipeline of opportunities (Jan - Aug 2023)

NEPO has summarised the procurement activity planned for the period January to August 2023.

24 Jan 2023

16th January 2023

New Solution: Retrofit and Decarbonisation Works

NEPO has launched a £300m framework agreement to support the North East public sector in delivering retrofit and decarbonisation projects. 

16 Jan 2023

12th January 2023

New Solution: Support Services for the Built Environment

NEPO212 Support Services for the Development of the Built Environment provides a compliant route for the North East public sector to appoint consultants for construction, civil engineering, highways and transportation projects.

12 Jan 2023

8th December 2022

North East organisations champion small businesses at Houses of Parliament reception

NEPO and Bloom Procurement Services have championed the role of small businesses in public procurement at a Houses of Parliament event.

08 Dec 2022

9th November 2022

In Conversation: NEPO and Bloom

NEPO and Bloom took part in a special Q&A session reflecting on the achievements of NEPRO to date and plans for the future.

09 Nov 2022

7th November 2022

NEPO Awarded Advanced Good Work Pledge

NEPO has been awarded the North of Tyne Combined Authority’s Advanced Good Work Pledge.

07 Nov 2022

17th October 2022

North East councils unveil plans to transform how they do business

NEPO and the twelve North East local authorities have launched Open, a new e-procurement platform that will transform how businesses find and bid for competitive opportunities.

17 Oct 2022

4th October 2022

Darlington Business Summit 2022 (5th - 7th Oct)

Darlington Business Summit is a 3-day event which provides opportunities to network and meet other local businesses.

04 Oct 2022

26th September 2022

NEPO, ESPO and YPO combine their expertise in new financial services partnership

NEPO, ESPO and YPO have launched a collaborative partnership to meet the UK public sector’s financial service requirements.

26 Sep 2022

21st September 2022

New Solution: NEPO214 Grounds Maintenance, Equipment and Plant

NEPO has launched a new framework agreement for use by the UK public sector.

21 Sep 2022

30th August 2022

Partnership hits 10 year milestone

NEPO and Bloom are celebrating ten years of providing the public sector with specialist professional services.

30 Aug 2022

17th August 2022

Sunderland schools receive £8k donation of IT equipment

NEPO and Sunderland City Council have worked with their business travel supplier, Click Travel, to provide IT equipment for schools in Sunderland.

17 Aug 2022

Market Consultation: NEPO233 Retrofit and Decarbonisation Works

NEPO has invited contractors to participate in market consultation activity to help shape a new procurement solution for the provision of retrofit and decarbonisation services within the North East region.

16th August 2022

NEPO extends award-winning Electricity framework for a further two years

Following a compliant procurement process, NEPO has extended its award-winning Electricity framework for a further two years.

16 Aug 2022

20th July 2022

Introducing our Annual Report

The Collaborative Procurement Performance Report 2021/22 is now available to download.

20 Jul 2022

6th July 2022

Oxygen Finance publish analysis of local authority spending

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06 Jul 2022

4th July 2022

New solution: NEPO525 Executive Recruitment

NEPO has launched a new solution that covers the provision of executive recruitment services.

04 Jul 2022

22nd June 2022

Information for Suppliers: NEPO's plans for a new e-procurement solution

Information for suppliers regarding NEPO's plans for a new e-procurement solution, called Open,

22 Jun 2022

26th May 2022

NEPO wins GO Award for Social Value

NEPO has scooped the award for Social Value at the GO Awards, an annual celebration of the very best in UK procurement. 

26 May 2022

24th May 2022

New appointments at NEPO

NEPO has appointed four new roles as part of its revitalised strategy to drive growth and progress through collaborative procurement.

24 May 2022

5th May 2022

NEPO recognised in National GO Awards 2022 shortlist

We are finalists in the National GO Awards 2022!

05 May 2022

4th May 2022

YPO & AWS Webinar: How cloud computing can benefit your organisation (13 May)

YPO are working in partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide a free webinar on how cloud computing can benefit your organisation.

04 May 2022

28th April 2022

NEPO scoops National Social Value Award

NEPO have been crowned winners of the Best Public Sector Project Award at the National Social Value Awards 2022.

28 Apr 2022

19th April 2022

NEPO recognised in Social Value Awards 2022 shortlist

We are finalists in the National Social Value Awards 2022!

19 Apr 2022

5th April 2022

New solution: NEPO303 Meter Operator (MOP) Services

NEPO has launched a new solution that provides UK public sector organisations with the supply, registration and maintenance of meters, as well as associated communications requirements.

05 Apr 2022

23rd March 2022

NEPO 2025: Providing leadership

Over the next three years, NEPO will provide the leadership needed to help the wider public sector achieve its ambitions.

23 Mar 2022

16th March 2022

NEPO’s social value ambitions

NEPO’s three-year strategy includes ambitious plans to ensure that the millions spent through public procurement creates value within the local economy, positively impacting our communities and the environment. 

16 Mar 2022

14th March 2022

Welcome to NEPO HQ

The NEPO team assembled at the Northern Design Centre to celebrate the unveiling of our brand new headquarters.

14 Mar 2022

9th March 2022

NEPO 2025: Our three-year strategy

NEPO has developed an ambitious three-year strategy which aims to meet the challenges and opportunities that the North East faces.

09 Mar 2022

7th March 2022

Introducing our new look

It’s a new chapter for NEPO as we unveil our refreshed look and feel.

07 Mar 2022

28th February 2022

NEPO417 Janitorial & Facilities Supplies awarded to Bunzl and Nationwide Hygiene Group

NEPO has appointed Bunzl and Nationwide Hygiene Group to deliver its nationally-available janitorial and facilities supplies solution.

28 Feb 2022

21st February 2022

NEPO, ESPO and YPO launch partnership for financial services

NEPO is working in partnership with ESPO and YPO to offer its members access to a wide range of financial services solutions.

21 Feb 2022

16th February 2022

NEPO members launch new Supplier Incentive Programmes using NEPO521 Early Payment Service

Gateshead Council, Middlesbrough Council and Northumberland County Council have launched new Supplier Incentive Programmes using NEPO521 Early Payment Service.

16 Feb 2022

11th January 2022

NEPO helps to shape a new ‘Gold Standard’ for public sector construction frameworks

NEPO has contributed to an independent review to establish a new ‘Gold Standard’ in public sector construction frameworks.

11 Jan 2022

6th January 2022

NEPO and YPO launch partnership for ICT procurement

 NEPO has established a partnership with YPO to offer its members access to a wide range of ICT procurement solutions.

06 Jan 2022

10th December 2021

Green Paper: Transforming public procurement

The Cabinet Office is holding two online events to provide contracting authorities, suppliers and other interested parties with further information on plans for how public procurement will be transformed.

10 Dec 2021

22nd November 2021

Transforming Public Procurement Green Paper: Consultation Response

Latest update on the Transforming Public Procurement Green Paper  consultation process and outcomes

22 Nov 2021

2nd November 2021

New solution: NEPO307 Liquid Fuels

NEPO has launched a new solution that covers the provision of diesel, gasoil, kerosene, petrol and Adblue.

02 Nov 2021

Login / Register

Welcome to NEPO. You have two options for accessing tendering opportunities from NEPO and the twelve North East local authorities.

The procurement platform used by NEPO. Launched in October 2022, Open will be adopted by North East local authorities in a phased approach over 2024.

NEPO Portal

The procurement platform currently used by the 12 North East local authorities and Nexus. 

Looking for the Contracts Register? Click here

24 Free Tender Websites for Better UK Public Sector Contracts

The complete list of free tender websites for construction contracts.

The tendering process in construction involves the proposal made by a construction company in response to an invitation to tender (ITT) for the completion of a project issued by a public sector entity. Construction tender documents typically contain cost estimates, procurement and cost management procedures, prior experience and references of the contractor, to only name a few.

Submitting a tender begins with inspecting the set of construction drawings and specifications in order to generate a material quantity takeoff. For the UK market, the most suitable takeoff software is Estimation MEP because it integrates with LUCKINS, UK’s largest library of HVAC, electrical and plumbing material content featuring more than 500,000+ items. This means all your estimates will contain accurately priced items for your procurement lists and quotes.

But how exactly do you find the best places to bid for government tenders in the UK? There are hundreds of tendering websites and portals dedicated to the UK market. If you were to regularly review all of them, you would end up not having any time left to actually work on and submit your tender documents. That’s why it is important to find the best bidding websites that offer suitable tendering opportunities for your business.

The more specific you are when choosing your construction leads, the better your chances are of securing successful and profitable contracts. So have a look at the most comprehensive guide for best tender websites that our team put together:

Free Tender Websites UK

1. mytenders.

With more than 700 public sector organisations publishing both low and high value tenders, mytenders is one of the best construction bid sites for suppliers interested in working with the public sector. The information is compiled by scanning the OJEU and other sources.

Create a free account

2. OpenOpps

OpenOpps is one of the best free construction tenders websites. The platform provides access to over 100,000 live business opportunities and features advanced search and filtering capabilities. You can also subscribe to receive daily email alerts. OpenOpps is surely a place where you can find suitable construction jobs to bid for.

Browse tender opps

3. The Construction Index

The Construction Index is an online publication providing construction news, company listings, but also contract leads and construction tenders. You can browse the full list of UK tenders and search by keyword, location as well as sort the procurement notices by type or business sector.

Start browsing

4. Global Tenders

Global Tenders is an international resource, but with a hefty UK database on tenders. The information is classified by date, country, CPV, sectors and keywords.

5. Tenders UK

First and foremost a tender consultancy company, Tenders UK also provides a list of available business opportunities on their website.

The company offers consultancy services, amongst which, one called “Critical Friend”. Should you choose to request this service, you will be paired with an experienced coach who will assist you in researching the ITT to define a winning strategy, offer guidance on how to respond to each question in the tender and help you evaluate your tender from the buyer’s perspective.

View tender opportunities

6. Tender Tiger

While featuring results from more than 150 countries, Tender Tiger remains focused on the United Kingdom. Thousands of buyers advertise tenders exclusively on Tender Tiger. Through this platform, you gain access to tender documents, corrigendum, form JV/consortium and more.

7. Bidstats

Bidstats combines two construction bid sources: UK Government’s Contracts Finder and OJEU

(Official Journal of the European Union). The advantage is that you have the data in one place and can more easily access it.

UK Government Tender Websites

8. contracts finder.

The main platform where the government makes all UK public sector procurement opportunities available is Contracts Finder. All opportunities above the threshold of £10,000 for central government bodies and £25,000 for wider public sector bodies are required to be published here.

On the Government’s Contracts Finder you can search for contracts that are currently open to tender, pipelines of potential procurement activity or early opportunity notices (if you wish to review future procurement needs).

User guide Contracts Finder

9. e-tendering portal of The Houses of Parliament UK

The e-tendering portal provided by The Houses of Parliament is called 'In-Tend'. Use this resource if you wish to search for projects coordinated by The Parliament. You don’t need to be an approved supplier to use this portal and all size suppliers will be considered when awarding the project.

User guide In-Tend

10. e-tendering portal of the Irish Government (eTenders)

On this platform, general contractors and HVAC contractors will find all Irish public sector procurement opportunities currently advertised in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU tenders), but also lower-value contracts. You can sort by Tender Notices, Prior Indicative Notices (PIN) and Contract Award Notices (CAN).

eTenders portal

11. Tenders Electronic Daily (TED)

On TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) you can not only find all EU tenders opportunities, but also construction sales leads from the European Economic Area and beyond. What is great about TED is that you can sign up to receive email alerts based on your filters, such as project types. It is essentially the online version of the “Supplement to the Official Journal” of the EU. Around 2,400 public procurement notices are published on TED daily.

EU procurement tenders

12. Public Contracts Scotland

On the Public Contracts Scotland tender portal you will find OJEU notices issued by Scottish public bodies but also lower-value notices, and contract awards. Main contractors on public sector contracts may also advertise sub-contract business opportunities.

All regulated procurements above £50k for goods/services and £2 million for works are required to be featured on this platform. Many organisations use Public Contracts Scotland for direct requests for quotations (Quick Quotes) for lower value and non-regulated procurements.

Public Contracts Scotland (PCS) portal

13. Sell2Wales

The Sell2Wales website is the information source and procurement portal companies wanting to do business with the Welsh Government. Contracts are offered by a range of publicly-funded organisations including the Welsh Government, local authorities, NHS Trusts and colleges and universities.

Sell2Wales procurement portal

14. Northern Ireland Electronic Tendering portal

The Electronic Tendering website eSourcing NI features all tender opportunities led by Northern Ireland Public Sector and Regulated Contracting Authorities. To this date, more than 15,000 calls for tenders have been made by 138 contracting authorities and more than 8,700 contracts awarded.

eSourcing NI

Regional Tendering Websites UK

15. procontract (proactis).

ProContract is a centralised eProcurement system powered by Proactis. Several UK local authorities use this portal to manage their contract opportunities. Proactis claims that the combined spend of all UK local bodies using the platform is over £800 millions.

You have the possibility to receive alerts based on your preferred areas of interest and locations.

ProContract

16. South West Procurement Portal

27 South West authorities are part of the South Wales Procurement Portal, including Bath & North East Somerset Council and Plymouth City Council. View a complete list here .

eProcurement South Wales

17. Yorkshire & Humber Region Procurement Portal

Yorkshire & Humber Region Procurement Portal features 25 local bodies including Sheffield City Council, City of York Council, Hull City Council and Leeds City Council. View a complete list to the right of the page here .

eProcurement Yorkshire & Humber Region

18. North West's Procurement Portal (The Chest)

44 local authority bodies are part of the procurement portal for the North West, including Liverpool City Council, Manchester City Council and Lancaster City Council.

eProcurement North West (The Chest)

19. North East Procurement Organisation (NEPO)

Another free tender website for the UK is NEPO, featuring resources for the North East region. 14 local authorities are included in this portal, amongst which Durham County Council, Middlesbrough Council and Newcastle City Council.

eProcurement NEPO

20. East Midlands Procurement Portal (EastMidsTenders)

On the East Midlands business portal you will find public sector contracts opportunities from 22 local councils, including Derby City Council, Leicester City Council and Nottingham City Council.

eProcurement East Midlands (EastMidsTenders)

21. Kent Business Portal

18 local authorities are making public sector tender opportunities available on the Kent Business Portal, including Canterbury City Council and Kent Schools, Parish Councils and Fire and Rescue Services.

eProcurement Kent

22. London Tenders Portal

On the London Tenders Portal you can find construction business opportunities from 23 local councils in the area or London, including Brent, Greenwich and Sutton.

London Tenders procurement portal

23. South East Business Portal

On this tender portal for the UK you will find construction leads from 24 local authorities including Oxford City Council, Winchester City Council, Cambridge City Council, Milton Keynes Council and Northampton Borough Council.

eProcurement South East

eProcurement LGSS

24. Borough Council of King’s Lynn & West Norfolk

On this website you will find tenders and quotations from Borough Council of King’s Lynn & West Norfolk above the threshold of £25,000. If you are looking for projects below £10,000 you must contact individual departments that may be interested.

Now that we’ve reviewed the list of bidding sites, let’s briefly go through the different procurement procedures types that you will encounter on these websites.

4 Main Procurement Procedures

There are a few different procurement procedures types, but four of them are most commonly used for construction tenders. You can know which procurement procedure will be used by looking at the Contract Notice.

Open procedure

The most frequently used sort, in an open procedure any company can submit a tender and be considered for awarding the contract.

Restricted procedure

Although anybody can request to be considered for the contract, only preselected suppliers will be eligible to submit a tender. Therefore, in the first stage, a short list of suppliers is selected – usually on the basis of a pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ). In the second selection stage, after the tenders have been evaluated, the selection process can take place and the contracts can be awarded.

Competitive Dialogue procedure

In this procedure, particular emphasis is placed on the ways in which work is to be performed. That’s why the awarding body negotiates with companies to understand and develop suitable directions.

Negotiated procedure

This procedure has limited applications and is only used when specific project details require in-depth negotiations. Procuring entities in the defence and security, energy, water, transport and postal services sectors may use it as a standard procedure, however.

Find here more information about public tendering rules.

Estimating and takeoff and software

If you are looking for an efficient estimating and takeoff software, have a look at Estimation MEP , the cloud app that will help you generate estimates and takeoffs faster and more accurate. You can test Estimation MEP for 14 days completely free. Visit this link to view how Estimation MEP can help you grow your business.

We hope this construction bidding websites list has helped you identify other sources of information for tender opportunities and gain more ideas for platforms that might be a good fit for you to bid for government contracts in the UK.

- INNOVATE - - EDUCATE - - COLLABORATE -

Thursday 16th may 2024- 9am to 4pm, the uk's leading public procurement event.

In Association with

Connecting Buyers and Suppliers Across the UK’s Public Sector

Procurex National 2024 delivers a wealth of CPD Certified skills development, networking and collaboration opportunities for public sector buyers and private sector organisations alike.

The interactive product showcase exhibition provides organisations that are actively operating within official frameworks agreements or exploring ways’ to further develop opportunities across the £393bn a year UK public procurement marketplace with a chance to showcase their products and services to leading buyers.

Alex Burghart MP

Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office

Alex Burghart was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office on 27 October 2022. He was previously Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department for Work and Pensions from 20 September 2022 to 27 October 2022, and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Education from 16 September 2021 to 6 July 2022. Alex was elected as Conservative MP for Brentwood and Ongar on 8 June 2017.

Minister confirmed for Procurex National 2024

Alex Burghart was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office on 27 October 2022.

He was previously Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department for Work and Pensions from 20 September 2022 to 27 October 2022, and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Education from 16 September 2021 to 6 July 2022.

Alex was elected as Conservative MP for Brentwood and Ongar on 8 June 2017.

Confirmed speakers include:

Chief Executive Officer

Crown Commercial Service

Simon Tse was appointed Chief Executive of the Crown Commercial Service in 2018. He first joined CCS in May 2016 and led the Procurement Operations directorate. Simon is an experienced Chief Executive Officer and has extensive experience of strategic planning, customer service, driving performance improvement and achieving results. He first joined the Civil Service in 2008, taking up the position of Chief Executive Officer for the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, where he remained in post until 2013. Simon was Health Director at the Department for Work and Pensions, one of the UK’s largest public service departments, from 2013 - 2016. In this role he was responsible for the provision of all health and disability assessments services within the UK. This role followed a successful career in the private sector spanning more than 25 years, most recently at Virgin Media, firstly as Managing Director for Wales and West, and subsequently as the UK SME Business Director.

Lindsay Maguire

Deputy Director for Procurement Reform

Cabinet Office

Lindsay is the Deputy Director for Procurement Reform at the Cabinet Office.  She joined the Government Commercial Organisation in 2016, initially working as senior category leader for employment and labour market in DWP and subsequently as Head of Small Business Policy at Cabinet Office, working with all central government departments and SMEs to break down barriers to entry. Prior to joining the civil service, she gained 10+ commercial experience from the private sector, working in the Aerospace, property management and FMCG sectors for both large multinationals and SMEs, including spending 5 years abroad in Germany, Netherlands and Canada working on complex projects.

Lorraine Cox

Social Value Taskforce

Lorraine leads STAR Procurement which is a very successful, high performing public sector shared service that is leading collaborative change and transformation through procurement and Social Value. STAR supports four Greater Manchester Councils and now two Liverpool City Region Councils that joined STAR in 2023. Lorraine has led STAR for almost seven years and in 22/23 they supported the retention of 78.9% local spend within Greater Manchester for her four partner Councils. STAR have continued to improve the Social Value captured as added value through procurement securing 38.5% accumulatively of the collective contract value since April 2019. The National Social Value Taskforce is a ‘coalition of the willing’ of public, private and voluntary sector representatives who act as advocates and creators of this ‘Social Value Movement’. Lorraine has been part of this since its formation in 2017 as was appointed as Chair in June 2023. Lorraine received a national award ‘Best Council to do Business With’ historically which she received at No.10 Downing St. She personally contributed to the improvement of Public Contract Regulations 2015 and Lord Young’s Reforms as she attended a Select Committee in the House of Commons to respond to a Public Procurement Review. Lorraine was also highly commended in Leadership at the National Social Value Conference 2020 and STAR won an award for embedding Social Value into the procurement processes in 2021.

Director of Procurement & Property

Scottish Government

Nick spent eight years as Head of Commercial and Procurement at the Department for International Development. Following over 25 years within the private sector specialising in procurement, commercial and project management in roles across the UK, USA, Australia, and Spain, Nick joined the public sector as part of HMG’s Commercial Functional Leadership Group. Nick is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS) and a Chartered Global Management Accountant. Previously a CIPS Regional Chair and regular keynote speaker at conferences, Nick is also an active mentor for Procurement and Commercial professionals.

Director Commercial & Procurement

Welsh Government

John Fitzgerald Coyne, nicknamed ‘Fitzy’, is an expert at developing commercial strategy and skills for the modern business. Named after the 35th President of the United States he had the privilege of working closely with his sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver a long-time advocate for children's health and disability issues who founded the movement that became Special Olympics. John began his career in the Irish tourism sector and in 1991 became the first ever Commercial Director at Liverpool FC where he was tasked with broadening the financial, commercial and business development aspects of the club. After leaving Liverpool FC, John spent some time at Sports Wales before moving to the health sector where he has largely remained since. John was most recently the Managing Director an NHS owned Teckal Company, SWFT Clinical Services Ltd. Here he managed a turnover of approximately £50m a year and 280 staff. He’s appeared on ‘This is your Life’ and ‘Question Time’ and interviewed Pierce Brosnan, Liam Neeson, Cecelia Ahern and Colin Farrell for cover stories for the Irish Post newspaper, and once even presented to a President! John is a keen runner and lives with his wife Lisa and daughter Darcy. He became the Director Commercial and Procurement for the Welsh Government in September 2021.

Linda O'Hare

Assistant Director - Procurement

BSO Procurement & Logistics Service

Linda O’Hare is Assistant Director – Procurement, at Business Services Organisation (BSO), Procurement and Logistics Service (PaLS), in Northern Ireland (NI). PaLS is the sole provider of professional procurement and logistics services to all Health and Social Care (HSC) organisations in NI. BSO PaLS manages £1.3bn of expenditure per annum, has circa 420 staff, with procurement offices and warehouses situated across NI. BSO PaLS manages procurements and contracts across all categories of goods and services - clinical, non-clinical, social care and ICT. Linda has 23 years Public Procurement experience, in the Health Services in both Ireland and NI. Prior to this she headed up the purchasing department in the 5-star Merrion Hotel in Dublin, and in her early career held a number of management roles in the hospitality industry. In her spare time, Linda takes long walks in the countryside, spends time with family and friends and likes to travel extensively.

Gareth Rhys Williams

Government Chief Commercial Officer

Gareth Rhys Williams was appointed Government Chief Commercial Officer at the Cabinet Office in 2016, having previously served as Chief Executive Officer of PHS Group, a leading provider of outsourced workplace services in the UK. Gareth is an experienced CEO and Non Executive Director, with a consistent record of reinvigorating and reinventing listed and private equity backed companies through creative growth strategies. He has a strong record of driving transformational change in large, complex and federated organisations. Before joining PHS, Gareth was CEO of Charter International, the FTSE 250 engineering group, until its successful sale to Colfax Corporation in 2012. Prior to that, he was CEO of Capital Safety Group Ltd, since sold to KKR, and CEO of Vitec Group plc, the supplier of broadcast and photographic equipment and services.

Sally Guyer

World Commerce & Contracting

As Global CEO of one of the world’s fastest growing non-profits, Sally’s mission is to inspire and support the World Commerce & Contracting (World CC) team and global community to collectively drive recognition and excellence in Commercial and Contract Management. She is an experienced and accomplished commercial and contracts management professional, holding senior commercial positions at a range of corporate and multi-national organizations. Her focus is on the creation of positive and successful business relationships, constantly striving to ensure that businesses realize their true potential and value. In 2019 Sally was invited to become Chair of the Board for the Open Contracting Partnership (OCP) and in 2021 she was appointed Professor in Practice in Strategy and Innovation at the University of Durham Business School.

Tracey Cramond

Chair - Women in Procurement & Supply Chain Network

Health Care Supply Association

The HCSA promotes the work of procurement and supply chain staff at all levels in healthcare. The Association provides training events and educational seminars, sponsors awards and hosts two high-profile annual conferences. The governance of the Association rests with the board of Trustees. The Executive runs the day to day business of the Association supported by a National Council of Regional Coordinators, Specialist Area Coordinators and National representatives from across the U.K. HCSA is a registered charity in the UK, is entirely self-financed through a combination of income from conferences, seminars, other training events and advertising.

Laura Sellers

Executive and Leadership Coach

Coaching for Procurement Ltd

Laura is a EMCC accredited Executive and Leadership coach, with 10+ years' experience in leadership and management roles in Procurement & Supply Chain businesses, supporting Procurement teams to deliver value through employee engagement and change management initiatives. Laura has broad experience of working across global organisations in both the private and public sector, both in the UK and in Europe, gaining invaluable business, cultural and multilingual experience across large teams. Laura delivers bespoke coaching & leadership development programmes for Procurement leaders & their teams, blending 1:1 and team approaches to support them in driving a greater strategic impact within their organisation. In her work, Laura holds a judgement-free and confidential space for CPOs and Procurement Leaders, partnering with them & their Procurement teams to increase their self-awareness, soft skills and confidence, so that they can increase their impact within their organisation in a way that supports their wellbeing.

Ian Schollar

Head of Teaching and Learning

Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS)

Ian Schollar is the Head of CIPS Business Study Centre at CIPS and has had a progressive career in procurement and commercial roles spanning over 30 years in both public and private sectors. He started his career with Mallory Batteries (Duracell) in 1983, before spending 15 years working within both central and local public sector organisations. He was responsible for procuring a diverse range of categories from breathing apparatus for fire fighters to high tech radar systems for air traffic controllers. In 1998, Ian became a Senior Advisor for Crown Agents, an International Development Agency. He was project lead on numerous capacity building projects working in Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and Eastern Europe and headed up the procurement and supply chain training at their Training Centre. Ian has worked at CIPS since 2005 and has a particular passion for professional development. Ian is a Fellow of CIPS and holds a Master’s Degree in Management, Learning and Leadership from Lancaster University Management School.

John Wallace

Director of Procurement

Clarion Housing Group

John began his career as a laboratory assistant before becoming a qualified Master Brewer. Having spent 10 years in brewing production, John moved onto various procurement roles in the industry prior to spending 2 years in the food industry working for one of the country’s leading chilled food producers. In 2006, he joined the NHS being involved in the growth and development of two regional procurement organisations before joining Anchor 2 years ago in the role of Head of Procurement and Purchasing.

Darren Knowd

DRKNOWD Ltd

Darren leads a team of twenty-three procurement staff responsible for all procurement activity at Durham County Council. In 2016 Darren was awarded the Cabinet Office’s first ever award for Social Value Leadership for an Organisation. He is Chair of the Local Government Association’s National Advisory Group for Local Government Procurement and is the Chair of the National Social Value Taskforce.

Alison Kerfoot

Head of ICS Procurement Solutions

NHS Shared Business Services

Alison started her Procurement career as a graduate with BAE systems working on complex and collaborative international joint ventures. This was a fascinating intro to the world of strategic supplier relationships and organisational partnering to achieve great success – both collaboration and excellence have continued to be at the heart of Alison’s values. As a working mum she sought out an equally challenging role, minus the international travel, in NHS procurement with the North West Collaborative Procurement Hub, later acquired by NHS SBS in 2011. She now has over 20 years experience in the complete procurement lifecycle, specialising in collaborative procurement and commissioning. Alison has always been immensely passionate and proud to be a leader in developing her approach to effectively procuring healthcare services. This led her to create NHS SBS’s Healthcare Improvement Solutions service designed to enable collaboration whilst navigating procurement law, which she believes is fundamental to transformation for ICSs.  In 2019 as a strategic partner to Greater Manchester, she led the procurement support for NHS SBS to create the Nightingale hospital, building on years of service and partnership to this vast and complex ICS. With years of experience working with commissioners and providers nationally, across the whole patient pathway, Alison continues to support NHS systems in navigating procurement legislation and policy to achieve effective integration. In her role as ICS Solutions lead for NHS SBS, she is now also responsible for advising ICS finance and procurement leaders to design and create single integrated procurement functions to maximise the use of technology and data to unlock strategic procurement value.

Carl Thomas

Procurement Reform Stakeholder and Policy Lead

Carl has a wealth of public procurement experience, having previously led the award-winning procurement team at one of Wales’ largest housing associations. Before joining Welsh Government, Carl worked for the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS), where he taught procurement and contract management best practice to public and private sector organisations across the globe. Carl also played an important role in CIPS’ work post-Grenfell, and supported the work of Working Group 11 to agree specific procurement competence levels for people involved in the construction of new higher risk residential buildings. In his current role, Carl is responsible for developing Welsh Government’s wider Procurement Reform engagement activity, working closely with stakeholders across the Welsh public sector to ensure that they are ready to maximise the opportunities arising from procurement reform.

Rebecca Rees

Partner & Head of Public Procurement

Trowers & Hamlin

Rebecca Rees – Partner and Head of Public Procurement at the international law firm, Trowers & Hamlins. Rebecca is a leading national expert in public procurement law and has significant experience in advising clients in the public, private and third sectors on public procurement, subsidy control and building safety strategy issues. She advises clients on procurement strategy and structures, how to conduct flexible and compliant procurement procedures and compile objective and transparent evaluation models and guidance. With particular interests in value-led procurement, social value and building safety, Rebecca is a member of the Working Group 11 for Procurement Competency, DLUHC’s Procurement Advisory Group, and HACT’s National Social Value in Housing Taskforce. Rebecca is also a Visiting Fellow at the Centre of Construction Law at Dickson Poon School of Law at Kings College London and is currently undertaking a PhD in public procurement, focusing on price evaluation models at the University of Nottingham.

Gwen Beeken

Managing Director

Procure Plus

Gwen left university with an engineering degree and started her career in boat building, working in Devonport Royal Dockyard, eventually managing the small boat workshops. On moving to the northwest she moved into construction, starting in high-speed retail and then in contracting, delivering office parks and schools, in a variety of roles including programme, site, project and contract management. Having worked all over the UK, in 2008 Gwen joined Procure Plus, a not-for-profit regeneration company, supporting housing providers to procure and manage refurbishment works alongside supporting people in those communities into work. The company has grown significantly and now supports over £200m of construction related works and, working in partnership with organisations such as CiTB, City and Guilds and the Ministry of Justice, helps around 750 people per year into training and employment. As Managing Director, Gwen is responsible for ensuring its continued success.

Emma Briggs

Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing Association

Having spent 15 years in global buying roles in industrial distribution, Emma moved to the Housing sector 4 years ago to work for MTVH. Her experience means she has led multi-disciplinary, customer-focussed teams across multiple geographies, where her strengths have been establishing common goals and joint aspirations together with a strong team ethos and sense of purpose. Emma is also vice-chair of the G15 Procurement Leadership Group, where they come together to share best-practice and explore opportunities for collaboration across London’s biggest Housing Associations.

Download the Procurex National 2024 Pre-Event Planner

Skills Development Zones

Our Skills Development Zones at Procurex National 2024 will focus on the following themes:

Social Value and Net Zero

What are the requirements for public sector buyers and suppliers regarding sustainability and net zero targets, and how can organisations bring social value into the public procurement process and use it to their advantage?

Procurement Leaders

Hear from some of the biggest names in the UK procurement sector on the most valued skills professionals will need moving forward, the value of increased diversity in the sector, and what the General Election could mean for the future of procurement.

Future of Procurement

What does the future hold for the public procurement sector against the backdrop of the new Procurement Act and technological change, and how can organisations ensure they are not left behind by these changes?

Procurement Excellence

The Procurement Excellence Zone will play host a series of inspiring sessions from past GO Awards winners on how they delivered their most successful projects, their main learnings, and how others can replicate their success.

Social Housing Procurement

What are the best procurement processes and frameworks to follow for buyers and suppliers involved in social housing procurement, and how can they deliver sustainability and other benefits whilst keeping to regulations and budgets?

Market Engagement

How can suppliers utilise early market engagement strategies to conduct business with buyers from government, health, education, defence and more, and where do the current and future opportunities lie for existing and aspiring suppliers?

Stand Number: Crown Commercial Service Pavilion

CCS plays an important role helping the UK public sector save money when buying common goods and services. We are the biggest public procurement organisation in the UK. We use our commercial expertise to help buyers in central government and across the public and third sectors to purchase everything from locum doctors and laptops to police cars and electricity. The collective purchasing power of our customers, plus our procurement knowledge, means we can get the best commercial deals in the interests of taxpayers.

The Transforming Public Procurement programme aims to improve the way public procurement is regulated in order to: - Create a simpler and more flexible, commercial system that better meets our country’s needs while remaining compliant with our international obligations - Open up public procurement to new entrants such as small businesses and social enterprises so that they can compete for and win more public contracts - Embed transparency throughout the commercial lifecycle so that the spending of taxpayers’ money can be properly scrutinised.

Local Government Assocation

The Local Government Association is the national membership body for local authorities in England and Wales. Its core membership is made up of 317 English councils and the 22 Welsh councils through the Welsh Local Government Association.

Stand Number: Social Housing Procurement Pavilion

The UK’s largest housing association, we have homes in more than 170 local authorities and a heritage stretching back more than a century.  We build homes too, through our development arm Latimer. Our charitable foundation Clarion Futures helps people and communities in what is one of the country’s biggest social investment programmes. We’re a business for social purpose. We make every penny count and any surplus we make is reinvested in our mission to provide homes for those who need them most. We’re building a better future today. 

Visit Website

Peabody Trust

We’re one of the UK’s oldest not-for-profit housing associations. But our focus is always on the future. We want to help people flourish. We aim to do this by providing great homes and housing services, making a positive impact in communities and creating an inspiring, inclusive place to work.

The Riverside Group

Riverside is a group of complementary businesses driven by a clear social purpose, with a charitable housing association at its core. Established over 90 years ago, we have grown to become a major provider of affordable housing, care and support services in England and Scotland, with more than 75,000 homes in management. Operating at scale across around 175 local authorities, our vision is to transform the lives of the 140,000+ people we house and revitalise the neighbourhoods in which they live.

Metropolitan Thames Valley

Metropolitan Thames Valley provides affordable housing for people living in London, the South East, East Midlands and East of England. We also offer a range of care and support services. Our specialist areas include older people, mental health and transitional services which provide intensive support to marginalised or vulnerable people. We deliver training programmes, events and activities for our residents, designed to boost employment opportunities and foster stronger communities. A member of the National Housing Federation the G15 – which represents London’s largest housing associations – we influence policy for the benefits of our residents and the wider sector. In October 2018 likeminded housing associations Metropolitan and Thames Valley Housing formally completed a partnership to form Metropolitan Thames Valley. We came together because we want to improve the services we provide and do more in our communities. We’ll do this by listening to our customers and working alongside them.

Eastern Procurement

Established in 2008 EP drives performance, quality and efficiency for its customer organisations. Not for Profit and owned by social housing providers across the East of England, we specialise in making sustainable, high-performing publicly procured solutions readily available and easily accessible Committed to transparency and ease of access, we have introduced the first social housing services online benchmarking tool. Access is available to all social housing customer organisations.

Ministry of Defence

The MOD is implementing Category Management as an approach to Defence Acquisition. A multi-disciplinary team from across the enterprise are collectively exploiting the opportunities afforded to us through a Category Management approach – identifying Categories locally and scaling up as appropriate. We embrace and embody the ‘One Defence’ mindset, helping our people and teams to drive better capability for the front line, improve working practices and increase value for money. We’re always keen to hear from colleagues and industry partners on your aspirations and experiences with Category Management, so if you have any feedback or questions, please visit our stand.

Blue Light Commercial

Commercial expertise is a critical element within emergency services as third party suppliers play an increasingly important role in supporting front-line services. BlueLight Commercial is designed to support delivery of the Policing Vision 2025, encourage transformation of policing and engender cultural change. It will raise the commercial capability within blue light services whilst building capacity and credibility of the commercial profession. It focuses on maximising benefits to front line operational performance. BlueLight Commercial will be responsible for the interface with other external bodies including the Home Office, the Government Commercial Organisation (GCO) and Crown Commercial Services (CCS), as well as other policing organisations. It will provide support, guidance and recommended approaches across key commercial areas in order to support local commercial teams. Local commercial teams will be able to use BlueLight Commercial outputs and support to help meet the needs of their force. Suppliers will usually be managed locally and forces will be supported to deal effectively with strategic suppliers in order to help tackle problems and drive improvement.

NHS North of England Commercial Procurement Collaborative

Established in 2007, and wholly owned by the NHS, NHS North of England Commercial Procurement Collaborative (NOE CPC) provides collaborative and bespoke procurement solutions to the NHS and other public sector organisations. Through category expertise and harnessing our collective buying power we deliver comprehensive, compliant and innovative procurement solutions which save the NHS money. Our award-winning procurements include ready to access framework agreements, bespoke project support and free to access agreements.

North East Procurement Organisation

NEPO's procurement solutions are the result of extensive consultation with the public sector, suppliers and end users, so that we deliver positive outcomes for the communities we serve. We procure a wide range of goods and services which means our procurement solutions feature suppliers of all shapes and sizes, from SMEs to large multinationals.

Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS)

CIPS, the global membership organisation for procurement and supply. With 60,000 members spanning 156 countries and offices across the world, we’re building a global network to power our profession. We lead in education and training. We provide information and tools. And we help build capability within organisations. Through all our work, we are the voice and standard.

UK Universities Purchasing Consortia

UKUPC is a partnership between eight UK purchasing consortia who created a formal entity to support collaborative procurement within Higher and Further Education. All eight consortia work together to conduct their procurement activities with the goal of achieving financial and operational efficiencies, as well as sharing knowledge and best practice, supporting each other and their wider procurement community. The UKUPC mission is to leverage the benefits of collaborative procurement, to work across the UK HE Consortia community to enhance procurement within HE and across their other members, to help deliver savings and efficiencies, and to maximise member benefits, while embedding responsible and ethical procurement, sustainable supply chain management and social value. By harnessing the power of group purchasing, they are able to save time and money whilst also increasing their teams’ skills and capabilities which in turn benefits their members. By integrating the efforts of their expert teams, they can provide savings, efficiencies and a better service for all of the UKUPC community.

WRAP is one of the globe's leading sustainability charities. Based in the UK, we work with businesses, governments, citizens, and charities to make the planet a healthier, safer place. In Wales, our work includes supporting public bodies to embed sustainable procurement to achieve positive environmental, economic, and social outcomes, and to maximise contributions to Wales’ Well-being Goals.

PASS Procurement

PASS provides expert public procurement training and support for both public and private sector organisations. Whether your goal is to maximise efficiencies or increase your organisation’s chances of tendering success, PASS will ensure you are equipped with the knowledge you need. Discover how you can Learn, Develop and Accomplish with PASS.

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Tracker is the only end-to-end business development solution with the unique intelligence you need to find, bid for and win more business. With access to Europe’s largest database of opportunities and competitive insights – you can engage earlier to sell more effectively and win more business. And Tracker’s just got even better – now you can also upload opportunity documents and manage your bid responses all in the one place. Focus on winning business – not looking for it.

Delta eSourcing

Delta eSourcing enables efficient, effective and compliant procurement. Utilised by thousands of public sector buyers every day, its Buyer Portal, Tender Manager, Supplier Manager, Contract Manager and eAuctions services can be used independently or else combined to form a comprehensive and effective end-to-end procurement solution. In challenging times, Delta eSourcing delivers transparency, compliance and value for money.

At Supply2Gov, we have one goal – to make business growth simpler for sole traders, micro and small businesses. Powered by the UK and Republic of Ireland’s largest database of public sector contract notices and awards, combined with our daily email alerts sent straight to your inbox, we’ve made it as easy as possible for you to find relevant opportunities as soon as they become available – giving you more time to focus on putting your bids together and growing your business. You can register for a free local area of your choice or take advantage of our flexible monthly payment options – giving you a no risk, scalable, cost effective contract alerts service option.

Cadence Marketing

At Cadence Marketing, we understand the importance of data in the public sector and have built a comprehensive database of over 200,000 contacts across 31,600 organisations, including Central Government, Local Government, NHS, Education, MOD, and Emergency Services. We love helping businesses connect with public sector buyers through targeted marketing solutions. Whether you’re looking to boost your email campaigns, do some market research, host a webinar, or create some killer content, we’ve got you covered. Reach the right people, stay up-to-date, make informed decisions and improve your win rate.

The GO Awards are the UK’s leading public procurement excellence awards,  celebrating the very best procurement achievements  from across UK’s public, private and third sector organisations.

Entries are now open  and we’re looking to hear from buyers and suppliers operating in the public procurement marketplace from across the UK. Celebrate excellence in public procurement by entering the UK National GO Awards, and join us on the evening of 16 May at the Titanic Hotel Liverpool when we crown our winners. 

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YPO have 50 years of experience in helping the public sector achieve the best possible value when buying products and services. We’re dedicated to providing great support and added value, as well as meeting the public sectors changing needs for greater flexibility, innovation, and sustainability.

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BHN believes positive experiences are the heartbeat of a thriving customer relationship. Transactions are meaningful touch points that consistently deliver value. Our portfolio of services and solutions keeps you ahead of the curve, enabling you to provide intentional experiences that drive awareness, acquisition, conversion and retention. Our innovative solutions are rooted in global customer data and tested to ensure our partners' continued success. From advanced APIs to next-gen payment technology, BHN empowers brands to reimagine consumer interactions as positive engagements.

Reed Recruitment

Stand Number: 35

Established in 1995, Reed Talent Solutions is a leading contingent and permanent workforce solutions provider. Specifically, our services procurement practice facilitates visibility, control and cost savings across all areas of consultancy and professional services spend, while increasing operational and supply chain compliance. We offer support in scoping, delivery and management of statement of work programmes at both a project and enterprise level. Through the YPO Framework 1141, we deliver against the needs of all public sector organisations when procuring consultancy and professional services. Through a simple direct award process, the framework offers access to specialist procurement expertise, an extensive supply chain that is actively managed and vetted, and delivers value for money.

ITS Technology Group

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At ITS, we offer more than just connectivity. Our expertise and ever-expanding network allows us to offer bespoke solutions tailored to the individual needs of our partners, helping them scale and grow with ease. Your success is our success.

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5 July 2023

Exploring the unique aspects of travel procurement

Travel procurement can be complex. purchasing travel products and services is vastly different from buying office supplies, with travel procurement professionals negotiating contracts for short, medium, and long-term performance objectives in a dynamic demand and pricing environment – all while delivering on often competing objectives for the business and its employees..

Travel procurement involves the strategic sourcing and management of various travel-related services, such as airlines, hotels, rental cars, and other transportation options. Business travel is an expense for organisations, and effective travel procurement helps control costs while increasing internal efficiency, improving employee performance, and enhancing traveller satisfaction.

By managing the various travel procurement components strategically, businesses can negotiate better rates and discounts, achieve significant  cost savings , increase operational efficiency, improve compliance and risk management, and provide a better experience for travelling employees.

Travel procurement differs from other procurement verticals in the following ways:

• Complexity : Travel procurement involves a range of complex and dynamic components, including airlines, accommodation, transportation, and other services. Supplier contracts and service usage may vary by region, country, seasonality, user status, and booking channel. This requires specialised expertise, forecasting capability, and ongoing policy review and performance management to ensure that all components are sourced and managed to maximum effect.
• Real-time updates : Travel procurement operates in a fast-changing and highly dynamic pricing and demand environment. Product availability requires real-time updates and adjustments to ensure that travellers have access to the best possible inventory, rates, and services.
• Traveller experience:  The quality of the travel experience is a critical component of travel procurement as it directly impacts traveller and employee satisfaction, which can lead to a direct impact on productivity and performance. This requires a focus on personalisation and customisation to meet the unique needs of the individual traveller, balanced with the business’s commercial objectives.
• Relationships:  Effective travel procurement requires strong relationships with travel suppliers to negotiate preferential rates and inclusions, as well as delivering ancillary preferential benefits in unforeseen circumstances, all adding to the overall contract value.

In comparison, other procurement verticals often present more consistent buying trends and considerations. For example, manufacturing procurement may focus more on supplier quality and supply chain management, while IT procurement may prioritise security performance and data privacy.

Trave procurement complexity

From airlines to accommodation and ground transportation, each travel supplier category requires regular review and negotiation to align with your current and evolving business objectives regarding budget, safety, and sustainability.

Airline agreements play a significant role in travel procurement as flights often constitute a substantial proportion of business travel budgets. Efficient management of air travel can lead to significant cost savings. Negotiations with airlines typically involve considerations such as:

• Total travel spend
• Market share
• Route deals
• Fare class usage
• Sustainability initiatives
• Wellness offerings
• Frequent flyer programmes
• Inclusion of low cost carriers (LCCs)
• Airline networks
• Modern slavery governance/compliance

Accommodation agreements are often based on:

• Hotel chain agreements
• Room night volumes
• Extended stays
• Room type usage
• Seasonal rates
• Group travel requirements

Safety, security, and environmental practices of the accommodation providers are also often assessed to ensure compliance and promote responsible practices.

Ground transportation procurement involves securing favourable rates and contracts with car rental companies or private transfer services. Managing travel policies and compliance, as well as monitoring availability and usage, are essential components. While car rental negotiations primarily focus on expenditure, there may be opportunities for specialised deals in cases where businesses require niche vehicles such as commercial or mine specification vehicles.

The cost of traveller friction in travel procurement

Procurement professionals often focus on sourcing strategies that prioritise cost, however procuring travel services based on cost alone rarely equates to a successful travel programme.

Cost-driven travel procurement may have more negative impacts on the travelling employee, and therefore the business, than those that are experience-driven. Travel procurement needs to be strategic and holistic in nature, with consideration given to increasing traveller productivity, health and well-being, and sustainability.

Your employees’ compliance with the corporate travel policy and contracted supplier agreements is key to achieving savings and maximising supplier leverage. Ensuring your travel tools and processes support your supplier contracts and encourage policy compliance, with bookings made via agreed corporate booking channels for increased visibility and consolidation of travel spend, is critical to meeting your supplier agreements and maximising future negotiation power.

Equally, it is important to ensure your contracted suppliers are meeting their obligations, such as service level agreements, service performance (for example on-time flight performance) and identifying and addressing any issues or non-compliance as part of your future negotiations.

Dynamic pricing

Travel pricing presents complexities because the cost of a service is not static and, as such, airfares and rates vary significantly depending on supply, demand, capacity, operational costs, market conditions, seasons, and destinations. Travel procurement professionals can use technology and data analytics to help them monitor and manage travel spend and volumes to gauge the success of the program.

Need for real-time updates and adjustments

To effectively manage real-time updates and adjustments, travel procurement professionals must have access to up-to-date information and be able to communicate quickly and efficiently with travellers, suppliers, and other business stakeholders. This requires the use of technology that enables real-time reporting, tracking, and communication, such as fully integrated business intelligence platforms, travel management platforms, mobile apps, and messaging services.

Impact of external factors on travel procurement

Weather, political instability, and natural disasters can all have an impact on pricing. Political instability may increase travel costs due to additional security measures, or the need to reroute or cancel travel. Further, natural disasters may disrupt transportation and damage infrastructure, making it difficult to procure necessary services. No matter the impact, it can all lead to unplanned, increased costs.

Importance of traveller experience

According to a GBTA 2023 Business Travel Outlook Poll ,  traveller safety and security, and traveller experience/wellbeing, are in the top 5 strategic priorities for business travel programs in 2024 . Traveller satisfaction is a key metric for procurement success because happy travellers are more likely to have a productive trip and be more engaged with their work and be more willing to travel for business overall.

The role of supplier performance

A supplier’s performance directly impacts the quality of services that travellers receive. For example, if a hotel supplier consistently fails to meet service level agreements, such as room cleanliness or responsiveness to requests, it can lead to negative feedback from travellers and a decrease in overall satisfaction and willingness to travel. This can also result in lower compliance rates with travel policies as travellers may seek alternative options outside of preferred suppliers.

Poor supplier performance can result in lower efficiencies for procurement teams, spending time and effort managing supplier relationships and resolving issues.

On the other hand, strong supplier performance can lead to increased traveller satisfaction, compliance with travel policies, and significant cost savings for the business. When suppliers consistently meet or exceed service level agreements and negotiate favourable rates, it can result in improved overall travel programme compliance and performance, better control over travel spend, and a more streamlined contracting process for all stakeholders in the procurement process.

Driving Success

Travel procurement is a dynamic category and requires a deep understanding and expertise of the travel landscape, supply chain, and travel booking trends to drive effective outcomes for the business and its employees. Despite the challenges, successful travel procurement can result in significant cost savings, increase operational efficiency, improve compliance and risk management, and provide a better experience for travellers and employees.

Looking to streamline your travel procurement process?

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Site Visits – What Are They and How Can I Benefit?

30th january 2019.

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What is a Site Visit?

Last updated: Jun 7, 2022 @ 3:56 pm

Site visits are a component of the tendering process . They involve visiting the site where you are hoping to deploy your services, for the purposes of gaining in-depth information.

Are site visits common?

Within certain sectors, yes. Site Visits are not a universal aspect of tendering. You may find on one tender that it is compulsory to attend a site visit, for another that it is optional and for another, it is not offered as a possibility. This is yet another reason for reading the tender documents thoroughly. Not all tender documents are laid out in the same way. The information pertaining to potential site visits could be buried in an unlikely section of your documents.

Why do we need site visits?

Depending on the sector that you are tendering within, site visits may or may not be integral. If you work in Construction , Energy, Facilities Management or similar, then site visits are incredibly important for the following reasons:

Information gains

• Site visits pose a valuable source of information that you may not get from the tender documents .
• They present an opportunity to get detailed information from people who are knowledgeable about the site.

Accurate pricing

• If you are required to submit a pricing document, site visits give you the chance to gain meaningful information that you would never be able to glean from just the tender documents or internet searches. This will allow you to produce a realistic pricing strategy , preventing you from erroneously pricing too high or too low.

Better quality responses

• Site visits are invaluable for gathering details that will strengthen your quality responses, especially those that focus on Health & Safety, Contract Implementation and Risk Assessment & Mitigation.
• You can clarify any doubts that you may have about the information provided in the tender documents. This will again help you in your journey towards the completion of a detailed, competitive tender submission .

Site visit outcomes

There are several things that can happen as a result of a successful Site Visit.

• You could simply come away with more information to include in your tender submission , which is always a fantastic result.
• You may find that the tender deadline is extended if enough doubts, queries or clarifications are raised during the visit that causes the Buyer to consider releasing updated tender information.

How do I make the most out of my site visit?

Fortune favours the prepared. Before you go on your site visit, make sure you have covered the following points:

• Know as much about the Buyer as you can before you go. This will mean that you don’t waste valuable time asking questions that you could already know the answers to.
• Make a list of all the information you need to learn and take it with you. You might be confident that you have enough information about H&S requirements, but that you need a lot more information to help with pricing.
• Be confident and ask questions, even if you think the answer is probably obvious. Showing engagement throughout the site visit will stand you in good stead if you end up making it through to a Presentation Stage.
• Look for visual clues. You will be able to tell a lot about the Buyer and their work culture, especially regarding everyday H&S matters. This information could help you write a tender that emphasises areas you realised are more important to the buyer than others.

In conclusion

If you are hoping to supply a service that is deployed on a buyer’s site, then site visits are an unmissable opportunity to gain detailed, relevant information that could give your tender the defining edge. Don’t see them as an exercise in futility, but an opportunity to gain the upper hand over your fellow tenderers. If you ask smart questions, pay attention to the environment and embed as much of the information gained into your submission as possible, you will find that the quality of your tender submissions can grow exponentially. Partaking in a site visit can help you write a winning bid when tendering for contracts .

For more information or help with tender writing , please contact our Bid Writers and bid management consultants.

To find tender opportunities in your industry see our sector-specific tendering portals HERE .

Are you looking to learn more about tendering and procurement? See Tender VLE for our free, online, masterclasses.

Find more helpful tips and advice in our blogs. We cover topics including:

• How to win a tender
• The tendering process
• Writing winning bids
• 7 tips for tendering for contracts
• Tips for bid management
• Bid writing services
• The types of tendering procedures
• Writing bids
• Bid writing consultants
• Submitting a tender response
• And many more .

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ProCure23: A new route to market for NHS capital works

ProCure23 (P23) is the fourth generation of NHS England’s route to market for the provision of design and construction services to NHS capital projects.

NHS England have collaborated with Crown Commercial Service (CCS) to deliver P23 as part of the CWAS2 procurement framework to ensure that NHS capital works adopt the principles of the government’s Construction Playbook, modern construction delivery and a focus on sustainability and social value. CCS supports the public sector to achieve maximum commercial value when procuring common goods and services. In 2020/21, CCS helped the public sector to achieve commercial benefits equal to £2.04 billion – supporting world-class public services that offer best value for taxpayers.

P23 has an expected cumulative spend of £9 billion during its 4-year lifespan and it builds on the successes of three previous iterations of ProCure that have delivered over £10 billion of projects for the NHS.

There are 12 national suppliers and 21 regional suppliers available via P23 and it is the primary route for NHS trusts and integrated care systems (ICSs) to undertake NHS capital works procurement. Through this route to market, NHS trusts and ICSs in England can quickly access experienced and proficient partners to support excellence in all aspects of NHS capital project delivery including business case development, sustainability, design, construction, disruption mitigation, benefit realisation and optimised occupation.

Why use P23? Benefits for the NHS

P23 offers a number of key benefits to NHS clients:

• Confidence that all suppliers are proficient with health/complex project design and construction.
• Increased supplier capacity, including access to regional suppliers.
• Use of modern methods of construction including a range of standardised, project share and repeatable rooms options to provide reliable, evidence-based designs and to reduce capital cost.
• Call-off options to suit differing project needs, values and complexities while ensuring clients’ post-construction review (PCR) compliance.
• A fast track process, without the need to open tender, making the approvals process more efficient and reducing associated costs.
• The ability to set the quality/price ratio for call-offs according to project needs.
• Free of charge training for all project team members to enhance project proficiency (more than 25 hours each).
• All projects will use tried and tested NEC contract processes, enabling collaboration and collective risk sharing between partners.
• Implementation advisor support, offered in a neutral capacity, free of charge.

How to contact

Further information on how to use this framework can be accessed via the Crown Commercial Service website .

To access guidance and templates, join the ProCure23 Collaboration Hub . You may need to register first if you are accessing for the first time.

General operational enquiries should be sent to the team at [email protected] .

Applying to tender - top tips

Help with applying to tender

Thank you for your interest in applying for our advertised opportunities.

To apply you will need to submit a tender (bid) by the deadline set out in the Contract Notice (advert).  Once you have registered to apply, further information will be detailed within the Invitation to Tender documents including instructions, procurement timelines, and evaluation and scoring processes.

As every contract is different the tender criteria is different, as is the evaluation of the tenders, and therefore it’s really important to read all the information provided.

We recommend you read Selling to Government Guide (SMEs) which is a useful guide for submitting tenders. If you would like further information about the procurement process you can contact us by email.  To help you with your tender see our top ten tendering tips below for successfully submitting a good tender.

Top tips for tendering

1. allow plenty of time for searching our tenders  .

You will need to read the full advert and description to establish the nature of the contract.

2. Start the process as soon as possible

Check the Contract Notice for the closing date and time for the tender submission.  To respond you will need to register for free on the Delta eSourcing system, late applications cannot usually be accepted.  Some documents and files are large and can take time to download, as will some of your documents to upload.  Factor in potential IT issues. 

3. Use the Message Centre on the Delta eSourcing system to raise clarifications 

These must be submitted by the stated deadline.  This includes questions about our Terms and Conditions.

4. Read the Specification thoroughly for the full requirements of the contract

It is important you know exactly what our evaluators are looking for, and if you have the skills and resources to deliver.  Knowledge of the specification is crucial for a good tender submission.  

5. Attend briefing events or site visits if offered  

These can provide insightful information about the requirements of the contract and our business, as well as an opportunity for you to provide feedback on the requirements.

6. Focus on the Invitation to Tender (ITT) guidance and criteria and weightings

This will be used to evaluate your tender.  The information tells you which elements are most important to us and what our evaluators will be assessing. We can only score what is detailed in your response to each question - so do not just refer to a previous answer, or previous works with us. 

7. Our scoring

It’s very important to focus on providing the information we want and not on what you want to tell us, the evaluators will be looking for full answers to all questions asked.  Pay attention to details and make sure your information is clear and well presented. 

Show your understanding of the specification and demonstrate your ability to meet the technical requirements, and ensure you can provide evidence of the qualifications or standards you state you have.  Do not answer with a yes or no to questions which are stated as being scored 0 - 5.  

8. Health and Safety sections

Ensure all health & safety sections are fully and accurately completed according to the pass/fail requirements for each question.  Health and Safety is an extremely important element of our business and therefore must be fully considered.  

9. Promote your business

Play to your strengths by providing details of experiences and achievements.  Include the value you can bring – this does not need to be excessive and you can use case studies if relevant.  But remember your tender will be assessed based on the criteria in the ITT.

10. If you are not successful

Lastly, we hope you are successful with your tender but if you are not we recommend you check the subsequent published Contract Award Notice to see who won the contract.  This can help you increase your knowledge of your competitors, and lead to increased expertise and improved tenders for the future.  We always welcome and encourage further applications to our tenders.  

Further guidance

Once you have registered on the Delta eSourcing system you will find further guidance and support on submitting a tender via Delta.  These include User Guides, an online Live Chat facility, and a Contact Help Desk.  You do not need to pay for these services.

You can contact us directly at [email protected]  

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April 11, 2024

We are pleased to inform you of recent updates to the University's Travel and Entertainment (T&E) Policy  (pdf format). Effective March 1, 2024, changes to the policy incorporate feedback from our campus community and are designed to enhance user-friendliness and clarity. Key updates include:

• Updated T&E spending limit guidelines , now managed separately from the policy document.
• Updated receipt requirements to conform with IRS guidelines.
• Enhanced procedural guidance accessible on the T&E Policy and Reimbursement web page and referenced throughout the policy document.

For a comprehensive overview of all changes, please refer to the Key Changes  (pdf format) summary.

Should you have any questions regarding the revised policy, please don't hesitate to contact procurement customer service at [email protected] or 847.491.8120.

<Back to Current News

'That's the Lord's chicken.' Trump visits Atlanta Chick-fil-A before fundraiser

The Chick-fil-A off of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Atlanta is used to dealing with the morning rush as one of the busier franchises in the area. But this morning was a little different.“Get ready for some milkshakes,” former President Donald Trump told Chick-fil-A staff on Wednesday, surprising customers with a drop-in while on the way to a fundraising luncheon in the city.

The interaction, which quickly went viral across social media, showed Trump buying 30 milkshakes and “some chicken” for customers and supporters.

One moment at the fast-food restaurant has caught special attention among conservatives on X , formerly Twitter: Some banter between a Trump and a supporter. Pundits thought the woman, who is Black, was referencing her race as she encouraged the former president, “I don’t care what the media tells you, Mr. Trump, we support you!”

Chick-fil-A visit marks Trump's second in Georgia this year

Today’s visit marks the second time Trump has come to Georgia in a little over a month, showing that the state will once again be an important battleground in the 2024 presidential election.

Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide

According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution , the fundraiser cost $6,600 to attend, with an additional $25,000 fee per couple for a photo opportunity with the 45th president. Those expected to be in attendance included former U.S. Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, as well as prominent figures of the Georgia business sector, including Bernie Marcus of Home Depot and poultry industry billionaire Tommy Bagwell.

In all, the fundraiser was expected to rake in more than $5 million for the embattled candidate, who currently owes nearly $470 million for his various legal troubles , including cases over hush money and election fraud.

But at his stop before the fundraiser, the former president appeared more interested in the chicken he was about to be served. “That’s the Lord’s chicken,” Trump quipped.

Defence secretary rejects calls for Israel arms ban

The defence secretary has rejected calls to suspend arms sales to Israel, while on a visit to Bristol.

Grant Shapps met staff at the Ministry of Defence's (MoD) procurement headquarters in Abbeywood, Bristol, and spoke to suppliers of military equipment being used around the world.

Experts from Bristol were among 1,000 lawyers and academics who wrote to the Prime Minister recently saying the sale of weapons to Israel "falls significantly short of obligations under international law".

Mr Shapps told the BBC: "We do check carefully that every country we deal with is looking after humanitarian law."

Last week, vehicles used by a charity operating in Gaza were attacked by Israeli drones.

The seven people killed included James Kirby from Bristol.

Mr Shapps offered his sympathy over the deaths, saying he was "devastated for all involved".

• Israel Gaza: Netanyahu making a 'mistake', says Biden
• Six months on, how close is Israel to eliminating Hamas?
• Gaza aid convoy strike: What we know

"I know Israel has investigated and apologised, and my heart goes out to all those who have been affected," Mr Shapps said.

"It is important that Israel looks after humanitarian law, but let us not forget that Hamas are the terrorists who got this going.

"Meanwhile, Britain will do all we can to get massive amounts of aid into Gaza.

"We recognise Israel's right to defend itself, but the main thing that Britain can do is support people in Gaza" he added.

During the visit, Mr Shapps also said the UK was moving from a post-war era to a pre-war one.

"We are preparing, not because we are immediately going to war, but if you want to stop going to war then one of the ways you do that is by preparing," he said.

"You put your adversaries off and let them know you are properly prepared," he added.

More on this story

• Family of man killed in Gaza 'utterly heartbroken'
• RAF takes part in largest airdrop of aid to Gaza
• Who were the seven aid workers killed in Gaza?

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Procurement Act 2023: short guides

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