Find a TenderPlanned procurementPipeline notice
Published 7 Apr 2026, 11:08 BST

Official UK procurement notice

2526-0245 Postal Goods and Services

Authority: Islington Council (Local council)

Services
Planned pipeline value£3,124,698pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected 13 Apr 2026from the planned procurement notice
Contract term 5 yrsends 13 Sept 2031 · starts 14 Sept 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

This notice is a PIPELINE NOTICE and therefore is NOT currently a call for competition. For the avoidance of doubt, the Pipeline Notice is intended to provide the most accurate forecast currently available for the council’s high value procurement activity, but does not commit the council to procuring any contract and may be amended after publication.

CPV: Post and courier services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1Planned 5 yrs
Contract period: 14 Sept 2026 – 13 Sept 2031 (5 yrs)
Delivery: UK

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published

How Islington Council buys Post and courier services (CPV 6410), and who usually turns up

Islington Council’s own published record, next to the published market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are kept out: they attract a different number of bids. Whole-market view: Post and courier services (CPV 6410) →

1

How the contest usually goes

Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.

Question for the bid
This buyerIslington Council · all categories
What to do with it
How often do SMEs win?
i

How often small and medium firms win.

Share of awards where the winner’s size is known.

The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 112 of 141 known-size awards · market: no supplier sizes published
79%—

Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.

How often do local suppliers win?
i

How often local firms win similar work.

Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.

A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 123 of 127 known-location awards · market: no winner locations published
97%—

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered in the delivery region.

How long to a decision?
i

How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.

Middle value in days from the deadline to the first award notice, on competitions that published both dates.

Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 6 decided notices · market: no decision dates published
110 days—

Half of these awards were announced within 110 days of the bid deadline.

How often single-bid or direct?
i

How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.

Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.

The buyer’s share is a minimum: some awards have no bid count.

Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: at least 25 of 191 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: no bid counts or routes published
13%—

Missing bid counts may hide more single-bid awards. This share is a minimum.

How many bids did past lots attract?

i

How many bids past lots received.

Each colour is a bid-count range. Only competed lots with a published count are included.

Past bids do not predict this tender.

Last 36 months.

This buyer80 lots with bid counts · all categories
5% had one bid
The marketNo bid counts published
Buyer · select a colour for counts
1 bid5%
Buyer: 4 of 80 lots with published bid counts.
2–328%
Buyer: 22 of 80 lots with published bid counts.
4–646%
Buyer: 37 of 80 lots with published bid counts.
7+21%
Buyer: 17 of 80 lots with published bid counts.

How did awards compare with estimates?

i

Where winning prices landed against estimates.

Each colour shows awards below, close to or above the published estimate, one lot at a time.

Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.

Last 36 months.

This buyer4 lots with estimate and award · all categories · too few to chart
The marketNo estimate-and-award pairs published
2

Assess each lot
i

What past awards tell you about each lot.

See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.

No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.

Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list

Lot #1CPV 641060 monthsPublished estimate£3.1m
Expected competition
i

How many bids this lot may attract.

The forecast uses similar past competitions. The bar shows either that forecast or past bid counts; the line below says which.

Each lot shows its own forecast based on its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative. The bar shows 64 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet19% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 64 similar lots
1 bid19%
12 of 64 similar past lots received 1 bid (19%).
2–344%
28 of 64 similar past lots received 2–3 (44%).
4–620%
13 of 64 similar past lots received 4–6 (20%).
7+17%
11 of 64 similar past lots received 7+ (17%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 3 bids.
Commercial price forecast
i

Where the award price may land.

The forecast uses similar awards and the buyer’s estimate. The band covers the middle half of likely prices.

No comparable awards for this lot yet.

A statistical guide from past awards, not a price to bid.

—No model forecast yet
No comparable awards on record for this lot’s category yet. The published estimate is £3.1m, and the forecast stays empty until the market has a record to read.

Who has supplied this buyer on similar work?
i

Who has done similar work for this buyer.

Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.

A past supplier may not bid again.

No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.

Who could compete for this lot?
i

Who could compete for this lot?

Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.

None is confirmed as a bidder.

Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.

About this data
  • Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New notices arrive through the day; the figures are rebuilt nightly.
  • Two views, kept apart. The authority’s own track record and the wider market for the same kind of work sit side by side and are never mixed. Where the local picture is too thin, a figure widens to a broader market and says which one it used.
  • Forecasts are labelled. The price forecast and its range, possible competitors and the earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards: not published facts, not win chances and not price advice. Official notices do not say who is bidding.
  • Every figure shows what it rests on. Not every notice publishes a bid count, a value or a delivery region, so each figure carries the number of records behind it, and one built on few records is marked as such. The on a figure explains it; the counting rules are in the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.

Procedure terms & legal framework

From the official record
Legal basis
UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
Procurement category
Services
Notice status
Planned procurement
Procurement threshold
Unspecified in notice
Regulatory regime
Standard
Commercial structure
Stand-alone contract (no framework)
Competition type
Competitive procedure
GPA / WTO covered
Unspecified in notice
Recurring procurement
Unspecified in notice
First published
7 Apr 2026, 11:08 BST
Last source update
7 Apr 2026, 11:08 BST
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-031332
Latest notice
Pipeline notice (UK1)
Classification (CPV)
Post and courier services
Delivery area
UK
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-067cb8 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

7 Apr 2026 → 14 Sept 2026 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published198 days ago
    7 Apr 2026, 11:08 BST
  2. Tender notice expected192 days ago
    13 Apr 2026, 23:59 BST
  3. Contract starts39 days ago
    14 Sept 2026, 00:00 BST

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Pipeline notice published
    7 Apr 2026, 11:08 BST
    UK1

Commercial outcome & contract awards

Pipeline notice
Awards (0)
No award published
Contracts (0)
No contract published
Bid statistics
No aggregate bid statistics published

Contracting authority & participating public bodies

London Borough of Islington

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PBMD-2513-CWJJ Islington Town Hall, London, London, N1 2UDContact name, email, phone

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure

  • Pipeline notice planningPipeline noticeUK1Pipeline notice on Find a Tender