Official UK procurement notice
Avon and Somerset Police Catering Services
Authority: The Police and Crime Commissioner for Avon & Somerset (Police & fire)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionAvon and Somerset Police have a combined cleaning and catering contract in place with an expiry date of September 2026. A decision has been made to split the cleaning and catering into two separate contracts after this date and a tender process is already underway for a regional cleaning contract which Avon and Somerset Police are included in.
Market engagement was undertaken in April / May 2024 with regards to catering services for Avon and Somerset Police, however we believe that it will be valuable to undertake further engagement with the market prior to issuing a tender package as the requirements for catering have now changed slightly and we are aware that there may also have been developments in the market during this time.
Avon and Somerset Police currently have a café at their Headquarters Site in Portishead (BS20 8JJ). They also have a number of vending machines across their estate. Hospitality is also provided as part of the existing contract.
The purpose of the Market Engagement Notice is for early engagement with the market prior to undertaking a formal tender process which is anticipated to commence in early 2026. The market engagement is to openly consult with the wider market place to share our requirements and gather information whilst also providing information on our current position. We will be seeking input from the supply market to inform our requirements, to help formulate our specification for the services and help identify routes to market.
If you are interested in supporting SWPPS with this engagement, please respond to this notice to [email protected], and you will be emailed a pre-market engagement questionnaire, which includes some customer background information, so you can do any preparatory work you think necessary before attending a Microsoft Teams meeting to discuss your responses if you so wish. The closing date for pre-market engagement questionnaire returns and requests for subsequent Team meetings will be midday on Thursday 27th November 2025.
SWPPS are committed to ensuring fairness, openness and transparency, and to follow the Public Contract Regulations 2015. This notice is issued solely for the purpose of conducting pre-procurement market testing and engagement. Interested parties will not be prejudiced or advantaged by any response or lack thereof to this notice. This notice does not constitute a call for competition to procure any services, supplies or works for SWPPS. SWPPS are not liable for any costs, fees, or expenses incurred by any party in replying to the notice.
CPV: Catering services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How The Police and Crime Commissioner for Avon & Somerset buys Catering services (CPV 5552), and who usually turns up
The Police and Crime Commissioner for Avon & Somerset’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: Catering services (CPV 5552) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
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.
Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.
i
How often local firms win similar work.
Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.
Here, local means registered in South West England (authority’s region).
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered outside South West England.
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.
Half of these awards were announced within 70 days of the bid deadline.
i
How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.
Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.
Both shares are minimums: some awards have no bid count.
Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.
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.
1 bid0% / 11%
2–39% / 28%
4–627% / 53%
7+64% / 8%
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.
Below estimate30%
Within ±2%46%
Above estimate24%
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.
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 5552Published estimate£750k
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 53 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid11%
2–328%
4–653%
7+8%
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.
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.
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.
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
- 6 Nov 2025, 09:43 GMT
- Last source update
- 6 Nov 2025, 09:43 GMT
- Authority reference
1020- FTS notice number
2025/S 000-071487- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Not published
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-05db88Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
6 Nov 2025 → 9 Sept 2026 · 4 dates- Planning notice published350 days ago6 Nov 2025, 09:43 GMT
- Market engagement329 days ago27 Nov 2025, 23:59 GMT
Please email [email protected] to request market engagement questionnaire
- Tender notice expected283 days ago12 Jan 2026, 23:59 GMT
- Contract starts44 days ago9 Sept 2026, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published6 Nov 2025, 09:43 GMTUK2
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
Official documents & specifications (1)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender