Official UK procurement notice
BLC0300 - Merseyside Police - Forensic Toxicology Laboratory Services - Market Engagement Notice
Authority: Police & Crime Commissioner for Merseyside & Chief Constable for Merseyside (Police & fire)·On behalf of: BLUELIGHT COMMERCIAL LIMITED
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionMerseyside Police, on behalf of the Northwest Regional Toxicology Facility (NW RTF) collaboration (Merseyside, Cheshire, North Wales, Cumbria & Lancashire) are exploring options for the future operation of its forensic toxicology laboratory.
The current laboratory does not currently hold appropriate UKAS accreditation but does have qualified and experienced staff in post. The lab will provide evidential analysis and reporting under the Road Toxicology Act Section 5a.
This preliminary market engagement aims to understand interest, capability and explore potential delivery models, including purchase of the facility to support the transition, accreditation and ongoing operation of the laboratory.
Merseyside Police, on behalf of the NW RTF collaboration invites interested parties to this event and are particularly interested in exploring the following areas:
Relevant experience in achieving and maintaining accreditation
Proposed delivery models and approach to transition
Indicative timelines and key milestones
Governance and risk management approach
Resource plan
Commercial structures and models
Demand and cost analysis
This engagement process does not constitute a call for competition or a commitment to proceed with procurement and is being used solely to explore potential delivery models and inform procurement strategy.
Please ignore the contract start and end dates. These are mandatory fields but are not applicable at this stage.
CPV: Investigation and security services · Laboratory services · Police services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedProcedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Past planning notice
- 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
- 9 Oct 2025, 16:35 BST
- Last source update
- 9 Oct 2025, 16:35 BST
- Authority reference
BLC0300- FTS notice number
2025/S 000-063891- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-05ac0cFind a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
9 Oct 2025 → 1 Jan 2026 · 3 dates- Planning notice published384 days ago9 Oct 2025, 16:35 BST
- Market engagement377 days ago16 Oct 2025, 23:59 BST
Engagement meetings will be held with each supplier individually who wishes to discuss this in more detail. The meetings will take place via teams on Thursday 16th October.
Please visit sell2.in-tend.co.uk/blpd/home ↗ to register on the BlueLight Commercial e-tendering platform.
Once registered, please navigate to Portals in the top right of the screen and log in to BlueLight Commercial Portal. Then search for BLC0300.
If you would like to attend a meeting please send a message via the correspondence option on In-Tend by close of play Tuesday 14th October.
- Contract starts301 days ago1 Jan 2026
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published9 Oct 2025, 16:35 BSTUK2
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
2 public bodies on the noticeOther public bodies
- Bluelight Commercial LimitedProcess contact pointProcuring entityOrganising the market engagement on behalf of Merseyside Police.
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