Digital Licensing Modernisation · UK public procurement notice

UK2 – Preliminary Market Engagement Notice

Digital Licensing Modernisation

1. Contracting Authority

Department for Business and Trade (DBT)

2. Purpose of this Notice

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) is undertaking preliminary market engagement to inform its understanding of the market and to help shape a potential future procurement relating to the modernisation of digital trade and business licensing services.

This engagement is intended to support early thinking and learning only. It does not constitute a call for competition and DBT makes no commitment to commence a procurement as a result of this engagement. DBT has not made any decisions on delivery approach, commercial structure, route to market, or solution at this stage.

3. Background and Context (High Level)

Licensing services represent a significant point of interaction between businesses, local authorities, and central government. DBT’s work to date indicates that many licensing submission routes remain fragmented and heavily document based, creating friction for users and inefficiencies for public authorities. A key underlying issue is the lack of shared infrastructure and interoperability between licensing systems, which leads to duplication, rekeying and inconsistent processes across authorities.

In some areas, legacy arrangements operate under time limited contractual and technical constraints, creating maintainability and continuity risks over time. This reinforces the need for an orderly transition that can work alongside local authority adoption constraints and existing systems. Previous exploratory work by DBT has highlighted that there may be opportunities to:

• improve how licensing services are delivered digitally;
• reduce avoidable administrative burden for businesses and public authorities;
• improve the quality, consistency, and usability of licensing data at the point of submission; and
• support improved regulatory and safeguarding outcomes where appropriate.

DBT is seeking to engage with the market at an early stage to better understand what is feasible, what challenges exist, and what considerations should inform any future approach, without presupposing solutions, delivery models, technologies or platforms.

4. Focus of the Engagement

At this stage, DBT is deliberately focusing on outcomes, risks, and feasibility, rather than detailed requirements or predefined solutions.

Indicative areas of interest include:

• designing repeatable and user‑centred digital licensing journeys;
• improving data quality through validation at the point of submission;
• where appropriate, the role of identity‑related or eligibility checks;
• approaches to scaling delivery across additional licence types;
• development and adoption of common data standards;
• approaches to interoperability and shared infrastructure (including common data models and integration patterns) that can work across multiple local authorities and suppliers;
• options for data storage and retention; and
• the feasibility of automation or pre‑submission checks to support regulatory or safeguarding requirements.

DBT is keen to understand supplier perspectives on these areas, including delivery risks, dependencies, constraints, and lessons learned from comparable work, in order to shape a future procurement that is realistic, proportionate, and value for money.

5. Scope of Pre‑Market Engagement Activity

The pre‑market engagement is expected to include:

• an open supplier webinar to provide context and frame the areas where DBT is seeking input;
• an opportunity for suppliers to provide feedback and observations following the webinar; and
• potential follow‑up 1‑to‑1 engagement for clarification purposes only, where helpful.

No commitments, commercial discussions, or detailed solution proposals will be sought or agreed during this engagement.

DBT will ensure that any material information arising from this engagement is shared transparently with all participants. Responses may be summarised and shared in anonymised form to support a fair process.

6. Indicative Timeline (Non‑Binding)

Indicative timings (subject to refinement following engagement) are currently anticipated as follows:

Pre‑market engagement: July 2026 (including a supplier webinar currently anticipated for 9 July 2026, subject to change)

These timelines are indicative only and may change.

7. Registering Interest

Suppliers wishing to participate in this pre‑market engagement are invited to register their interest by emailing:

[email protected]

Please include the following information in your email:

Subject: Digital Trade Licensing Modernisation – PME Registration

Organisation name

Primary contact name

Contact email address (for webinar communications)

Contact role/title

Organisation size (SME / Large / VCSE – optional)

Confirmation of interest in attending the webinar

DBT will confirm registration and share further details, including webinar arrangements, in due course.

8. Important Information

Participation in this pre‑market engagement is voluntary.

Participation will not provide any advantage or disadvantage in any subsequent procurement.