Official UK procurement notice
Driver Training · UK public procurement notice
Authority: Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThis is a Preliminary Market Engagement Exercise and does not constitute a tendering opportunity or a call for competition. DVSA is seeking market insight from potential providers to inform the future delivery model for training new Driving Examiners. The purpose of this engagement is to shape a forthcoming procurement strategy that supports onboarding for c. 400 new entrants per year while ensuring the continued delivery of high standards in safety, consistency, and professionalism.
DVSA is initiating this market engagement to explore external delivery options for a comprehensive 7-week training programme for Driving Examiners. The programme is expected to be delivered through a blended learning model incorporating in-car, classroom, online, and virtual formats. This engagement seeks to identify innovative, scalable, and cost-effective solutions that can support DVSA’s strategic objective of increasing examiner capacity while maintaining operational excellence.
The training programme is designed to:
- Equip examiners with advanced driving techniques
- Ensure consistent application of test control procedures
- Strengthen fault assessment and decision-making capabilities
- Promote high standards of customer service and professionalism
- Achieve our goal of high standards of road safety behaviour
Training Programme Overview
Week 1 – Infield Week
- Welcome, safety briefings, admin setup
- Eyesight checks, customer service fundamentals
- Introduction to theory test, sat-nav SOP, route learning
- Shadowing live driving tests
- Completion of mandatory Civil Service Learning modules
Week 2 – Virtual Training
- Online sessions covering examiner responsibilities and DVSA standards
- Deep dive into the DVSA Essential Skills manual
- Shadowing live tests and virtual coffee morning with DVSA CEO
Week 3 – Control Training (Part 1)
- Practice test delivery, standard wordings, and safety checks
- Use of Digital and Paper Test Reports (DTR/PTR)
- Online modules: Speaking Challenge, Emergency Stop
Week 4 – Control Training (Part 2)
- Full test delivery from waiting room to conclusion
- Route knowledge, feedback delivery, and customer service
- Online modules: Debriefing Faults, Customer Service & Wordings
Week 5 – Assessment Training (Part 1)
- Fault identification and assessment
- Eyesight failure procedures and customer care
- Delivered in small groups at regional centres
Week 6 – Assessment Training (Part 2)
- Differentiating fault types (minor, serious, dangerous)
- Verbal and physical interventions, test terminations
Week 7 – Assessment & Consolidation
- Full test simulations with complex scenarios
- Final progress checks and readiness assessment
As part of our strategic market engagement, we are exploring the most effective approach to delivering a comprehensive training solution. We are particularly interested in understanding how specialist providers can contribute to different components of the training offer to deliver enhanced value, flexibility, and impact. We welcome insights and proposals that demonstrate how your expertise could support our objectives and form part of a broader, high-performing solution.
Please note this is a draft outline of the requirement and will be subject to amendment prior to any potential procurement exercise. The contract start date is an estimate and may be amended prior to any potential procurement exercise.
CPV: Education and training services · Industrial and technical training services · Specialist training services · Technical training services · Training services · Vocational training services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency buys Specialist training services (CPV 8051), and who usually turns up
Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’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: Specialist training services (CPV 8051) →
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.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered outside the delivery region.
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 31 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.
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.
Direct awards or one recorded bid are common here. Check the route before spending time on a bid.
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 bid44%
2–319%
4–631%
7+6%
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%60%
Above estimate10%
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 8051Published estimate£5.4m
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 52 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid19%
2–342%
4–627%
7+12%
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
- Above threshold (FTS publication)
- 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
- 29 Oct 2025, 13:35 GMT
- Last source update
- 29 Oct 2025, 13:35 GMT
- Authority reference
T280022664- FTS notice number
2025/S 000-069386- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-05d643Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
29 Oct 2025 → 1 Jun 2026 · 4 dates- Planning notice published358 days ago29 Oct 2025, 13:35 GMT
- Market engagement294 days ago31 Dec 2025, 23:59 GMT
Key Dates
Initial Engagement Event: Monday 10th November 2025
Request for Information (RFI): To be provided on Wednesday 12th November 2025 following the initial engagement event. Suppliers will need to respond to the RFI ahead of the 1:1 engagement events.
1:1 Engagement Events during week commencing 24th November : Exact date and time to be agreed with suppliers
Initial Engagement Event
The purpose of this market engagement event is to gage interest and understand the markets potential for any future opportunity, which is subject to both internal and external approvals.
The market engagement event will follow this agenda:
- Overview of the requirement from DVSA
- Brief the market on our potential future opportunity
- Set our topics we want to explore at future engagement events
- Questions from suppliers
How to Attend
The initial market engagement event will be taking place at 10am on Monday 10th November 2025 via Microsoft Teams.
If you wish to attend the initial market engagement event, please confirm your attendance and the email addresses of those attending (a maximum of 2 per supplier), by 16:00hrs on Thursday 6th November 2025.
Request For Information (RFI)
The RFI Questionnaire will be available to download on DfT’s Jaggaer eSourcing platform on Wednesday 12th November 2025 after the initial market engagement event.
It is recommended you attend the initial market engagement event to fully understand the requirements before completing and submitting the RFI Questionnaire.
The deadline to submit the RFI Questionnaire is Wednesday 19th November. Please submit your responses via DfT’s eSourcing Portal, Jaggaer.
1:1 Engagement Event
Following the initial market engagement event and supplier responses to the RFI Questionnaire, DVSA will be offering interested suppliers to attend 1:1 engagement event to look further into topics identified within the initial engagement event, discuss your response to the RFI Questionnaire and obtain further feedback from the market. There will also be the opportunity to discuss directly with the subject matter experts within DVSA on particular areas of interest.
This engagement will help DVSA shape any potential future requirement. These 1:1 events are likely to be carried out week commencing 24th November2025.
Please note that to ensure transparency across all suppliers, a single structure for the sessions will be created and followed for all suppliers, and any new information will be shared openly.
How to attend
These sessions will be organised with the suppliers directly.
To access the Market Engagement Instructions, and subsequent RFI Questionnaire, and respond, you will need to be registered as a supplier on Jaggaer.
This is the link to access DfT’s Jaggaer eSourcing Portal:
The opportunity is listed as a PQQ in Jaggaer, please search for the opportunity ‘Driver Training’
If you have any technical issues registering, contact Jaggaer‘s helpdesk:
0800 069 8630
Note that you will require a DUNS number (Dun and Bradstreet) to register.
If you do not know your number, search for it via the following link:
www.dnb.co.uk/duns-number/lookup.html ↗
If a DUNS number is not found, follow the guidance on how to acquire one.
- Tender notice expected261 days ago2 Feb 2026, 23:59 GMT
- Contract starts143 days ago1 Jun 2026, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published29 Oct 2025, 13:35 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