Official UK procurement notice
Fast Boats and Road Transport
Authority: Home Office (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe Border Security Command have a requirement for two large fast boats, complete with road transport with launching and recovery capability. The boats must have cabins and be certificated to MCA Area Category 2.
The full requirement will be shared in a further market engagement ahead of the Tender stage.
The details for the procurement are subject to change following feedback from this market engagement, including start and end dates.
The Authority notes that the requirement is within the scope of consideration under PPN 025. An assessment of the applicability and implications of PPN 025 is currently ongoing, and the Authority will take the outcome of that assessment into account as part of this procurement process.
Please note, the tender opportunity will be issued via the Home Office eSourcing Portal and bidders must therefore ensure they have registered:
CPV: Marine patrol vessels · Road tractor units · Trailers
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Home Office buys Trailers, semi-trailers and mobile containers (CPV 3422), and who usually turns up
Home Office’s published record next to the market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Trailers, semi-trailers and mobile containers (CPV 3422) →
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.
Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in the region where that award was delivered.
i
How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.
Middle value in days from the bid deadline to the award date, on competitions that published both.
Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.
Half of these awards have an award date within 45 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.
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 bid11% / 25%
2–337% / 45%
4–641% / 25%
7+11% / 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 estimate50% / 80%
Within ±2%17% / 0%
Above estimate33% / 20%
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 34Published estimate£1.2m
This lot lists more than one class in CPV 34. The comparison uses that group.
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 359 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid25%
2–345%
4–625%
7+6%
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
- Goods
- 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
- 3 Sept 2026, 16:35 BST
- Last source update
- 19 Oct 2026, 12:17 BST
- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-098438- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06f1a7Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
3 Sept 2026 → 28 May 2027 · 5 dates- Planning notice published52 days ago3 Sept 2026, 16:35 BST
- Latest notice published6 days ago19 Oct 2026, 12:17 BST
- Today25 Oct 2026
- Market engagementin 3 days28 Oct 2026, 23:59 GMT
We wish to inform interested parties that we will be publishing the draft Specifications for the Fast Boats and Road Transport.
These are being shared for review and comment only and are intended to give early visibility of the technical and operational requirements ahead of the formal ITT release.
Suppliers are invited to review the document and provide any feedback, observations, or clarification questions as part of this informal engagement stage. This will support us in ensuring the final ITT documentation is clear, robust, and accurately reflects the scope of the requirement.
Please note that all interested bidders must be registered on the Central Digital Platform (CDP) in order to access participate in the formal ITT process.
www.gov.uk/government/publicati… ↗
As part of our market engagement please complete the Supplier Engagement questionnaire in PQQ_903 - Fast Boats and Road Trailers Market Engagement - Draft Requirements - which is available on Jaggaer.
Please respond before 12:00 on 28th October 2026, by completing and submitting the questionnaire, either via Jaggaer secure message or via the response form on the Jaggaer portal.
The Authority notes that the requirement is within the scope of consideration under PPN 025. An assessment of the applicability and implications of PPN 025 is currently ongoing, and the Authority will take the outcome of that assessment into account as part of this procurement process.
Please note that this is not the official ITT, and no bidding or formal submissions are required at this stage. The full ITT pack will be issued in due course via the standard procurement route.
- Tender notice expectedin 71 days4 Jan 2027, 23:59 GMT
- Contract startsin 214 days28 May 2027, 00:00 BST
Notice history
3 events · 3 releases on Find a Tender · since 3 Sept 2026- Preliminary market engagement notice published3 Sept 2026, 16:35 BSTUK2
- Preliminary market engagement notice published7 Sept 2026, 13:46 BSTUK2
- Preliminary market engagement notice published19 Oct 2026, 12:17 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
Official documents & specifications (3)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender