Official UK procurement notice
HMP Rye Hill April 2026 and May 2026 Market Engagement Events
Authority: Ministry of Justice (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionBACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION
Subject to approvals, the Authority is seeking to establish a new contract for Prison Operator Services at HMP Rye Hill, with the launch of the procurement planned for June 2026. The anticipated contract duration is 12 years from the operational services commencement date, with an option to extend by up to 3 years in 1-year increments, making the maximum term 15 years.
The procurement for HMP Rye Hill will be conducted under the Competitive Flexible Procedure (Light Touch Regime) under the Procurement Act 2023.
The Authority has tendered the operation of prisons to the private sector since the early 1990s and has long advocated a mixed approach to prison operation that includes public, voluntary and private sector involvement. HMP Rye Hill is a male Category C Private Finance Initiative (PFI) prison located in Northamptonshire, England, with a current maximum operational capacity of 1,122.
To inform the market and generate interest, the Authority will be hosting the following events with interested suppliers prior to the launch of the competition:
- Virtual Event at 2pm – 3:30pm on Thursday 30th April 2026 via Microsoft Teams
- Site Visits to HMP Rye Hill on Wednesday 6th May 2026
As per the Planned Procurement Notice published by the Authority on 7th January 2026 (www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/001183-2026 ↗), the indicative procurement timetable for the HMP Rye Hill procurement is as follows:
- Publication of Tender Notice and Initial ITT Documentation – 15/06/2026
- Deadline for Submission of PSQ and COP Responses – 26/06/2026
- Authority issue PSQ and COP Notification Letters – 10/07/2026
- Bidder Engagement and Dialogue - 13/07/2026 to 31/08/2026
- Publication of ITT Documentation – 07/09/2026
- Deadline for Submission of Tender Responses – 25/09/2026
- Contract Award – 05/04/2027
EVENT 1 - VIRTUAL EVENT
This event will be held virtually via Microsoft Teams and will be delivered by the HMPPS Competition and MoJ Commercial teams. This event will aim to provide suppliers with key information, including:
- An overview of services delivered at HMP Rye Hill
- The procurement process and indicative timelines
- An overview of the Evaluation Questions
Suppliers are restricted to a maximum of 5 attendees for this event. This event will be recorded, and the recording will be shared with all suppliers who attend.
EVENT 2 – SITE VISITS
The Authority will be facilitating site visits to HMP Rye Hill on Wednesday 6th May. The purpose of this site visit will be for interested suppliers to familiarise themselves with the prison and the services delivered at HMP Rye Hill.
The site visit will be split into two sessions:
- Morning – 9am to 12pm
- Afternoon – 1pm to 4pm
Due to restrictions on group size for site visits, the Authority has limited the number of attendees from each supplier to a maximum of two. Therefore, when expressing an interest in attending the site visit, please provide the names of your two attendees and whether there is a session they cannot attend. The Authority will then confirm which session you are invited to attend. For the avoidance of doubt, suppliers are only invited to attend one of the sessions and not both.
The Authority intends to facilitate additional site visits prior to formal competition launch during w/c 18th May 2026. Further details regarding these site visits will be communicated via a separate market engagement notice in due course.
REGISTERING ATTENDANCE AND SUPPLIER ATTENDEES
To express an interest in any of the HMP Rye Hill market engagement events, suppliers should register for this procurement opportunity on the MoJ’s e-procurement portal, Jaggaer, under PQQ_564 – Market Engagement for HMP Rye Hill. A link to the MoJ's e-procurement portal is below:
ministryofjusticecommercial.ukp.app.jaggaer.com/web/login.html ↗
Once a supplier has registered for this opportunity via Jaggaer, please respond via PQQ_564 – Market Engagement for HMP Rye Hill with the requested information by the deadlines specified below:
- Virtual Event - names, job titles and email addresses of your attendees by no later than 5pm on Monday 27th April 2026. Please note there is a maximum of 5 attendees per organisation for this event.
- Site Visit – names, job titles and email addresses of your attendees by no later than midday on Friday 1st May 2026. Please note there is a maximum of 2 attendees per organisation for this event.
CPV: Imprisonment services · Prison services · Public security, law and order services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Ministry of Justice buys Justice services (CPV 7523), and who usually turns up
Ministry of Justice’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: Justice services (CPV 7523) →
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 Greater London (authority’s region).
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered in Greater London.
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 58 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 market 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 bid20% / 25%
2–360% / 56%
4–60% / 6%
7+20% / 13%
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 estimate56% / 17%
Within ±2%30% / 83%
Above estimate15% / 0%
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 7523Published estimate£400m
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 47 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid26%
2–334%
4–628%
7+13%
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
- Light touch regime
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 10 Apr 2026, 15:16 BST
- Last source update
- 10 Apr 2026, 15:16 BST
- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-032911- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Not published
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-068033Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
10 Apr 2026 → 20 Jan 2028 · 4 dates- Planning notice published195 days ago10 Apr 2026, 15:16 BST
- Market engagement174 days ago1 May 2026, 23:59 BST
EVENT 1 - VIRTUAL EVENT
This event will be held virtually via Microsoft Teams and will be delivered by the HMPPS Competition and MoJ Commercial teams. This event will aim to provide suppliers with key information, including:
- An overview of services delivered at HMP Rye Hill
- The procurement process and indicative timelines
- An overview of the Evaluation Questions
Suppliers are restricted to a maximum of 5 attendees for this event. This event will be recorded, and the recording will be shared with all suppliers who attend.
EVENT 2 – SITE VISITS
The Authority will be facilitating site visits to HMP Rye Hill on Wednesday 6th May. The purpose of this site visit will be for interested suppliers to familiarise themselves with the prison and the services delivered at HMP Rye Hill.
The site visit will be split into two sessions:
- Morning – 9am to 12pm
- Afternoon – 1pm to 4pm
Due to restrictions on group size for site visits, the Authority has limited the number of attendees from each supplier to a maximum of two. Therefore, when expressing an interest in attending the site visit, please provide the names of your two attendees and whether there is a session they cannot attend. The Authority will then confirm which session you are invited to attend. For the avoidance of doubt, suppliers are only invited to attend one of the sessions and not both.
The Authority intends to facilitate additional site visits prior to formal competition launch during w/c 18th May 2026. Further details regarding these site visits will be communicated via a separate market engagement notice in due course.
REGISTERING ATTENDANCE AND SUPPLIER ATTENDEES
To express an interest in any of the HMP Rye Hill market engagement events, suppliers should register for this procurement opportunity on the MoJ’s e-procurement portal, Jaggaer, under PQQ_564 – Market Engagement for HMP Rye Hill. A link to the MoJ's e-procurement portal is below:
ministryofjusticecommercial.ukp.app.jaggaer.com/web/login.html ↗
Once a supplier has registered for this opportunity via Jaggaer, please respond via PQQ_564 – Market Engagement for HMP Rye Hill with the requested information by the deadlines specified below:
- Virtual Event - names, job titles and email addresses of your attendees by no later than 5pm on Monday 27th April 2026. Please note there is a maximum of 5 attendees per organisation for this event.
- Site Visit – names, job titles and email addresses of your attendees by no later than midday on Friday 1st May 2026. Please note there is a maximum of 2 attendees per organisation for this event.
- Tender notice expected129 days ago15 Jun 2026, 23:59 BST
- Today23 Oct 2026
- Contract starts20 Jan 2028
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published10 Apr 2026, 15:16 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 (1)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender