Find a TenderOpen for tender Tender notice
Published 9 Oct 2026, 17:33 BST

Official UK procurement notice

HVPS Cabling — UK public procurement notice

Authority: UK Atomic Energy Authority (Public body)

GoodsOpen procedureAbove thresholdSME suitableVCSE suitable
Published estimate£250,000£300,000 inc. VAT
Submission deadline 5 Nov 202612:00 GMT · 26d 10h left
Clarification cut-off 15 Oct 202612:00 BST · questions to the authority
Contract term 4 moends 31 Mar 2027 · starts 20 Nov 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Supply of cabling

  • No preliminary market engagement: Supply of COTS

CPV: Low-voltage cable · Power distribution cables

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · value published
Lot #1 4 moSMEVCSEPublished value£250,000
Contract period: 20 Nov 2026 — 31 Mar 2027 (4 mo)Eligibility: SME eligibleVCSE eligibleDelivery: UKTurnover guideline: ~£500,000/yr≈ 2× annual value
Value
£250,000 exc. VAT · £300,000 inc. VAT
31320000 Power distribution cables31321210 Low-voltage cable

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

What it takes to win
i

How this buyer will score bids.

The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).

Evaluation split and conditions of participation as published — the tender pack may add more
How bids are scored
Quality: 15%Price: 75%Social value: 10%
Published sub-criteria (3)
  • Delivery — 15%
  • Price — 75%
  • Social Value — 10%
Published award criteria (3)
  • Price
  • Delivery
  • Social Value

No conditions of participation were published on the notice; check the tender documents.

What this means for your bid
  • Price carries 75 of 100 points — a 10% discount moves about 7.5 points. This one is won on the number — sharpen the price before polishing the prose.
  • Turnover usually expected at this size: about £500,000 (twice the annual value).

Price arithmetic assumes straight proportional scoring — the tender pack may use another formula. Turnover is an indicative market norm (≈2× annual value), not a published condition.

Competition analysis · published record, not a forecast of who will bid

How UK Atomic Energy Authority buys Power distribution cables (CPV 3132) — and who usually turns up

UK Atomic Energy Authority’s own published record, next to the South East England market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are kept out: they attract a different number of bids. Whole-market view: Power distribution cables (CPV 3132) →

1

How the contest usually goes

This buyer’s published record next to the market where the work is delivered — contested contracts only, counted per lot

Question for the bid
This buyerUK Atomic Energy Authority · all categories
The marketPower distribution cables (CPV 3132) · South East England (authority’s region)
What to do with it
How often do SMEs win?
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.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 12 of 39 known-size awards · market: division 31, n=63
31%54%

Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.

How often do local suppliers win?
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 South East England.

A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 15 of 51 known-location awards · market: division 31, n=81
29%44%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered outside South East England.

How long to a decision?
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.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 31 decided notices · market: n=46
24 days28 days

Half of these awards were announced within 24 days of the bid deadline.

How often single-bid or direct?
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.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: at least 50 of 80 awarded contracts without a rival · market: n=107
63%24%

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.

Last 36 months.

This buyer37 lots with bid counts · all categories
24% had one bid
The market84 lots with bid counts · broad CPV 31
14% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid24% / 14%
Buyer: 9 of 37 lots with published bid counts. Market: 12 of 84 lots with published bid counts.
2–338% / 36%
Buyer: 14 of 37 lots with published bid counts. Market: 30 of 84 lots with published bid counts.
4–616% / 30%
Buyer: 6 of 37 lots with published bid counts. Market: 25 of 84 lots with published bid counts.
7+22% / 20%
Buyer: 8 of 37 lots with published bid counts. Market: 17 of 84 lots with published bid counts.

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.

Last 36 months.

This buyer25 lots with estimate and award · all categories
40% below estimate
The market46 lots with estimate and award · broad CPV 31
37% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate40% / 37%
Buyer: 10 of 25 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 17 of 46 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%40% / 41%
Buyer: 10 of 25 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 19 of 46 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate20% / 22%
Buyer: 5 of 25 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 10 of 46 lots with an estimate and award.
2

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.

Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors — from published award history, not a bid list

Lot #1CPV 313214% single-bidPublished estimate£250,000
Expected competition
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 84 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—14% single-bid risk
Past bids on 84 similar lots
1 bid14%
12 of 84 similar past lots received 1 bid (14%).
2–336%
30 of 84 similar past lots received 2–3 (36%).
4–630%
25 of 84 similar past lots received 4–6 (30%).
7+20%
17 of 84 similar past lots received 7+ (20%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 3.5 bids.
Commercial price forecast
i

Where the winning 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 guide, not a price to bid.

—No model forecast yet
No comparable awards on record for this lot’s category yet — the published estimate is £250k, and the forecast stays empty until the market has a record to read.

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.

SupplierThis buyer’s earlier contractLotAward valueMatch
—

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.

SupplierWon in this categoryLive contractsAward vs estimate
—
Coverage and what to read with care
  • Each figure explains itself. The on a figure says what it is, how it is counted and which scope this notice’s own record came from (class, division, all categories, or the authority’s 24-month row). The two sides are never blended. A lot’s own market is read at its delivery region where the lot names one; where it names several, or none that can be resolved, the chart falls back to the UK-wide record for the same category and says so under the bar. An empty cell means the source published nothing usable. Long form: Methodology.
  • When we call out a difference. A buyer figure is only flagged against the market when the sample is large enough that the gap is unlikely to be chance; at most two callouts appear, always phrased as a comparison with both numbers and the sample size.
  • Coverage (re-measured 5 Oct on the live record, 94,497 awarded procedures of the last three years). 51 % publish a bid count and 72 % a delivery region, so the market column reads the authority’s registered region when the notice names none, labelled. Of the 17,687 award-vs-estimate pairs, 34 % sit exactly on the estimate — the buyer published the award at the figure it advertised. n is on every figure; a thin sample is muted, never hidden, and a distribution is not drawn as percentages below ten observations.
  • “Match”, text similarity, the expected-bid figure and the distribution drawn beneath it are model outputs, not published facts or win probabilities. Find a Tender does not publish who is bidding. Never shown: contact details, payment behaviour, or a recommended price.

Procedure terms & legal framework

From the official record
Procedure method
Open procedure
Legal basis
UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
Procurement category
Goods
Notice status
Open for tender
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
9 Oct 2026, 17:33 BST
Last source update
9 Oct 2026, 17:33 BST
Award evaluation window
Submission end — 19 Nov 2026
Authority reference
T/CAB093/26
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-095854
Latest notice
Tender notice (UK4)
Classification (CPV)
Low-voltage cablePower distribution cables
Delivery area
UK
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-078532 Find a Tender

How to participate & submission route

Official notice Submit via EU-Supply (CTM)
Submission portal named on this notice: EU-Supply (CTM) · Who buys & how to bid on EU-Supply
Public notice page · account needed to bidElectronic submission allowedLanguage: EN
Access & registration note: Free · 5–10 minutes
Requests to participate (first stage)
—
Tender submission deadline
5 Nov 2026, 12:00 GMT
Clarification deadline
15 Oct 2026, 12:00 BST
Submission channel
Official e-sourcing portal
Electronic submission
Allowed
Accepted languages
en
Detailed submission instructions & authority contactsFrom official release
Published estimate £250,000 excludes VAT (£300,000 including VAT).

Timeline

5 published dates · Europe/London
  1. Tender notice publishedearlier today
    9 Oct 2026, 17:33 BST
  2. Clarification questions byin 5 days
    15 Oct 2026, 12:00 BST
  3. Submission deadlinein 26 days
    5 Nov 2026, 12:00 GMT
  4. Award decision expected byin 41 days
    19 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT
  5. Contract startsin 41 days
    20 Nov 2026

Commercial outcome & contract awards

Nothing awarded yet
Awards (0)
No award published
Contracts (0)
No contract published
Bid statistics
No aggregate bid statistics published

Notice history

2 events · 1 release on Find a Tender · since 9 Oct 2026
  1. Tender notice published
    9 Oct 2026, 17:33 BSTUK4
  2. First tender notice published
    9 Oct 2026, 17:33 BST

Contracting authority & participating public bodies

UK Atomic Energy Authority

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PLJV-1169-JTDD Culham Science Centre, Oxfordshire, South East, OX14 3DB Colette Broadwith [email protected]

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure

  • Tender notice tenderTender noticeUK4Tender notice on Find a Tender