Official UK procurement notice
LFRS 146- Pooled Personal Protective Equipment Management System
Authority: Lancashire Combined Fire Authority (Police & fire)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionLancashire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) wishes to invite suppliers to obtain information regarding your company and the services you provide. This information is requested as part of a market engagement exercise in order to seek the market’s views on the supply and delivery of proposed new solutions to manage our services’ pooled PPE. We would like to also use this exercise to gauge the level of interest in any eventual procurement activity.
Currently the Authority manages c18,000 garments at over 40 stations within the Lancashire and South Cumbria area.
To do this the Authority utilises low frequency tags that are stitched into each garment (such as a tunic), scanners are then used to scan the tags within the garments to update their status and location. The information from the scanners then feeds into a database and that database is then used to facilitate the management of the services pooled PPE
CPV: IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Lancashire Combined Fire Authority buys IT services: consulting, software, internet (CPV 72), and who usually turns up
Lancashire Combined Fire Authority’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: IT services: consulting, software, internet (CPV 72) →
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 North West England.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered in North West England.
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 62 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 bid9%
2–331%
4–621%
7+39%
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 estimate32%
Within ±2%51%
Above estimate17%
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 #1Published estimate£208k
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 75 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid9%
2–331%
4–621%
7+39%
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
- 13 Mar 2026, 11:53 GMT
- Last source update
- 13 Mar 2026, 11:53 GMT
- Authority reference
LFRS 146- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-022905- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-0669aaFind a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
13 Mar 2026 → 1 Apr 2027 · 4 dates- Planning notice published223 days ago13 Mar 2026, 11:53 GMT
- Market engagement182 days ago23 Apr 2026, 23:59 BST
This opportunity can be accessed via The Chest the website address detail below
www.the-chest.org.uk/SupplierSupport.html ↗
All documents relevant to this can be downloaded on our e-tendering system.
Date of issue of RFI document 13/03/2026
Deadline for clarifications 14/04/2026
Deadline for return of completed RFI submissions 23/04/2026
Completed questionnaires should be received no later than 23/04/2026 12:00 noon and should be returned to LFRS using the ‘The Chest North West Procurement Portal’. Please note that LFRS reserves the right to amend the above timetable.
All requests for clarifications should be submitted as soon as possible using the “Messaging” facility on the ‘The Chest North West Procurement Portal’.
If you experience any technical difficulties when accessing the portal please contact the Helpdesk (not LFRS) by emailing [email protected] .
- Tender notice expected143 days ago1 Jun 2026, 23:59 BST
- Today22 Oct 2026
- Contract startsin 160 days1 Apr 2027, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published13 Mar 2026, 11:53 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