Official UK procurement notice
Life Saving Appliances · UK public procurement notice
Authority: Home Office (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionTo engage an organisation to provide Life Saving appliances for in water and mass casualty rescue of migrants crossing the Dover straits in small boats.
The Home Office (HO) is responsible for securing UK borders and ensuring that all migrants attempting to enter the UK by small boats are safely and swiftly intercepted. The Home Office currently operates a fleet of dedicated charter rescue vessels in the English Channel, working in cooperation with HM Coastguard to undertake SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) rescue operations.
The rescue vessels carry a variety of additional lifesaving appliances dedicated to the rescue mission that can be rapidly deployed to aid those in the water.
The Home Office wants to understand what/which suppliers can provide the appliances listed below.
1-PERSON (SINGLE) AUTO-INFLATE HORSESHOE SAR RESCUE APPLIANCE
The appliance should be specifically designed for use in search and rescue (SAR) situations at sea or in any waterway, allowing increased accuracy by an under or over arm throw. The SAR horseshoe should offer a more ergonomic and streamline design for improved deployment to provide buoyancy to a Man Over Board (MOB) casualty and must include as a minimum:
- Automatic inflation
- Retro-reflective tape
- Compact to store in a soft case,
- Quick & easy to deploy
- Lightweight
- Oral tube for top up
- Automatic light
20+ PERSON AUTO-INFLATE SAR RESCUE COLLARS (“DONUT SHAPED”)
- Specifically designed for mass casualty in-water events
- Automatic inflation
- Retro-reflective tape
- Quick and easy to deploy
- Automatic light
- Stored in a soft case
EMERGENCY WATER-ACTIVATED STROBE LIGHTING
- Lighting units specifically designed to be added to horseshoe rescue appliances and rescue collars (including spare units for servicing).
- Manual and automatic water activation by integral sensor points
- Ultra bright powerful white flashing LED dome light (minimum 2.5cd and duration of 40hours light)
- Fixing clip for easy attachment
- Tamper proof
GRAB BAG DRYBAGS (50L) FOR ONBOARD STORAGE
- Provision of various size dry bags to store additional life saving appliances for easy deployment during incidents.
The collar and horseshoe appliances should have the ability to be re-used following their deployment, once serviced and re-packed by a trained shore-based technician.
Contract dates stated below are entered are solely for example and to enable completion of notice.
CPV: Life jackets
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1Planned
Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Home Office buys Made-up textile articles (CPV 3952), and who usually turns up
Home Office’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: Made-up textile articles (CPV 3952) →
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 in 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 116 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 bid11%
2–337%
4–641%
7+11%
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 estimate44%
Within ±2%38%
Above estimate19%
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 3952Published estimate£50k
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 236 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid8%
2–322%
4–638%
7+31%
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
- Below threshold
- 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
- 6 Jan 2026, 21:42 GMT
- Last source update
- 6 Jan 2026, 21:42 GMT
- Authority reference
19968- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-000863- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06007fFind a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
6 Jan 2026 → 1 Apr 2026 · 4 dates- Planning notice published288 days ago6 Jan 2026, 21:42 GMT
- Market engagement282 days ago12 Jan 2026, 23:59 GMT
This Preliminary Market Engagement Notice is being issued to identify suppliers that may be able to supply the goods, services or works required (PA2023 Section 16). It does not guarantee that any procurement activity will go ahead.
The Home Office is seeking responses from suppliers who can provide the equipment above, to the minimum specifications identified. If you can provide the specified equipment then please email [email protected], with the following information:
- Company name and location/address
- Name of individual to be contacted in case of any further information being required (name, email address, telephone number)
- The name of the appliances meeting the minimum specification listed above, with supporting evidence.
- Item cost, product availability e.g. available to order immediately, lead in times, any restrictions on the number of products that can be ordered at one time and number
- Confirmation of whether the product can or cannot be re-used, serviced and re-packed by Home Office.
If no: who can carry out these tasks.
If yes: is training required, are replacement consumables Original Equipment Manufacturer only or can other compatible products be used
Response must be submitted by 15:00hrs 12 January 2026 to [email protected]. Please make sure that the subject heading states ‘Project_19968 Life Saving Appliances’
- Tender notice expected204 days ago31 Mar 2026, 23:59 BST
- Contract starts204 days ago1 Apr 2026, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published6 Jan 2026, 21:42 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