Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 1 Aug 2026, 09:29 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Man Guarding Services · UK public procurement notice

Authority: Royal Armouries Museum (Central government)

ServicesAbove threshold
Sectors: Business Services & Consultancy (79) Delivery: Delivery location not published
Planned pipeline value£216,000pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Contract term 3 yrsends 1 Apr 2030 · up to 31 Mar 2032 with extensions · starts 1 Apr 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Procurement Description

The provision of requested security services for museum internal/external guarding at Royal Armouries Leeds & Fort Nelson (Portsmouth).

Door Supervision at Fort Nelson, and call-out services for rapid mobile response to alarm activations and other out-of-hour emergency response at Fort Nelson.

Current Service Scope

The service covers the following but not limited to:

  • Static guarding at designated internal and external locations, including entrances, galleries, public areas, back-of-house areas and perimeter points.
  • Patrolling services including routine and ad hoc patrols of buildings, external grounds, car parks and other identified risk areas.
  • Access control for staff, visitors, contractors and deliveries, including monitoring entry and exit points and challenging unauthorised access.
  • Incident response including dealing with security incidents, disturbances, emergencies, suspicious activity, theft, vandalism and breaches of site rules.
  • Alarm response and out-of-hours call-out services at Fort Nelson, including rapid mobile response to alarm activations and emergency attendance when required.
  • Door supervision services at Fort Nelson where required for events or operational activity, delivered by appropriately licensed personnel.
  • Visitor and public interface duties, ensuring security staff act as ambassadors for the sites by providing directions, reassurance and professional assistance where appropriate.
  • Emergency support including evacuation assistance, fire alarm response, lockdown support, first response actions and liaison with emergency services.
  • Monitoring and reporting of incidents, patrols, defects, hazards and security concerns, with clear written records and timely escalation to the Authority’s nominated representatives.
  • Key holding and site security support where required, including securing and opening premises in accordance with agreed procedures.
  • Event and operational support for planned activities, exhibitions, high-footfall periods and other occasions requiring enhanced guarding presence.
  • Compliance and assurance including the provision of suitably trained and SIA-licensed personnel, supervision arrangements, uniformed presentation, and adherence to all relevant legislation, standards and site-specific policies, procedures and risk assessments.

Estimated Contract Value (incl. VAT): £216,000

  • Initial term: £130,000
  • Optional extensions: £86,000

CPV: Security services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1PlannedRenewal 3 yrs
Contract period: 1 Apr 2027 – 1 Apr 2030 (3 yrs) · up to 31 Mar 2032 with extensions
Extensions: Extension options published

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published

How Royal Armouries Museum buys Security services (CPV 7971), and who usually turns up

Royal Armouries Museum’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: Security services (CPV 7971) →

1

How the contest usually goes

Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.

Question for the bid
This buyerRoyal Armouries Museum · division 79
The marketSecurity services (CPV 7971) · Yorkshire and the Humber (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: 2 of 3 known-size awards · market: CPV 7971 · Yorkshire and the Humber (authority’s region), n=19
2 of 358%

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 Yorkshire and the Humber (authority’s region).

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 0 of 2 known-location awards · market: CPV 7971 · Yorkshire and the Humber (authority’s region), n=36
0 of 250%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered outside Yorkshire and the Humber.

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: no decision dates published · market: CPV 7971 · Yorkshire and the Humber (authority’s region), n=6
—77 days

Half of these awards were announced within 77 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.

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.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 6 procurements with awards; rival share unknown · market: CPV 7971 · Yorkshire and the Humber (authority’s region), n=34
—56%

Awards are recorded, but published direct routes and bid counts do not establish this buyer’s share.

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 buyer1 lot with bid counts · broad CPV 79 · too few to chart
The market14 lots with bid counts · CPV 7971 · Yorkshire and the Humber (authority’s region)
14% had one bid
Market · select a colour for counts
1 bid14%
Market: 2 of 14 lots with published bid counts.
2–314%
Market: 2 of 14 lots with published bid counts.
4–60%
Market: 0 of 14 lots with published bid counts.
7+71%
Market: 10 of 14 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 buyer1 lot with estimate and award · broad CPV 79 · too few to chart
The market10 lots with estimate and award · CPV 7971 · Yorkshire and the Humber (authority’s region)
40% below estimate
Market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate40%
Market: 4 of 10 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%50%
Market: 5 of 10 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate10%
Market: 1 of 10 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 797136 monthsPublished estimate£216k
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 14 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet14% single-bid risk
Past bids on 14 similar lots
1 bid14%
2 of 14 similar past lots received 1 bid (14%).
2–314%
2 of 14 similar past lots received 2–3 (14%).
4–60%
0 of 14 similar past lots received 4–6 (0%).
7+71%
10 of 14 similar past lots received 7+ (71%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 17.5 bids.
Commercial price forecast
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.

—No model forecast yet
No comparable awards on record for this lot’s category yet. The published estimate is £216k, 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.

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.

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
1 Aug 2026, 09:29 BST
Last source update
1 Aug 2026, 09:29 BST
Authority reference
RA-0215
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-072955
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Security services
Delivery area
Not published
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06d96f Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

1 Aug 2026 → 1 Apr 2027 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published81 days ago
    1 Aug 2026, 09:29 BST
  2. Market engagement64 days ago
    17 Aug 2026, 23:59 BST

    The key purpose of this notice is to alert the market to the Tender and to flag the new social value criteria and outcomes that are being proposed for it, and thus to obtain feedback from suppliers.

    The social value outcomes that will form 10% of the quality evaluation criteria will consist of the following:

    1.Fair work – Create and retain high quality jobs

    Suppliers will need to demonstrate that they are providing opportunities for, and measuring and monitoring of, staff workforce conditions over time, including employee engagement, involvement in decision-making and satisfaction and adapting to any changes in the results, with clear processes for acting on issues identified

    2.Fair work - Fair pay practices

    Suppliers will need to demonstrate that they provide payment of more than the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage (as appropriate) to the contract workforce.

    Suppliers wishing to participate must email the Estates Team at [email protected] to request the supplier questionnaire by 07 August 2026 at 12:00 and return it completed no later than 17 August 2026 at 17:00.

  3. Today
    21 Oct 2026
  4. Contract startsin 162 days
    1 Apr 2027, 00:00 BST

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    1 Aug 2026, 09:29 BST
    UK2

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

Royal Armouries Museum

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PCCZ-9656-MDZP Armouries Drive, Leeds, Yorkshire & Humber, LS10 1LTContact name, email, phone

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure