Official UK procurement notice
MetroWest Firmware Upgrade · UK public procurement notice
Authority: West of England Combined Authority (Local council)
Sectors: Construction & Civil Engineering (45) Delivery: Delivery location not published
Awarded value£676,665published award · exc. VAT
Awarded 30 Jul 2026no call for competition
Awarded to Network Rail Infrastructure
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionNetwork Rail to deliver essential firmware and platform upgrades to the Smartlock Support Server systems, which currently operate on obsolete and unsupported Windows platforms. These ageing installations present growing risks to reliability, safety assurance, cybersecurity compliance, and long‑term supportability, and cannot accommodate the new signalling functionality required for services in 2028.
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1Awarded
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Procedure method
- Direct award
- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Notice status
- Awarded without competition
- Procurement threshold
- Unspecified in notice
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Direct award (no call for competition)
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 8 Sept 2026, 10:56 BST
- Last source update
- 8 Sept 2026, 11:52 BST
- Authority reference
UPN-00675- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-084816- Latest notice
- Contract award notice (UK6)
- Delivery area
- Not published
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06f445Find a Tender
- Why no open competition
- Single Suppliers Technical Reasons
- Published justification
No alternative supplier can legally or technically deliver these works, the Direct Award appears capable of being justified under Schedule 5, Paragraphs 5 and 6 of the Procurement Act 2023, subject to legal review.
Notice history
5 events · 4 releases on Find a Tender · since 8 Sept 2026- Transparency notice published8 Sept 2026, 10:56 BSTUK5
- Contract award notice published8 Sept 2026, 11:03 BSTUK6
- Contract award notice published8 Sept 2026, 11:27 BSTUK6
- Contract award notice published8 Sept 2026, 11:52 BSTUK6
- Contract signature expected18 Sept 2026, 23:59 BSTscheduled
Routine re-releases (4)
- 2026-09: 1 release · 8 Sept 2026
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecastAwards 1
Awarded value £676,6651 award exc. VAT
| Awarded to | Value | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Network Rail Infrastructure18 Sept 2026 – 31 May 2027Amended: Mistakenly put above threshold services contract when this should be a below threshold works project. · Amended: Clarification: This procurement is below the applicable procurement threshold and did not require publication of a UK05 or UK06 notice. The notices were published in error. This amendment has been issued to record and correct the error. The notices are retained to preserve the audit trail and ensure transparency of the process. | £676,665 | 30 Jul 2026 | Awarded |
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Bidders & participating suppliers
1 commercial party on the notice- Network Rail Infrastructure LimitedAwarded supplier
Official documents & specifications (4)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Contract award notice Contract award notice on Find a Tender
- Contract award notice Contract award notice on Find a Tender
- Contract award notice Contract award notice on Find a Tender
- Transparency notice Transparency notice on Find a Tender