Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 18 May 2026, 08:57 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Minor Works Consultancy Frameworks for the Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service

Authority: NI Fire and Rescue Service (Central government)·On behalf of: Department Health

Framework agreementServicesBelow thresholdSME suitable
Sectors: Architecture & Engineering (71) Delivery: Delivery location not published
Planned pipeline value£2,100,000pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Framework period 3 yrsends 31 Mar 2030 · up to 31 Mar 2031 with extensions · starts 1 Apr 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Frameworks for Consultancy Services in Connection with Minor Works Schemes with a

Works Value of up to £3 million for NIFRS

CPV: Architectural design services · Building services · Calculation of costs, monitoring of costs · Civil engineering consultancy services · Construction management services · Construction supervision services · Structural engineering consultancy services

How this framework works

From the published notice
Framework period
3 yrs · up to 4 yrs from 1 Apr 2027

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published

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
What this means for your bid
  • “Minor Works Consultancy Frameworks for the Northern Ireland Fire &…” is a framework: the contest is a place on its panel, not a single contract.

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

Competition for Consultative engineering and construction services (CPV 7131), and who usually turns up

NI Fire and Rescue Service has too little published record in this market to describe on its own. Published market evidence for the same work stands beside whatever it has. This notice is a framework or DPS, so only frameworks and DPS are compared. Whole-market view: Consultative engineering and construction services (CPV 7131) →

1

How the contest usually goes

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

Question for the bidWhat 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.

Market: CPV 7131 · Northern Ireland (authority’s region), n=33
45%

Across this market, small firms won 45% of awards with a known supplier size.

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 Northern Ireland (authority’s region).

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

Last 36 months.

Market: CPV 7131 · Northern Ireland (authority’s region), n=19
5%

Across this market, 5% of winners were registered in the delivery region.

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.

Market: CPV 7131 · UK-wide, n=63
91 days

Half of these awards were announced within 91 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.

Market: CPV 7131 · UK-wide, n=88
28%

Across this market, at least 28% of awarded procurements had no recorded rival.

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.

The market24 lots with bid counts · CPV 7131 · Northern Ireland (authority’s region)
4% had one bid
Market · select a colour for counts
1 bid4%
Market: 1 of 24 lots with published bid counts.
2–313%
Market: 3 of 24 lots with published bid counts.
4–68%
Market: 2 of 24 lots with published bid counts.
7+75%
Market: 18 of 24 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.

On a framework or DPS, prices are agreed when work is called off.

Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.

Last 36 months.

Not comparable on a framework or DPS. The notice sets up a supplier panel and a ceiling value; what the work actually costs is agreed later, on each call-off or mini-competition, and those publish as contract notices of their own. The award-vs-estimate record of this market therefore sits on the call-offs; this page shows it on the contracts, not on the panel that frames them.

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 713136 monthsSME suitablePublished estimate£2.1m
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 24 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet4% single-bid risk
Past bids on 24 similar lots
1 bid4%
1 of 24 similar past lots received 1 bid (4%).
2–313%
3 of 24 similar past lots received 2–3 (13%).
4–68%
2 of 24 similar past lots received 4–6 (8%).
7+75%
18 of 24 similar past lots received 7+ (75%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 23 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.

—Priced at call-off
On a framework or DPS the price is agreed on each call-off, so there is no award price to forecast here: the published figure is a ceiling.

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
Below threshold
Regulatory regime
Standard
Commercial structure
Framework agreement
Who may use this agreement
Not stated in the notice; call-off rights may be limited to the establishing authority
Competition type
Competitive procedure
GPA / WTO covered
Unspecified in notice
Recurring procurement
Unspecified in notice
First published
18 May 2026, 08:57 BST
Last source update
18 May 2026, 08:57 BST
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-045205
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Architectural design servicesBuilding servicesCalculation of costs, monitoring of costsCivil engineering consultancy servicesConstruction management servicesConstruction supervision servicesStructural engineering consultancy services
Delivery area
Not published
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-069aaf Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Appointment period ends
—

Timeline

18 May 2026 → 1 Apr 2027 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published156 days ago
    18 May 2026, 08:57 BST
  2. Market engagement123 days ago
    19 Jun 2026, 23:59 BST

    There will be a Pre-Market Engagement Information Day held on Friday 5th June 2026,

    in the Main Hall at the NIFRS Learning & Development College, Cookstown. Registration on the day will commence at 9.15 am, with light refreshments on arrival. The presentation will begin promptly at 10.00 am, with a question and answer session afterwards.

    Please confirm your attendance (including numbers attending) prior to 5 pm Friday 29th May 2026 at [email protected]

  3. Today
    20 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
    18 May 2026, 08:57 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

4 public bodies on the notice

NIFRS

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central governmentNorthern Irish devolved regulations apply GB-PPON: PLBR-6377-MHGZ 1 Seymour Street, Lisburn, Northern Ireland, BT27 4SXContact email

Consortium members and other public bodies

  • Department HealthBeneficiary authority
  • Health Estates - Department of HealthProcess contact pointProcuring entityHealth Estates will ensure that proper management of the Framework Agreement is carried out by NIFRS.GB-PPON: PJCY-4628-PHHM Belfast, Northern IrelandContact email
  • NIASContracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central governmentNorthern Irish devolved regulations applyGB-PPON: PDNY-7965-NNDW Belfast, Northern IrelandContact email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure