Official UK procurement notice
NorTMS External Audit Services
Authority: Transport for the North (Public body)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe NorTMS Audit is to undertake audits as required of the Northern Transport Modelling System (NorTMS), a Cube-based VDM with a focus on intercity rail in the North of England. These will be required on a call-off basis when a stable model release is available. After each audit the supplier will be expected to provide an audit report with recommendations for areas requiring improvement. This will be subject to a one+one+one year call-off basis.
TfN requires a supplier who is an expert CUBE model reviewer with competent Python skills as some elements of NorTMS are coded in Python, and who has not worked with NorTMS or related to any TfN framework directly involved in NorTMS, unless the work that was delivered relates to the audit of NorTMS.
The scope of work required for each NorTMS audit underpins the following objectives:
•Provision of a full audit of all NorTMS inputs and outputs with the aim of instilling confidence in NorTMS for its use in modelling works and supporting business cases.
•A review of each version of NorTMS following model updates and improvements prior to implementation on programme.
•To understand the fitness for purpose of NorTMS in its use for assessing schemes for Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR).
•Production of a comprehensive audit report giving a RAG rating of all the model elements reviewed.
•A final report comprising of a plain English summary of issues identified (for a general audience) and a detailed technical report (for a modelling audience) with potential recommendations for areas requiring improvement, an outline of best practices in CUBE and the application of CUBE as a modelling tool.
For more information about this opportunity, please visit the eSourcing portal at:
www.delta-esourcing.com/tenders/UK-UK-Manche… ↗
To respond to this opportunity, please click here:
CPV: Auditing services · Technical analysis or consultancy services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Transport for the North buys Accounting and auditing services (CPV 7921), and who usually turns up
Transport for the North’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: Accounting and auditing services (CPV 7921) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
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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 outside the delivery region.
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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.
No decision dates published to compare.
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How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.
Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.
Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.
Awards are recorded, but published direct routes and bid counts do not establish this buyer’s share.
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 7921Published estimate£300k
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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 181 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid13%
2–339%
4–631%
7+17%
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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.
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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
- 22 May 2026, 15:21 BST
- Last source update
- 22 May 2026, 15:21 BST
- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-048097- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06a1d3Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
22 May 2026 → 1 Apr 2027 · 3 dates- Planning notice published151 days ago22 May 2026, 15:21 BST
- Market engagement123 days ago19 Jun 2026, 23:59 BST
Transport for the North (TfN) invites suppliers to attend an upcoming engagement session to explore future opportunities within our procurement pipeline. This will be focussed on expected upcoming modelling and visualisation activity expected from early 2027. This session will provide an opportunity to gain insight into our requirements, anticipated timescales, and overall procurement approach.
Event Details:
•Date: 22 June 2025
•Time: 1:05pm
•Location/Format: Online (Microsoft Teams)
Registration:
Please confirm your attendance by 5:00pm on 19 June by emailing Emily Molden at [email protected].
We look forward to your response and hope you are able to join us for this session.
- Today20 Oct 2026
- Contract startsin 162 days1 Apr 2027, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published22 May 2026, 15:21 BSTUK2
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