Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 25 Aug 2026, 15:59 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Offsite Storage for the House of Commons and House of Lords Libraries and Parliamentary Archives

Authority: Corporate Officer of the House of Lords (Central government)·Consortium: 2 public authorities

ServicesAbove thresholdSME suitableVCSE suitable
Planned pipeline value£1,445,833pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected 4 Jan 2027from the planned procurement notice
Contract term 5 yrsends 22 Sept 2032 · up to 22 Sept 2037 with extensions · starts 23 Sept 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

The Corporate Officers of the House of Commons and the House of Lords (the Authority) would like to notify the market of a potential upcoming requirement. This Request for Information (RFI) seeks information relating to Offsite Storage for the House of Commons and House of Lords libraries and the Parliamentary Archives.

The House of Commons Library, the House of Lords Library and Parliamentary Knowledge and Information Team (PKI) require storage of their collections, meeting archival storage requirements, including environmental standards, security and access arrangements. They have separate sets of items to store but they consist of the following types of material:

  • Archival boxes
  • Other boxes
  • Cabinets
  • Oversize items

We initially require space for 1047m3 but could require 1150m3. Over the duration of the contract the amount of storage may increase further. There may also be a requirement to assist with removal of collections from the Parliamentary Estate.

The purpose of this questionnaire is to engage with the market ahead of a procurement exercise for the offsite storage services. We will use the insights we gain here to shape our requirements for that procurement.

We expect to agree this contract for an initial period of 5 years, with the possibility of 5 x 1 year extension options (5+1+1+1+1+1).

CPV: Archive services · Archive shelving · Cargo handling and storage services · Library and archive services · Storage services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1PlannedRenewal 5 yrsSMEVCSE
Contract period: 23 Sept 2027 – 22 Sept 2032 (5 yrs) · up to 22 Sept 2037 with extensions
Delivery: UK, LondonEligibility: SME eligibleVCSE eligible
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 Corporate Officer of the House of Lords buys Library and archive services (CPV 9251), and who usually turns up

Corporate Officer of the House of Lords’s published record next to the market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Library and archive services (CPV 9251) →

1

How the contest usually goes

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

Question for the bid
This buyerCorporate Officer of the House of Lords · all categories
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: 9 of 21 known-size awards · market: CPV 9251 · UK-wide, n=34
43%47%

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.

Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 5 of 12 known-location awards · market: CPV 9251 · UK-wide, n=24
42%42%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered outside the region where that award was delivered.

How long to a decision?
i

How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.

Middle value in days from the bid deadline to the award date, on competitions that published both.

Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: no decision dates published · market: division 92 · Greater London, n=18
—32 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 32 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.

Both shares are minimums: some awards have no bid count.

Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: at least 17 of 27 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 9251 · UK-wide, n=48
63%60%

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.

Last 36 months.

This buyerToo few to chart: 2 lots with bid counts, 5 needed · all categories
The market23 lots with bid counts · division 92 · Greater London
9% had one bid
Market · select a colour for counts
1 bid9%
Market: 2 of 23 lots with published bid counts.
2–339%
Market: 9 of 23 lots with published bid counts.
4–643%
Market: 10 of 23 lots with published bid counts.
7+9%
Market: 2 of 23 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 buyerToo few to chart: 2 lots with estimate and award, 5 needed · all categories
The market30 lots with estimate and award · division 92 · Greater London
37% below estimate
Market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate37%
Market: 11 of 30 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%40%
Market: 12 of 30 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate23%
Market: 7 of 30 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 391360 monthsSME suitablePublished estimate£1.4m

This lot is listed as CPV 3913. The table above uses the notice category.

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 31 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet10% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 31 similar lots
1 bid10%
3 of 31 similar past lots received 1 bid (10%).
2–310%
3 of 31 similar past lots received 2–3 (10%).
4–648%
15 of 31 similar past lots received 4–6 (48%).
7+32%
10 of 31 similar past lots received 7+ (32%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 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 £1.4m, 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
25 Aug 2026, 15:59 BST
Last source update
25 Aug 2026, 15:59 BST
Authority reference
C3144
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-080954
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Archive servicesArchive shelvingCargo handling and storage servicesLibrary and archive servicesStorage services
Delivery area
UKLondon (UKI32)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06ebcf Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

25 Aug 2026 → 23 Sept 2027 · 4 dates
  1. Planning notice published59 days ago
    25 Aug 2026, 15:59 BST
  2. Market engagement44 days ago
    8 Sept 2026, 23:59 BST

    To register your interest and participate in the Request for Information (RFI), please create an account on Atamis via atamis-ukparliament.my.site.com/s/Welcome ↗ . Once registered, please use the title of this notice to search for the project. Once you have located the project on the system, please select “Express Interest” to access the RFI documents.

    If you experience any issues with registration, please contact the team at [email protected].

  3. Today
    23 Oct 2026
  4. Tender notice expectedin 74 days
    4 Jan 2027, 23:59 GMT
  5. Contract startsin 335 days
    23 Sept 2027, 00:00 BST

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    25 Aug 2026, 15:59 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

2 public bodies on the notice

Corporate Officer of the House of Lords

Contracting authorityPublic authority - central government GB-PPON: PRMR-5585-NTMY Westminster, LONDON, London, SW1A 0AAContact email

Consortium members and other public bodies

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure