Official UK procurement notice
Preliminary Market Engagement Round 3 for the Life in the UK (LITUK) Secure Digital Test and Digital Online Learning Materials Service
Authority: Home Office (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe Home Office (HO) is the government department responsible for safeguarding the nation through border control, immigration, passport issuance, policing, fire services, counter-terrorism and drugs policies.
UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) plays an integral role in delivering this vision, managing millions of applications annually, enabling foreign nationals to visit, study, work or settle in the UK. As part of the evolution of existing services, UKVI pursues the transformation and modernisation of services in a manner that enhances customer experience and ensures accurate and efficient outcomes. One of the core services delivered by UKVI is the Life in the UK test, an essential component of the route to settlement in the UK and to UK citizenship.
The Life in the UK Secure Digital Test and Digital Online Learning Materials Service (LITUK) Project is procuring a new service; enabling the continued delivery of front-end services, balancing continuity with improvements and transformation.
LITUK aims to move to a 'Digital-by-Default' approach, while upholding the rigorous standards necessary to support UKVI immigration decisions. The successful provider will deliver a service that combines technological innovation with security assurance, enabling customers to demonstrate their knowledge of life in the UK with confidence and convenience throughout their UK immigration journey.
The purpose of this third round of Preliminary Market Engagement is to share information relating to the Authority's vision for the LitUK service and the procurement approach. At this stage, no final decisions have been made regarding the preferred solution.
Please Note: the content of this Preliminary Market Engagement Notice may be subject to change.
CPV: Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security · Computer-related professional services · Digital transmission apparatus · E-learning services · Educational software development services · Educational software package · General personnel services for the government · General public services · IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support · Information technology services · Supporting services for the government · Test and evaluation
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1PlannedRenewal
Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Home Office buys General public services (CPV 7511), and who usually turns up
Home Office’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: General public services (CPV 7511) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
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.
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.
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.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in the region where that award was delivered.
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.
Half of these awards have an award date within 116 days of the bid deadline.
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.
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.
1 bid11% / 17%
2–337% / 67%
4–641% / 17%
7+11% / 0%
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.
Below estimate46% / 35%
Within ±2%34% / 58%
Above estimate20% / 8%
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 7221Published estimate£91m
This lot is listed as CPV 7221. The table above uses the notice category.
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 81 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid4%
2–333%
4–633%
7+30%
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.
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.
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.
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
- 6 Jan 2026, 09:47 GMT
- Last source update
- 18 Sept 2026, 16:48 BST
- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-088893- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-05ffc2Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
6 Jan 2026 → 24 Nov 2027 · 4 dates- Planning notice published295 days ago6 Jan 2026, 09:47 GMT
- Latest notice published40 days ago18 Sept 2026, 16:48 BST
- Market engagement19 days ago9 Oct 2026, 23:59 BST
The purpose of this third round of Preliminary Market Engagement is to share information relating to the Authority's vision for the LitUK service and the procurement approach.
Please note, the Authority is not requesting any feedback as part of this round of Engagement.
- To express an interest, participants must first be registered on the Home Office's eSourcing Portal (JAGGAER). If you have not yet registered, this can be done online at homeoffice.app.jaggaer.com/web/login.html ↗ by following the Register Here Link.
- Please note that, to register, you must have a valid D-U-N-S number (as provided by Dun & Bradstreet) for the organisation which you are registering, who will be entering into a contract if invited to do so.
- Registering on JAGGAER will not provide immediate access to this Preliminary Market Engagement. Once you have registered on JAGGAER, a registered user can express an interest for a specific procurement.
This is done by emailing [email protected] with the following:
- Email subject line: LITUK Procurement - Expression of Interest
- Email to include: Organisation name (as registered on JAGGAER), D-U-N-S number, Contact name, E-mail address and Telephone number.
- Once the above steps are completed, participants will be granted access to the Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) event in JAGGAER.
- Participants should then complete and return their signed NDA, via JAGGAER, in order to be added to the Preliminary Market Engagement event once live, on 11 September 2026.
- Participants should ensure that they leave enough time to submit the signed NDA and written response in time for the Preliminary Market Engagement close date of 09 October 2026 at 17:00 (BST).
Please note: if you have previously signed a Home Office NDA for other Projects, you are still required to sign a new NDA and follow the process above. Once you have completed the process above, you will be added to the Engagement Event.
- Today28 Oct 2026
- Contract startsin 391 days24 Nov 2027
Notice history
5 events · 4 releases on Find a Tender · since 6 Jan 2026- Preliminary market engagement notice published6 Jan 2026, 09:47 GMTUK2
- Preliminary market engagement notice published15 Jun 2026, 11:01 BSTUK2
- Preliminary market engagement notice published11 Sept 2026, 14:27 BSTUK2
- Published value updated to £90,871,00011 Sept 2026, 14:27 BSTwas £110,000,000
- Preliminary market engagement notice published18 Sept 2026, 16:48 BSTUK2
Routine re-releases (4)
- 2026-01: 1 release · 6 Jan 2026
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 (4)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender