Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 17 Mar 2026, 08:43 GMT

Official UK procurement notice

Procurement legal services support

Authority: The Police and Crime Commissioner for Northumbria (Police & fire)

Framework agreementServicesBelow thresholdSME suitable
Planned pipeline valueValue not publishedpipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Framework period 3 yrsends 30 Sept 2029 · starts 1 Oct 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Northumbria Police is seeking information from suitably qualified legal service providers to support the Force with specialist advice relating to public procurement activity under the Procurement Act 2023.

The intention of this Request for Information (RFI) is to understand the market's capability, experience, and capacity to provide timely, expert legal support on tendering matters, including pre market activity, document development, compliance considerations, evaluation processes, award governance, and challenge handling.

This exercise is exploratory and non committal; however, the information gathered will assist the Force in determining the most appropriate route to market and shaping any future procurement

CPV: Legal advisory and information services · Legal advisory and representation services

How this framework works

From the published notice
Framework period
3 yrs from 1 Oct 2026

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1Planned 3 yrsSME

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
  • “Procurement legal services support” 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

How The Police and Crime Commissioner for Northumbria buys Legal advisory and representation services (CPV 7911), and who usually turns up

The Police and Crime Commissioner for Northumbria’s own published record, next to the published market for the same work. This notice is a framework or DPS, so only frameworks and DPS are compared. Whole-market view: Legal advisory and representation services (CPV 7911) →

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.

Buyer: no supplier sizes published · market: CPV 7911 · UK-wide, n=11
—18%

No supplier sizes published for this authority.

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 North East England.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 1 of 1 known-location awards · market: CPV 7911 · North East England, n=6
1 of 10%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered in North East England.

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.

Buyer: 9 decided notices · market: division 79 · North East England, n=27
73 days58 days

Half of these awards were announced within 73 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.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: exactly 1 of 1 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 7911 · UK-wide, n=9
1 of 111%

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 buyer7 lots with bid counts · all categories
0% had one bid
The market23 lots with bid counts · CPV 7911 · UK-wide
0% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid0% / 0%
Buyer: 0 of 7 lots with published bid counts. Market: 0 of 23 lots with published bid counts.
2–30% / 13%
Buyer: 0 of 7 lots with published bid counts. Market: 3 of 23 lots with published bid counts.
4–60% / 17%
Buyer: 0 of 7 lots with published bid counts. Market: 4 of 23 lots with published bid counts.
7+100% / 70%
Buyer: 7 of 7 lots with published bid counts. Market: 16 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.

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 791136 monthsSME suitableEstimate not published
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 114 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet9% single-bid risk
Past bids on 114 similar lots
1 bid9%
10 of 114 similar past lots received 1 bid (9%).
2–39%
10 of 114 similar past lots received 2–3 (9%).
4–618%
20 of 114 similar past lots received 4–6 (18%).
7+65%
74 of 114 similar past lots received 7+ (65%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 9 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
17 Mar 2026, 08:43 GMT
Last source update
17 Mar 2026, 08:43 GMT
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-023803
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Legal advisory and information servicesLegal advisory and representation services
Delivery area
North East (UKC)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-066bac Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Appointment period ends
—

Timeline

17 Mar 2026 → 1 Oct 2026 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published217 days ago
    17 Mar 2026, 08:43 GMT
  2. Market engagement200 days ago
    3 Apr 2026, 23:59 BST

    Northumbria police have a questionnaire to be completed by all interested parties.

    To access the questionnaire please contact [email protected]

  3. Contract starts20 days ago
    1 Oct 2026, 00:00 BST

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    17 Mar 2026, 08:43 GMT
    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

The Police and Crime Commissioner for Northumbria

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PCZY-7834-QRMM 2nd Floor, Victory House, Balliol Business Park, Longbenton, Newcastle, North East, NE12 8EWContact email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure