Official UK procurement notice
Provision of Independent Medical Advice Services
Authority: Home Office (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionA procurement is being considered for the provision of an Independent Medical Advice Service (IMAS), which will deliver independent, expert medical advice to support asylum and wider immigration decision-making.
The service will support caseworkers in circumstances where medical evidence is presented, and specialist clinical input is required to inform decision making. Advice may include consideration of physical and mental health matters relevant to individual cases.
The Authority is seeking to engage with organisations capable of delivering responsive, reliable and independent medical advisory services, providing objective medical input to support operational decision making.
The anticipated service scope may include:
- Independent clinical review and advice based on submitted medical information.
- Provision of medical opinion to support casework decision where clinical expertise is required.
- Delivery of advice within agreed service standards and timescales.
- Appropriate clinical governance, quality assurance and information handling arrangements.
The purpose of this engagement is to better understand market capability, capacity, delivery models, and commercial approaches available to support the future service. Further information regarding service requirements, volumes and operational arrangement may be shared with interested organisation as part of subsequent engagement activity. Please refer to “Engagement process description” below.
For the purposes of this Preliminary Market Engagement Notice, the estimated contract value has been listed as £0. This is a placeholder and does not reflect the anticipated value of the contract. The total contract value is currently being developed internally and will be communicated to the market via the appropriate Tender Notice once the estimate has been finalised.
The content of this Notice, including the nature of works and indicative timeline, are subject to change and does not commit the Authority to commence any procurement process.
CPV: Community health services · Health and social work services · Health services · Miscellaneous health services · Psychiatrist or psychologist services · Services provided by medical personnel
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Home Office buys Social services (CPV 8532), 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: Social services (CPV 8532) →
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 227 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% / 27%
2–337% / 44%
4–641% / 20%
7+11% / 9%
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 estimate44% / 23%
Within ±2%38% / 73%
Above estimate19% / 4%
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 85No real estimate
This lot lists more than one class in CPV 85. The comparison uses that group.
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 2,298 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid25%
2–334%
4–624%
7+18%
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
- Light touch regime
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 5 Jun 2026, 12:32 BST
- Last source update
- 5 Jun 2026, 12:32 BST
- Authority reference
Project_19535 - Independent Medical Advice Services (IMAS)- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-053298- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06aea2Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
5 Jun 2026 → 19 Feb 2027 · 4 dates- Planning notice published140 days ago5 Jun 2026, 12:32 BST
- Market engagement111 days ago3 Jul 2026, 23:59 BST
The Independent Medical Advice Services team intends to carry out preliminary market engagement to gather feedback from the market in June 2026. Further phases of engagement may be conducted in advance of any formal procurement launch.
It is intended that suppliers who express an interest in this opportunity will be invited to complete an initial Market Engagement Questionnaire. To proceed, suppliers will be required to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). Signing the NDA does not commit the supplier to participate in the procurement; it only enables the Authority to share relevant procurement information.
Suppliers who are unable to engage will not be disadvantaged in any future procurement process and will be provided with access to relevant materials and outputs from the engagement.
To express an interest in participating, suppliers must follow the steps below:
- To express an interest, participants must first be registered on the Home Office eSourcing Suite. If you have not yet registered this can be done online at:
homeoffice.app.jaggaer.com/web/login.html ↗
Please note that, to register, you must have a valid DUNS number (as provided by Dun and Bradstreet) for the organisation which you are registering and who will be entering into a contract if invited to do so.
- Send an ‘Expression of Interest’ email following the instructions:
a. Email to: [email protected]
b. Email subject: Expression of Interest – IMAS – NDA Request – (DUNS number)
- The email must include the following:
a. Supplier name (as on Companies House)
b. DUNS number
c. Jaggaer Account ID
d. Contact person – Name, job title, email address, contact number
- The Supplier will then be asked to complete the NDA and return this document back to the Authority for countersignature. This shall be done via the Jaggaer Portal NDA event.
- Suppliers whose NDAs have been countersigned will be granted access to the Statement of Requirements and Market Engagement Questionnaire. Access to the Statement of Requirements will provide the necessary context and insight to support completion of the Market Engagement Questionnaire.
- Suppliers will have the opportunity to submit clarification questions, for which the deadline to submit is 03/07/2026.
- Suppliers are required to submit their Market Engagement Questionnaire prior to the engagement deadline (03/07/2026) for review by the Authority.
Indicative Timeline
Publish Preliminary Market Engagement Notice – 05/06/2026
Market Engagement Questionnaire Response Deadline – 03/07/2026
Please Note:
The dates above are indicative and are subject to change.
This is an open process, and the Home Office welcomes any new suppliers that have joined at a later stage. The Home Office will ensure suppliers have full visibility of all activity to-date.
The Home Office reserves the right to amend the Market Engagement process at a later date if needed. Any changes will be updated on the Preliminary Market Engagement Notice and through Jaggaer.
- Tender notice expected66 days ago17 Aug 2026, 23:59 BST
- Today23 Oct 2026
- Contract startsin 119 days19 Feb 2027
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published5 Jun 2026, 12:32 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