Official UK procurement notice
Request for Information (RFI) - Auto Translation and Transcription Service
Authority: Home Office (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe Home Office is undertaking a Request for Information to improve its understanding of the current market for translation, transcription and interpretation technologies and services.
The Home Office wishes to understand the maturity, capability, delivery considerations, constraints and limitations associated with solutions that may support operational processes across the Migration and Borders system.
The exercise will explore capabilities relating to:
speech-to-speech interpretation;
speech-to-text transcription;
text-to-text translation;
recording, auditability and evidential traceability;
accessibility;
mobile and low-connectivity operation;
security, hosting and data residency;
integration with existing services, platforms and major cloud environments; and
solution governance, quality assurance and human-review workflows.
Suppliers will be invited to assess their current capabilities against representative operational scenarios covering formal interviews and hearings, operational and field conversations, and customer contact and correspondence.
This exercise builds upon previous market-engagement activity and seeks updated information reflecting current market capabilities, service offerings and product maturity.
This notice and the associated Request for Information are for information-gathering and market-understanding purposes only. They do not constitute a tender, request for a binding offer or commitment by the Home Office to undertake a procurement or award a contract. Any future procurement would be subject to separate approvals and the applicable procurement process.
The estimated value range provided is indicative only and has been included for market-engagement purposes. No procurement has been approved at this stage. Should a future procurement be undertaken, the estimated value will be reviewed and updated to reflect the prevailing requirement, scope, funding position and market conditions.
CPV: Foreign language translation software development services · Foreign language translation software package
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 Programming services of packaged software products (CPV 7221), and who usually turns up
Home Office’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: Programming services of packaged software products (CPV 7221) →
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.
Here, local means registered in Greater London (authority’s region).
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered in Greater London.
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.
Half of these awards were announced 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% / 4%
2–337% / 33%
4–641% / 33%
7+11% / 31%
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 estimate45% / 46%
Within ±2%39% / 34%
Above estimate16% / 20%
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£600k
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 89 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid8%
2–333%
4–630%
7+29%
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.
No supplier with a record in this category fits this lot yet.
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 match score 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
- 16 Oct 2026, 17:02 BST
- Last source update
- 16 Oct 2026, 17:02 BST
- Authority reference
N/A- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-098201- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-078a25Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
16 Oct 2026 → 10 Oct 2027 · 4 dates- Planning notice published1 day ago16 Oct 2026, 17:02 BST
- Today17 Oct 2026
- Market engagementin 17 days2 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT
Suppliers wishing to participate should register their interest with the Home Office using the contact details provided in this notice. ([email protected])
Interested suppliers will be issued with a Mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). Upon receipt of a signed NDA, the Home Office will provide a countersigned copy and issue the Request for Information (RFI) documentation.
Suppliers will be invited to complete and return the RFI response document by the stated response deadline.
Following review of responses, the Home Office may undertake further market engagement activities, including clarification discussions, requests for additional information or solution demonstrations, solely for market-understanding purposes.
This engagement does not constitute a procurement, Invitation to Tender (ITT), supplier selection exercise or commitment by the Home Office to undertake a future procurement. Participation in this engagement will not guarantee involvement in any future procurement activity
- Tender notice expectedin 335 days16 Sept 2027, 23:59 BST
- Contract startsin 358 days10 Oct 2027, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published16 Oct 2026, 17:02 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