Official UK procurement notice
Scotland's Railway Lineside (Vegetation & Boundary Management) Framework Lots 1-3
Authority: NETWORK RAIL INFRASTRUCTURE LIMITED (Central government)
What is being bought7 lots · detail below
Published requirement descriptionScotland’s Railway has completed a procurement exercise for the Scotland's Railway Lineside (Vegetation & Boundary Management) Framework for Lots 1-3. The Framework covers Tree and Vegetation Management (clearance and maintenance) and Boundary Renewals. The Lots under the Framework are geographically split into West (Lot 1), Central (Lot 2) and East (Lot 3).
The Framework has been awarded for an initial 4-year term, with the option to extend by up to 3 years (1+1+1). The total maximum value of the Framework, including headroom, is £182.83m over its full potential duration.
The Framework is structured across 3 Lots. Lots 1–3 each have one appointed Principal Contractor and include a minimum spend commitment of £3 million per annum per Contractor over the initial 4-year term.
In exceptional circumstances, including but not limited to, the insolvency of a Framework Supplier or termination of a Framework contract for one of the other lots, NR may award further works to a Supplier (beyond the value of the respective Lots stated within this Notice), provided that the total Framework Value of £182.83 million is not exceeded.
CPV: Tree-cutting services
How this framework works
From the published notice- Bids received
- 3 bids on the busiest of 3 lots · 3 suppliers appointed
Lots and requirements (7)Procurement structure
7 lots · all with a published value · a supplier may bid for at most 7 and win at most 3 of them · same evaluation weights on every lotEvery one of these 4 lots carries the same published figure, £10,000,500: it is the framework's maximum for the whole notice, not each lot's own budget, and no share per lot is published. The cards below say ceiling above rather than repeat it.
Lot #1WestAwardedPublished value£50,100,000
Includes Tree and Vegetation Management (Clearance & Maintenance) plus Boundary Renewals across the West of Scotland with an indicative work of £50.1m
Lot #2CentralAwardedPublished value£46,200,000
Includes Tree and Vegetation Management (Clearance & Maintenance) plus Boundary Renewals across Central Scotland with an indicative workbank of £46.2m
Lot #3EastAwardedPublished value£69,800,000
Includes Tree and Vegetation Management (Clearance & Maintenance) plus Boundary Renewals across the East of Scotland with an indicative work of £69.8m
Lot #4Motherwellceiling above
Lot 5 will cover the Motherwell Delivery Unit boundary area and be delivered by a minimum of three Lineside Contractors. Works will include signal sighting clearance, DDD treatments, LC sighting clearance etc. Suppliers may be specialists in tree removal work, cyclical maintenance, or fencing, or a combination of more than one. The indicative framework spend is estimated to be £10.05m for Lot 5 as set out in document A2 instructions.
Lot #5Edinburghceiling above
Lot 6 will cover the Edinburgh Delivery Unit boundary area and be delivered by a minimum of three Lineside Contractors. Works will include signal sighting clearance, DDD treatments, LC sighting clearance etc. Suppliers may be specialists in tree removal work, cyclical maintenance, or fencing, or a combination of more than one. The indicative framework spend is estimated to be £10.05m for Lot 6 as set out in document A2 instructions.
Lot #6Perthceiling above
Lot 7 will cover the Perth Delivery Unit boundary area and be delivered by a minimum of three Lineside Contractors. Works will include signal sighting clearance, DDD treatments, LC sighting clearance etc. Suppliers may be specialists in tree removal work, cyclical maintenance, or fencing, or a combination of more than one. The indicative framework spend is estimated to be £10.05m for Lot 7 as set out in document A2 instructions.
Lot #7Glasgowceiling above
Lot 4 will cover the Glasgow Delivery Unit boundary area and be delivered by a minimum of three Lineside Contractors. Works will include signal sighting clearance, DDD treatments, LC sighting clearance etc. Suppliers may be specialists in tree removal work, cyclical maintenance, or fencing, or a combination of more than one. The indicative framework spend is estimated to be £10.05m for Lot 4 as set out in document A2 instructions.
What it takes to wini
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 morei
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).
Published sub-criteria (7)
- Safety: 8%
- Mobilisation & Delivery: 8%
- Innovation: 2%
- Resourcing: 4%
- Operational: 4%
- price: 70%
- Environmental/Sustainability/Ecology/Social Value: 4%
Published award criteria (7)
- Safety: 8
- Mobilisation & Delivery: 8
- Environmental/Sustainability/Ecology/Social Value: 4
- Innovation: 2
- Resourcing: 4
- Operational: 4
- Price: 70
- Price carries 70 of 100 points: a 10% discount moves about 7 points. This one is won on the number: sharpen the price before polishing the prose.
- “Scotland's Railway Lineside (Vegetation & Boundary Management)…” is a framework: the contest is a place on its panel, not a single contract.
Price arithmetic assumes straight proportional scoring; the tender pack may use another formula.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Procedure method
- Negotiated procedure with prior call for competition
- Legal basis
- CELEX · 32014L0025 Utilities Contracts Regulations 2016 (Directive 2014/25/EU)
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Awarded
- Procurement threshold
- Unspecified in notice
- 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
- Yes (GPA)
- Recurring procurement
- No (one-off requirement)
- First published
- 21 Feb 2025, 09:12 GMT
- Last source update
- 20 Aug 2026, 17:41 BST
- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-079667- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-04e5d6Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Appointment period ends
- 21 Apr 2025, 12:00 BST
- Submission channel
- {"electronicSubmission","written"}
- Accepted languages
- en
- Bid validity
- 120 days from the deadline
Timeline
21 Apr 2025 → 20 Aug 2026 · 3 dates- Admission / appointment period endsperiod end, not a bid countdown21 Apr 2025, 12:00 BST
- Invitations to tender expected2 Jun 2025, 00:00 BST
- Notice published63 days ago20 Aug 2026, 17:41 BST
Notice history
1 event · 2 releases on Find a Tender- Status changed to complete20 Aug 2026, 17:41 BST
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecast3 suppliers are admitted to this framework without individual award values or dates, see the supplier list below.
Contracts
Scotland’s Railway Lineside Framework (SLF) Lot 1
- Signed
- 19 Jun 2026
- Value
- £50,100,000
- Status
- active
Scotland’s Railway Lineside Framework (SLF) Lot 2
- Signed
- 19 Jun 2026
- Value
- £46,200,000
- Status
- active
Scotland’s Railway Lineside Framework (SLF) Lot 3
- Signed
- 19 Jun 2026
- Value
- £76,920,000
- Status
- active
Bid statistics published by the authority
| Lot | Bids | SME | VCSE | Valid bid range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 · West | 2bids · 2 electronic | — | — | — |
| 2 · Central | 2bids | — | — | — |
| 3 · East | 3bids | — | — | — |
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Dispute resolution & review bodies
- Court of SessionReview body
Framework contractors & participating bidders
3 commercial parties on the notice- Ground Control LimitedFramework contractor
- QTS Group LtdFramework contractor
- Scottish Woodlands LimitedFramework contractor
Official documents & specifications (2)
Official links; attachments are not copiedTender pack and attachments
- Economic and financial selection criteria
- Technical selection criteria