Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 15 Jul 2026, 14:24 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Security Guarding · UK public procurement notice

Authority: Shropshire Council (Local council)

ServicesAbove threshold
Planned pipeline value£720,000pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Contract term 4 yrsends 28 Oct 2030 · starts 29 Oct 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

THIS IS NOT A CALL FOR COMPETITION. IT IS A PRELIMINARY MARKET ENGAGEMENT.

Shropshire Council is launching this Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) exercise in advance of a formal procurement process for a security guarding requirement.

The envisaged award of this contract will be to a single provider for a period of up to 4 years with an estimated value of £600k over the entire term. The successful contractor will be responsible for providing a 24-hour, 365-day planned and emergency service across the entire geographic area of Shropshire.

PME introduction to the requirement

Shropshire Council is launching this Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) exercise in advance of a formal procurement process for a security guarding requirement.

The to award this contract to a single provider for a period of up to 4 years with an estimated value of £600k over the entire term. The successful contractor will be responsible for providing a 24-hour, 365-day planned and emergency service across the entire geographic area of Shropshire.

Core Service Scope

The requirement is characterised by decentralised property-specific services responding to the needs of a diverse estate that may include corporate buildings, car parks, park-and-ride facilities, and schools.

The core requirements include (amongst other things):

•Mobile patrolling, static guarding, lone worker monitoring/response, and the opening, closing, and locking of premises, gates, and barriers as requested by individual premise managers.

•The Council currently has a multi storey car park adjoining a bus station. As part of the security and guarding to cover opening hours, additional tasks will be to support customers, operate the barrier-controlled parking system and facilities tasks and compliance checks

While it is envisaged that a single provider will be appointed, individual (site specific) requirements may be managed directly between the security provider and the respective Shropshire Council properties or schools.

Compliance and Regulatory Requirements

Shropshire Council envisage the following technical mandatory requirements:

  • Accreditations: The contractor must maintain Security Industry Authority (SIA) Approved Contractor status (or EU equivalent) for the duration of the contract.
  • British Standards: Fully audited compliance is required across current standards, including BS10800:2020, BS7499:2020, BS7984-3:2020, BS7858:2019, BS7984-1:2016, and BS7984-2:2014.
  • Approach to Sub-Contracting: The Council envisage that no sub-contracting will be permitted without prior written approval.
  • Workforce: It is anticipated that the Employee Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations (TUPE) will apply to this contract.

By participating in this PME, experienced security providers have the opportunity to share industry best practices and inform Shropshire Council's consideration of its procurement strategy.

CPV: Security services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1Planned 4 yrs
Contract period: 29 Oct 2026 – 28 Oct 2030 (4 yrs)
Delivery: West Midlands

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published

How Shropshire Council buys Security services (CPV 7971), and who usually turns up

Shropshire Council’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: Security services (CPV 7971) →

1

How the contest usually goes

Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.

Question for the bid
This buyerShropshire Council · all categories
The marketSecurity services (CPV 7971) · West Midlands
What 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: 24 of 49 known-size awards · market: CPV 7971 · West Midlands, n=28
49%57%

Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.

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 West Midlands.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 36 of 62 known-location awards · market: CPV 7971 · West Midlands, n=38
58%45%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered in West Midlands.

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: 26 decided notices · market: CPV 7971 · West Midlands, n=8
26 days60 days

Half of these awards were announced within 26 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.

Both shares are minimums: some awards have no bid count.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: at least 13 of 59 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 7971 · West Midlands, n=34
22%38%

Missing bid counts may hide more single-bid awards. This share is a minimum.

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 buyer50 lots with bid counts · all categories
18% had one bid
The market22 lots with bid counts · CPV 7971 · West Midlands
5% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid18% / 5%
Buyer: 9 of 50 lots with published bid counts. Market: 1 of 22 lots with published bid counts.
2–334% / 0%
Buyer: 17 of 50 lots with published bid counts. Market: 0 of 22 lots with published bid counts.
4–632% / 18%
Buyer: 16 of 50 lots with published bid counts. Market: 4 of 22 lots with published bid counts.
7+16% / 77%
Buyer: 8 of 50 lots with published bid counts. Market: 17 of 22 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.

Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.

Last 36 months.

This buyer45 lots with estimate and award · all categories
20% below estimate
The market17 lots with estimate and award · CPV 7971 · West Midlands
12% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate20% / 12%
Buyer: 9 of 45 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 2 of 17 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%71% / 88%
Buyer: 32 of 45 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 15 of 17 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate9% / 0%
Buyer: 4 of 45 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 0 of 17 lots with an estimate and award.
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 797148 monthsPublished estimate£720k
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 22 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet5% single-bid risk
Past bids on 22 similar lots
1 bid5%
1 of 22 similar past lots received 1 bid (5%).
2–30%
0 of 22 similar past lots received 2–3 (0%).
4–618%
4 of 22 similar past lots received 4–6 (18%).
7+77%
17 of 22 similar past lots received 7+ (77%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 16 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.

—No model forecast yet
No comparable awards on record for this lot’s category yet. The published estimate is £720k, and the forecast stays empty until the market has a record to read.

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
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
15 Jul 2026, 14:24 BST
Last source update
15 Jul 2026, 14:24 BST
Authority reference
RMCB062
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-066811
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Security services
Delivery area
West Midlands (UKG22)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06cc07 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

15 Jul 2026 → 29 Oct 2026 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published98 days ago
    15 Jul 2026, 14:24 BST
  2. Market engagement83 days ago
    29 Jul 2026, 23:59 BST

    Engagement process description

    Organisations are invited to complete and submit the preliminary market engagement questionnaire by COP 29th July.

    To access the questionnaire, please email [email protected] with the name of your organisation, and supply the name and email of whoever will be completing the questionnaire.

  3. Today
    21 Oct 2026
  4. Contract startsin 8 days
    29 Oct 2026

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    15 Jul 2026, 14:24 BST
    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

Shropshire Council

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PCLL-9577-QDZW Guildhall, Frankwell Quay, Shrewsbury, West Midlands, SY38HQContact name, email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure