Official UK procurement notice
Specialist advice and testing on corrosive protection of Steelwork
Authority: National Highways Limited (Central government)·Consortium: 2 public authorities
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionNational Highways (NH) is looking to secure the provision of a single supplier to provide independent specialist technical advice on all issues relating to paints and the corrosion protection of steelwork used in our highway structures.
As well as providing specialist technical advice the services will include undertaking inspections of paint to structures on
sites within England, obtaining and testing paint samples and the testing of paints to ensure durability of products used.
The strategic road network includes motorways, and single and dual carriageway all-purpose trunk roads. It is proposed to construct a large number of steel highway structures associated with major schemes. National Highways is also responsible for maintaining approximately 1750 steel bridges, 3000 steel gantry
structures and many minor steel structures such as masts and lighting columns on the strategic road network
CPV: Corrosion engineering services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1AwardedRenewal
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Procedure method
- Direct award
- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Awarded without competition
- Procurement threshold
- Above threshold (FTS publication)
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Direct award (no call for competition)
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 6 Aug 2025, 14:19 BST
- Last source update
- 13 Oct 2026, 14:59 BST
- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-096630- Latest notice
- Contract details notice (UK7)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-058291Find a Tender
- Why no open competition
- Single Suppliers Technical Reasons
- Published justification
The specialist advice and testing contract requires a company which can provide independent specialist technical advice on paints and the corrosion protection of steelwork used in our highway structures, as well as undertaking inspections of paint to structures on sites within England and the testing of paints to ensure durability of products used. National Highways can only contract with organisation that has laboratories based in the UK including that the paint inspection and facility capabilities are fully UKAS accredited, and self deliver all elements of the scope. There is a need for a UK testing facility and UKAS accreditation requirements. There is also a mandatory requirement that all personnel must be qualified to a minimum level 2 of the National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE) Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP) and Institute of Corrosion (Corr) personnel.
National Highways released a UK2 Market Engagement Notice in August 2025 to start market engagement activities and understand the capability of the suppliers in this sector. Following extensive engagement there was only one supplier identified that could provide the services are described above and so NH moved away from an open market competition to a Direct Award approach.
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
6 Aug 2025 → 13 Oct 2026 · 5 dates- Planning notice published6 Aug 2025, 14:19 BST
- Market engagement25 Aug 2025, 23:59 BST
Please complete the Microsoft form available at -
- Next notice expected386 days ago30 Sept 2025, 23:59 BST
- Contract starts294 days ago1 Jan 2026
- Latest notice published9 days ago13 Oct 2026, 14:59 BST
Notice history
9 events · 5 releases on Find a Tender · since 6 Aug 2025- Preliminary market engagement notice published6 Aug 2025, 14:19 BSTUK2
- Preliminary market engagement notice published8 Aug 2025, 10:14 BSTUK2
- Transparency notice published22 Jun 2026, 11:45 BSTUK5
- Status changed to complete22 Jun 2026, 11:45 BST
- Procurement method changed22 Jun 2026, 11:45 BST
- Buyer details updated22 Jun 2026, 11:45 BST
- Contract award notice published30 Jul 2026, 16:31 BSTUK6
- Contract signature expected20 Aug 2026, 23:59 BSTscheduled
- Contract details notice published13 Oct 2026, 14:59 BSTUK7
Routine re-releases (5)
- 2025-08: 2 releases · 6 Aug 2025, 8 Aug 2025
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecast| Awarded to | Value | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| SOCOTEC UK LIMITED24 Aug 2026 – 24 Aug 2028 · up to 23 Aug 2030Extensions: A possible extension of up to 2 years is included in the contract | £300,000 | 1 Jun 2026 | Awarded |
Contracts
Contract 1 · SOCOTEC UK LIMITED
- Signed
- 7 Oct 2026
- Value
- £300,000
- Period
- 8 Oct 2026 – 7 Oct 2028 · up to 7 Oct 2030 with extensions
- Status
- active
- Extensions
- A possible extension of up to 2 years is included in the contract
No agreed KPIs: Contract is not above the threshold for publication of KPI's
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
2 public bodies on the noticeConsortium members and other public bodies
- National Highways LimitedContracting authorityPublic authority - central government
Bidders & participating suppliers
1 commercial party on the notice- Socotec UK LimitedAwarded supplier
Official documents & specifications (5)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Contract details notice Contract details notice on Find a Tender
- Contract award notice Contract award notice on Find a Tender
- Transparency notice Transparency notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender