Official UK procurement notice
Worcester City Council Preliminary Market Engagement Exercise for Memorial Calligraphy Services (Physical & Digital Book of Remembrance).
Authority: Worcester City Council (Local council)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionWorcester City Council is undertaking a Preliminary Market Engagement Exercise (PME) to support its Bereavement Services in understanding the current market for Memorial Calligraphy Services, including physical Books of Remembrance and associated digital or online formats.
The purpose of this engagement is to gather information from suitably experienced and qualified organisations regarding service capability, delivery models, digitisation options, pricing structures, quality assurance arrangements and turnaround times. The information obtained will help inform internal planning, budget setting and any potential future procurement approach.
Interested organisations are invited to review the Specification set out in Appendix 1 of the PME documentation and to complete the Preliminary Market Engagement Questionnaire contained within Appendix 2.
This exercise is being carried out solely as a market sounding and information gathering activity. It is not an invitation to tender, a call for competition, or a request for expressions of interest. Participation in the PME will not confer any advantage or disadvantage in relation to any future procurement process.
The Council may use the outcomes of this PME to shape the scope, specification and procurement strategy of any subsequent procurement exercise. In accordance with sections 16 and 17 of the Procurement Act 2023, the Council reserves the right, subject to internal governance and where legally justified, to consider appropriate procurement routes should the market be extremely limited.
All communication in relation to this PME must take place via the messaging facility on the Council’s procurement portal.
Please see separate document on the portal
The Council is using the e-procurement portal known as the Proactis Pro-Contract portal procontract.due-north.com ↗ to conduct this procurement exercise.
To gain access to the procurement documents, bidders will need to register their company details at the above website. Once registered, bidders will be emailed a log-in and password, allowing them to gain access to the procurement documents. Bidders will need to search for the invitation under Worcester City Council and then electronically submit an expression of interest and follow the online instructions to view the procurement documents.
CPV: Funeral and related services · Miscellaneous furnishing · Miscellaneous services · Printing and related services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Worcester City Council buys Funeral and related services (CPV 9837), and who usually turns up
Worcester City Council’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: Funeral and related services (CPV 9837) →
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. The market figure counts awards delivered in West Midlands.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered outside 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 29 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.
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.
1 bid14% / 26%
2–343% / 52%
4–614% / 22%
7+29% / 0%
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 estimate43% / 21%
Within ±2%14% / 55%
Above estimate43% / 24%
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 3929Published estimate£10k
This lot is listed as CPV 3929. The table above uses the notice category.
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 19 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid11%
2–311%
4–637%
7+42%
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
- Below threshold
- 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
- 9 Apr 2026, 11:56 BST
- Last source update
- 9 Apr 2026, 11:56 BST
- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-032303- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-067ed3Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
9 Apr 2026 → 31 Jul 2026 · 4 dates- Planning notice published198 days ago9 Apr 2026, 11:56 BST
- Market engagement169 days ago7 May 2026, 23:59 BST
Worcester City Council is undertaking a Preliminary Market Engagement Exercise (PME) to support its Bereavement Services in understanding the current market for Memorial Calligraphy Services, including physical Books of Remembrance and associated digital or online formats.
The purpose of this engagement is to gather information from suitably experienced and qualified organisations regarding service capability, delivery models, digitisation options, pricing structures, quality assurance arrangements and turnaround times. The information obtained will help inform internal planning, budget setting and any potential future procurement approach.
Interested organisations are invited to review the Specification set out in Appendix 1 of the PME documentation and to complete the Preliminary Market Engagement Questionnaire contained within Appendix 2.
This exercise is being carried out solely as a market sounding and information gathering activity. It is not an invitation to tender, a call for competition, or a request for expressions of interest. Participation in the PME will not confer any advantage or disadvantage in relation to any future procurement process.
The Council may use the outcomes of this PME to shape the scope, specification and procurement strategy of any subsequent procurement exercise. In accordance with sections 16 and 17 of the Procurement Act 2023, the Council reserves the right, subject to internal governance and where legally justified, to consider appropriate procurement routes should the market be extremely limited.
All communication in relation to this PME must take place via the messaging facility on the Council’s procurement portal.
Please see separate document on the portal
The Council is using the e-procurement portal known as the Proactis Pro-Contract portal procontract.due-north.com ↗ to conduct this procurement exercise.
To gain access to the procurement documents, bidders will need to register their company details at the above website. Once registered, bidders will be emailed a log-in and password, allowing them to gain access to the procurement documents. Bidders will need to search for the invitation under Worcester City Council and then electronically submit an expression of interest and follow the online instructions to view the procurement documents.
- Tender notice expected121 days ago24 Jun 2026, 23:59 BST
- Contract starts85 days ago31 Jul 2026, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published9 Apr 2026, 11:56 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