We use an open tender process as standard practice. All information about a contract is published in a single pack, and any interested party can submit a tender.

Where the contract requires it, procurement procedures other than the open tender procedure may be selected. This is in accordance with the Public Contract Regulations 2015.

We do not use pre-qualification questionnaires to shortlist tenders.

Advertising thresholds

The way we advertise contracts and manage the tendering process depends on the value of the contract.

• Contracts worth less than £5,000 can be managed by email and require only a single quote. They need only be advertised for one week.
• Contracts worth less than £25,000 can be managed by email, but they require three quotes. They must be advertised for two weeks.
• Contracts worth less than £100,000 must be managed online and advertised for three weeks.
• Contracts worth less than the EU threshold must be managed online and advertised for four weeks.
• Contracts worth more than the EU threshold must be managed online and advertised for five weeks.

The EU threshold is currently £164,176 for goods and services, and £4,104,394 for works.

Online advertising

We advertise all of our contracts on the LGSS procurement portal.

Registering on the portal allows you to choose to receive notifications about any or all advertised contracts.

We are also required to publish all contracts worth more than £25,000 on the GOV.UK Contracts Finder. Contracts exceeding the EU threshold must be advertised in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). You can access the OJEU by registering on the Tenders Direct or Tenders Electronic Daily websites. These sites can also send you notifications about contracts that match your criteria.