Procurement and tendering

How to work with us on tendering for business opportunities including the rules and regulations you'll need to follow, where to find current opportunities you can bid for, the process for tendering and tips for putting together a bid.

We encourage competition and welcome bids from all types of organisations including large, small and medium sized enterprises and voluntary or community organisations.

Working with us on procurement and tenders

Before you can bid for a tender you must register on the Government's 'Central Digital Platform'. 

Rules and regulations

Our procurement is  governed by UK procurement legislation (The Procurement Act 2023) and by our own Contract Procedure Rules (CPR’s).

Procurement Act 2023

On 24 February 2025, the rules for how we buy goods and services changed. 

The Procurement Act 2023:

  • improves and streamlines the way procurement is done
  • benefits prospective suppliers of all sizes, particularly small businesses, start-ups and social enterprises.

If you were a supplier supplier to the Council before the change you can check the how the changes might affect you by looking at: 

Previous regulations continue to apply to contracts awarded before 24 February 2025.

Contract procedure rules (CPR's)

You can find our CPR’s are part in Part 3 Section 7 - in page 199 of our Council Constitution.

They set out the Council’s tendering procedures and thresholds which are in compliance with the relevant procurement legislation.

A procurement procedure will be carried out in line with the relevant UK procurement legislation.

The opportunity will be advertised on UK Government Portal Find a Tender

Tendering process

To work with us you need to be registered on the Government’s Central Digital Platform (CDP). Anyone can register an interest in a tendering opportunity.

GOV.UK give advice on how to use the CDP online in their Central Digital Platform - factsheet.

For all tenders:

  • all communications must be carried out via the e-tendering system
  • you must complete and return your tender submission by the given date and time
  • the system will not allow you to submit after the deadline has passed and we will not accept or read tenders received by other channels
  • the tender documents will contain everything you need to know about the tender including the requirements, all evaluation criteria, scoring method, scores available for each question and their weightings

We will write to let you know if your tender is unsuccessful and we will provide feedback on why your tender was unsuccessful.

Types of tender process

There are three main process we most often use for tenders. All instructions and processes will be clearly detailed in our Invitation to Tender.

Open procedure:

All suppliers who have expressed an interest are given the opportunity to complete the Invitation to Tender.

Competitive flexible procedure:

The tendering process will have two or more stages and will have been designed to specifically suit the nature of the procurement we're doing. All instructions and processes will be clearly detailed in the Invitation to Tender.

Framework:

We may choose to advertise a framework agreement, with subsequent call-off contracts. All suppliers who have expressed an interest are given the opportunity to complete the Invitation to Tender to join the framework.

Current opportunities

We  advertise all opportunities on the north west e-tendering portal, 'The Chest'.

You can use The Chest to:

  • register as a potential supplier for free
  • find current opportunities

Procurement annual report 

Every year we produce a report on contracts awarded using the Provider Selection Regime.

Ten top tips for tendering

  1. Read the documents in detail and make sure you have a strong understanding of what you need to do. If in doubt ask questions via the Chest in plenty of time.
  2. Be clear on deadlines and ensure your proposal is on time by giving yourself enough time to upload documents to the Chest. We can't accept a tender that is late.
  3. Before sending your tender make sure all the documentation is complete, make sure you include supporting evidence 
  4. Make sure your response is relevant to the specification.
  5. Always consider the points/weighting allocated for the evaluation.
  6. Do not change the documents, important information could be missed missed and it can lead to exclusion.
  7. Label all supporting documents clearly.
  8. Keep answers concise but clear. Give enough detail so we can grasp what is proposed. Remember, not all our team have an in depth knowledge of your goods or services.
  9. Follow the instructions.
  10. Where we ask that expressions of interest, clarification questions and submissions are made via the Chest, please make sure that they are.