What are the tendering guidelines for local government in the UK?

Someone just asked me this and I kinda hummed and hawed about it. These do exist but off the top of my head I couldn’t, for the life of me, remember what local governments have by ways of guidelines for dealing with – and making available – contracts and tenders.

So I thought it’d be a good idea (for my sanity as much as anything) to put some online so I can send anyone who asks to it without trying to remember them.

Guidelines for advertising local government tenders and contracts

Over at the  Information commissioner’s office (ICO) there is a set of tendering guidelines for staff which is a useful place to start getting an idea of the ways in which councils and other government bodies should be advertising the  tenders that they have available at any time. Basically if it’s between £5,000 and £50,000 it should be findable by an average business. Which may be online or offline (visibility in both is generally expected):

4.2 Stage 1: Supplier sourcing

4.2.1 The tendering process should be as open as possible, and thus consideration

should be given at the outset to compiling a tender list of potential suppliers.

4.2.2 In selecting potential suppliers, consideration should be given to the skills and

experiences or qualities that will be required.

4.2.3 Ideally a tender proposal should be advertised to attract a wide pool of potential

suppliers. When advertising, a wide range of media is available in order to

reach the target audience.

4.2.4 Consider using the ICO website, national or local press, trade magazines,

mailing lists, representative bodies or even public meetings.

4.2 Stage 1: Supplier sourcing

4.2.1 The tendering process should be as open as possible, and thus considerationshould be given at the outset to compiling a tender list of potential suppliers.4.2.2 In selecting potential suppliers, consideration should be given to the skills andexperiences or qualities that will be required.

4.2.3 Ideally a tender proposal should be advertised to attract a wide pool of potentialsuppliers. When advertising, a wide range of media is available in order toreach the target audience.

4.2.4 Consider using the ICO website, national or local press, trade magazines,mailing lists, representative bodies or even public meetings.

I know this is only one example and each government body may have differences etc but is a good idea of the kind of ways that tenders may be available to you for bids.

Generally you should try the local press (which can be less successful than you may imagine) this really depends on where you live. Generally the simplest ways to locate a contract to bid for start by doing some research online: there are a number of sites that offer free trials of their system so you can see the value of it to your business before you have to pay (and free’s always good).

Hope that helps you out somewhat – away to compile info on what vendors look for in tender documentation to help you make your bidding process stronger and more  effective.