Procurement
Our procurement team is committed to providing a high-quality, professional, value-for-money service to customers.
We provide advice and guidance on the procurement of all goods, works and services in the council, making sure money and resources are used economically and efficiently.
The council is a member of YORtender - eu-supply e-procurement portal, which is used across the Yorkshire and Humber area. All existing formal procurement activities will be administered through the YORtender site. Potential suppliers can register for free on this site.
The Local Government Transparency Code 2015 requires councils to provide details of:
- invitations to tender to provide goods and/or services with a value over £5,000. The councils threshold for completing an invitations to tender, as opposed to an invitation to quote, is set by the council's Contract Procedural Rules. Currently, it stands at £50,000. If considered appropriate, tenders can be invited for contracts below that value. Tender will be advertised and administered through YORtender.
- contracts, commissioned activity, purchase orders, framework agreements and any other legally enforceable agreement with a value that exceeds £5,000.
Details of this information can be found at:
View the council's contract register within eu-supply.
All tender opportunities will be advertised on Contracts Finder, as well as details of all awarded contracts over £10,000.
Where possible lower value opportunities are advertised via the portal too. For more detailed information, read our:
- Procurement strategy
- Purchase order terms and conditions - goods
- Purchase order terms and conditions - services
- Contract procedure rules
Tenders and quotes process
Tender process
Once you've expressed an interest, the tender documents you'll receive usually consist of:
Suitability assessment questionnaire
This will be used for procurement processes over the EU thresholds.
This assesses the suitability of the organisation's commercial, technical and financial capabilities and provides a method of shortlisting interested parties meeting the required minimum qualification criteria. This helps control the cost of the tendering process.
Invitation to Tender (ITT)
Information will include:
- Timescales for the remainder of the process
- A deadline date for submission
- A specification detailing our requirement
- A scoring criteria outlining how your submission will be evaluated
- A pricing schedule
- The terms and conditions
Quote process
Invitation to Quote (ITQ)
Information will include:
- Timescales for the remainder of the process
- A deadline date for submission
- A specification detailing our requirement
- A scoring criteria outlining how your submission will be evaluated
- A pricing schedule
- The terms and conditions
Evaluations
After the deadline has passed, we evaluate all returned proposals in accordance with the award criteria contained within the tender or quotation.
Awards
Once we've evaluated the proposals and the most suitable supplier has been identified, approval is sought at director level and all suppliers will be notified of the outcome via the tendering portal.
Equal opportunities
As part of the tender or quotation process, suppliers may be required to provide evidence that they've equal opportunities policies in place and are committed to them.
Environmental policies
We're committed to using the resources entrusted to us to ensure best value for money at the least possible cost to the environment. As part of this we will focus on specifying less environmentally damaging products, promoting greater use of renewable sources, and encouraging suppliers to use environmentally-friendly practices throughout the production process.
Health and safety
Successful contractors and suppliers are expected to demonstrate compliance with current health and safety legislation.
Contracts are monitored to ensure compliance with contract standards and health and safety requirements.