Providing your services to the council

What are Contract Procurement Rules?

To ensure we are letting contracts on a fair and objective basis and achieving value for money for our residents, we follow a set of rules refered to as the Contract Procurement Rules when procuring goods, services or works.

These outline the rules and requirements for advertising, tendering, awarding and extending contracts at Waverley. 

Our suppliers and potential suppliers need to understanding the rules we need to follow.

Contract Procurement Rules (issued in accordance with section 135 of the 1972 Local Government Act) are intended to promote good purchasing practice and public accountability and deter corruption.

Current tenders and contracts opportunities

You can find information on current tenders and contract opportunities at Waverley on the South East Shared Services e-Sourcing portal.

Contracts Register

You can see all our current contracts in our Contracts Register.

Number of tenders/quotations for work

At present our rules require:

Financial threshold (UK Pounds) and number of quotations/tenders required.

• £0 - £4,999 - Minimum of one quote

• £5,000 - £24,999 - Minimum of three quotes

• £25,000 - £99,999 - Minimum of three quotes

• Over £100,000 - Minimum of four tenders sought

As of 1 January 2022 the new threshold values, inclusive of VAT, to apply for the purposes of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 are as follows;

• Works £5,336,937

• Supplies & Services £213,477

Issues or concerns

If you have any serious concerns or issues about our:

• procurement processes or suppliers, you can email Waverley procurement at Procurement@waverley.gov.uk or alternatively you  find out more about how to report Fraud and corruption
• public procurement practices, you can use the government's independent Public Procurement Review scheme (gov.uk)

How to become a council supplier

Contracts over £5,000

Register on the SE Shared Services e-sourcing portal to see requests for quotes and tenders over £5,000. If you want to tender for a piece of work, you can express an interest and submit your bid online.

e-sourcing portal

Contracts under £5,000

We request quotes from suppliers directly. 

Please email procurement@waverley.gov.uk if you want to be considered as a supplier for work under £5,000. We will pass your email to the relevant team.

Types of work we tender for

The Contracts Register is an online searchable list of Waverley's current contracts valued over £5,000 and shows details such as start and end dates, contract values, and a description of what is being supplied.

Know what to expect when bidding for work with the council

Suppliers delivering goods, services or works for Waverley Borough Council will be expected to do so in accordance with our council policies including, amongst others, the council's Sustainable Procurement Policy and Safeguarding policy. These policies should be read in conjunction with all other documents issued as part of a tender. Suppliers working with the council will need to agree to the councils Terms and Conditions of Purchase.

Purchase Orders (POs) needed before sending an invoice

We operate a No PO, No Pay policy. This means that the processing and payment of invoices will be delayed without an official Purchase Order.

Other helpful information

• Gov.uk's overview on selling to the public sector
• Winning the Contract (PDF) course
• Supply to Surrey - Supply to Surrey is your central point of information for a variety of Surrey contract opportunities
• Contract Finder - Use Contract Finder to find out about current contract opportunities with the government and its agencies
• Ted.europa.eu - easy and free way to check for high-value public sector tenders (OJEU tenders)

Assessment of expressions of interest

Any organisation that responds to an advertisement with an expression of interest must be prepared to enter into an assessment process.

We need to select our suppliers carefully to ensure they have the capacity and commitment to fulfil the contract and offer value for money.

Organisations will be assessed as a minimum on:

• Financial stability and resources
• Technical and other relevant references
• Adequacy of insurances
• Qualifications and experience
• Environmental, ethical and employment policies.

If we have selected firms that have been assessed by a recognised organisation or as part of an appropriate framework agreement such as Constructionline, we will not seek to repeat the assessment already undertaken but may supplement it with any additional considerations.

Assessment of tenders/quotations

We will consider all tenders/quotations for contracts which have been received by the deadline and in accordance with all delivery instructions.  They will all be opened at the same time and a record kept.

They will then be assessed according to the process laid down in our Contract Procedure Rules or relevant legislation, as appropriate. Normally we will accept the offer from the contractor who has been able to satisfy our minimum requirements and has offered the lowest price. However, in many cases other issues will also be considered but these will have been formally agreed in advance and will be set out in the tender documentation.