Confined Space Tenders and Contracts

Confined space contracts cover work in sewers, tanks, ducts, shafts, plant rooms and other spaces where gas, oxygen levels or the space itself are the hazard. That includes standby rescue cover during works, confined space management and emergency response services, and training in confined space entry and rope rescue. Fire and rescue services, NHS trusts, water companies and highways contractors are the buyers who return to this category most.

Stotles brings together confined space tenders and contracts from 100+ portals into one search, so you do not have to check each portal separately, and you can set alerts for new opportunities across the UK and Ireland.

If you want to search the government portals directly, Find a Tender carries higher-value contracts across the UK and Contracts Finder carries lower-value contracts in England. Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales and eTendersNI cover Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, Ireland's eTenders covers Irish public bodies, and many councils, NHS bodies and housing associations publish on their own e-tendering portals such as ProContract. Confined space training is often let as a lot inside wider safety training frameworks, so look for it within those notices as well as under its own title.

Work in confined spaces must follow the Confined Spaces Regulations 1997, and training is usually expected to lead to a recognised qualification such as City and Guilds confined space awards. Tenders usually set minimum insurance cover, check financial standing and ask for evidence of similar contracts at selection stage. Under the Procurement Act 2023, suppliers can be excluded for certain criminal convictions, insolvency or failure to pay tax.

Training is often bought as lots in a wider framework beside gas safety, working at height and plant training, while rescue cover is let as a standalone service contract. Fire and rescue services, ambulance services, NHS trusts, councils and government agencies are the regular buyers of confined space work.

Not always. A number of notices bundle confined space entry training, rope rescue and gas safety training into one lot alongside working-at-height courses, so a single framework award can cover training that would otherwise need three separate tenders. Standalone confined space management contracts, covering scheduled visits and a guaranteed emergency response time, are also common, mostly from NHS trusts and water companies.

Read health and safety training plans, water and drainage maintenance programmes, rescue cover contract expiry dates and training framework renewal dates, which show confined space work coming due ahead of a notice. On Stotles you can track those signals and the buyers behind them, then follow a notice from pre-tender through to award.

Confined space work is filed under several CPV codes rather than one, since it spans training, rescue and consultancy. The codes that turn up most are 71317210 (Health and safety consultancy services), 80550000 (Safety training services) and 75250000 (Fire-brigade and rescue services).