Consulting Contracts and Tenders

Consultancy procurement covers management and strategy consultancy, engineering and technical consultancy across civil, structural and mechanical and electrical work, and cost and project management for construction projects. Economic and policy reviews, regeneration plans, sustainability and energy studies, and governance and risk advice also come up.

Stotles brings together consultancy 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. Much consultancy is called off from frameworks, so some opportunities reach only firms already on them.

Winning public sector consultancy work starts with getting onto the frameworks buyers call off from, then competing in mini-competitions with a clear method, the right team and relevant experience. Specialist expertise in an area a buyer is short of, such as cost management or a technical discipline, is often what decides a smaller award.

Consultancy tenders set minimum professional indemnity insurance, check financial standing and ask for evidence of similar commissions and the qualifications of the team at selection stage. Engineering and cost consultancy often asks for chartered professionals. Under the Procurement Act 2023, suppliers can be excluded for certain criminal convictions, insolvency or failure to pay tax.

The Crown Commercial Service Management Consultancy Framework is a common route for management advice, covering strategy and policy, complex and transformation work, finance, health and social care, and infrastructure. Central government departments, regulators, local authorities and NHS bodies buy from it, by direct award or a further competition.

Technical consultancy runs through other frameworks. The Scotland Excel engineering and technical consultancy framework is called off by Scottish councils for civil, environmental and design work, and the YPO managing consultancy and professional services framework is used by councils and YPO itself for procurement, commercial and technical studies.

Central government departments and arm's-length bodies, councils, NHS trusts, universities and colleges, and devolved and Irish public bodies are the regular buyers of consultancy services.

Most public sector consultancy contracts are short projects of under a year, such as a review, feasibility study or design stage. Framework agreements and programme support contracts run for several years.

Read corporate plans, capital programmes, regeneration strategies and preliminary market engagement notices, which show consultancy 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.

The core code is 79400000 (Business and management consultancy and related services), alongside 71530000 (Construction consultancy services), 73000000 (Research and development services and related consultancy services), 71311000 (Civil engineering consultancy services) and 71312000 (Structural engineering consultancy services).