Guarding Tenders and Contracts

Guarding contracts cover manned and static guarding, mobile and security patrols, and ad hoc guarding cover. Contracts for CCTV, alarms or access-control hardware, rather than people on site, fall under wider security services.

Stotles brings together manned guarding 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. Police and emergency services guarding also appears on the Blue Light e-tendering portal, and much guarding is called off from frameworks.

Guarding tenders are scored on staffing and cover arrangements, training, supervision, response times and price per hour. Housing groups and councils often split guarding into regional lots, so bids can target the areas where the firm already operates.

Security officers working on a contract must hold a front-line SIA licence, and buyers check licensing at selection stage. Tenders usually set minimum insurance cover, check financial standing and ask for evidence of similar contracts. Under the Procurement Act 2023, suppliers can be excluded for certain criminal convictions, insolvency or failure to pay tax.

Increasingly, yes. NHS Shared Business Services has been running market engagement for its third-generation Security Services and Surveillance Solutions framework, with a dedicated healthcare guarding lot, and several council and university guarding awards are direct or call-off awards under similar regional or sector frameworks rather than fresh open tenders.

Councils, NHS trusts, museums, universities and government agencies run most of the volume, typically for site guarding, reception or concierge cover, and out-of-hours patrols. NHS Shared Business Services runs a national framework with a dedicated healthcare guarding lot that other NHS bodies call off against.

Read building safety and security programmes, risk assessments, servicing cycles and expiry dates for existing contracts, which show guarding 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 two most common are 79713000 (Guard services) and the broader 79710000 (Security services). Buyers use the broader code more often, since guarding is frequently bundled with patrols and response services under one security contract.