Direct awards and no-competition notices

Recent notices

1. Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition
   Corporate Print Services

   PROGRESS HOUSING GROUP LIMITED · 7 Sept 2026 · PSL Print Management Ltd · Official notice

   Rationale: Call off a compliant framework. Suppliers services and pricing was evaluated. Contract awarded to MAT.

2. Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition
   Customer Relationship Management System (Renewal)

   West Lothian Council · 7 Sept 2026 · Verint · Official notice

   Rationale: The contract is being awarded without prior publication of a contract notice in accordance with Regulation 33(1)(b) of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015, where competition is absent for technical reasons, including the protection of exclusive rights. West Lothian Council has utilised the Verint Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform since 2008 and transitioned to Verint's cloud-hosted Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model in 2021. The platform is a business-critical application that supports customer contact management, case management, service request handling, workflow automation, online forms and digital self-service across multiple Council services. The CRM platform is proprietary software owned exclusively by Verint Systems UK Limited. Verint retains the intellectual property rights associated with the platform and is the only supplier able to provide the software licences, upgrades, maintenance, development and technical support required for the Council's existing implementation. The platform is embedded within the Council's ICT environment and integrates with a number of corporate systems. Any replacement of the existing solution would require significant data migration, redevelopment of integrations, system reconfiguration, testing, business change activity and user retraining, resulting in substantial additional cost, operational disruption and technical risk. The Council considered alternative procurement routes, including the KCS Software Products and Associated Services Framework, NHS SBS Digital Workspace Solutions Framework and G-Cloud 14. However, these routes would not introduce an alternative supplier capable of providing the proprietary Verint platform and associated services. Service provision would remain dependent upon Verint due to its exclusive ownership and control of the software. In addition, procurement through these routes would increase costs without delivering genuine competition or an alternative technical solution. The Council has therefore concluded that competition is absent for technical reasons, including the protection of exclusive rights, and that a direct award to Verint Systems UK Limited is justified under Regulation 33(1)(b) of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015. A VEAT notice is being published in the interests of transparency and to notify the market of the Council's intention to award the contract directly.

3. Below threshold - without competition
   Legal Services

   LEEDS TRINITY UNIVERSITY · 7 Sept 2026 · PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS LLP · Official notice

4. Below threshold - without competition
   Social Media Management

   MIDLAND HEART LIMITED · 7 Sept 2026 · SocialSignIn Ltd trading as Orlo · Official notice

5. Below threshold - without competition
   Acquisition of ICS550 Equipment

   South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority · 7 Sept 2026 · Technical Solutions Group Ltd · Official notice

6. Direct award
   SE1280 - Sprout Social

   Sport England · 7 Sept 2026 · Sprout Social · Official notice

7. Below threshold - without competition
   AV Methane Survey

   Natural Resources Wales · 7 Sept 2026 · GHGSat UK Ltd · Official notice

8. Direct award
   Hucknall Street Walk Murals for Ashfield District Council

   Nottinghamshire County Council · 7 Sept 2026 · £82k · Reed Specialist Recruitment Limited (trading as Consultancy+) · Official notice

9. Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition
   Microsoft EES Campus Agreement

   University of Staffordshire · 7 Sept 2026 · Phoenix Software Ltd · Official notice

   Rationale: This is compliantly awarded via a Framework Agreement as described in this notice

10. Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition
    Digital Case System

    Cheshire East Council · 7 Sept 2026 · Thomson Reuters (Professional) UK Limited · Official notice

    Rationale: This is a G-Cloud14 framework procurement.

11. Below threshold - without competition
    Development of specifications KPI for soft services

    The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust · 7 Sept 2026 · Just Contract Management Limited · Official notice

12. Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition
    Dishwashers Service Maintenance Contract

    University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust · 7 Sept 2026 · Hobart (UK) Ltd · Official notice

    Rationale: Buy additional / partly replace existing goods, services or works same or compatible with existing

13. Direct award
    Passenger Automatic Ticket Gates Support and Maintenance

    GA TRAINS LIMITED · 7 Sept 2026 · CUBIC TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS LIMITED · Official notice

14. Below threshold - without competition
    Investment Fund provision of employment support to those furthest from the workplace

    East Sussex County Council · 7 Sept 2026 · SUSSEX COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION LTD · Official notice

15. Below threshold - without competition
    New Chair of The Insolvency Service Recruitment campaign

    Department for Business & Trade · 7 Sept 2026 · GatenbySanderson Ltd · Official notice