Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 28 Aug 2026, 14:06 BST

Official UK procurement notice

East Midlands Freeport - HR Services

Authority: Leicestershire County Council (Local council)

ServicesBelow thresholdSME suitable
Planned pipeline value£99,000pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Contract term 1 yrends 30 Sept 2027 · starts 1 Oct 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

East Midlands Freeport (EMF) is seeking to procure a comprehensive, outsourced Human Resources (HR) service to support the organisation as it transitions away from the current HR provision hosted by Leicestershire County Council. The outsourced service will be required to provide a full HR function, covering strategic, operational and advisory activity, aligned to EMF's ambitions as a lean, high growth organisation operating within a complex governance and regulatory context.

*Please not contract start and end dates given in this notice are not accurate*

*Contract value is an approximate value *

Please note: This engagement is exploratory only. It does not constitute a procurement process, call for competition, invitation to tender, or commitment by East Midlands Freeport to undertake any future procurement activity. Participation in this engagement will not give any provider an advantage or disadvantage in relation to any future opportunity, should one arise.

CPV: Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1Planned 1 yrSME

Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published

How Leicestershire County Council buys Business services: law, marketing, consulting (CPV 79), and who usually turns up

Leicestershire County Council’s published record next to the market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Business services: law, marketing, consulting (CPV 79) →

1

How the contest usually goes

Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.

Question for the bid
This buyerLeicestershire County Council · division 79
What to do with it
How often do SMEs win?
i

How often small and medium firms win.

Share of awards where the winner’s size is known.

The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 12 of 17 known-size awards · market: division 79 · East Midlands, n=671
71%50%

Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.

How often do local suppliers win?
i

How often local firms win similar work.

Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.

Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered. The market figure counts awards delivered in East Midlands.

A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 2 of 23 known-location awards · market: division 79 · East Midlands, n=985
9%11%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered outside the region where that award was delivered.

How long to a decision?
i

How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.

Middle value in days from the bid deadline to the award date, on competitions that published both.

Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: no decision dates published · market: division 79 · East Midlands, n=106
—52 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 52 days of the bid deadline.

How often single-bid or direct?
i

How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.

Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.

Both shares are minimums: some awards have no bid count.

Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: at least 13 of 16 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: division 79 · East Midlands, n=961
81%50%

Direct awards or one recorded bid are common here. Check the route before spending time on a bid.

How many bids did past lots attract?

i

How many bids past lots received.

Each colour is a bid-count range. Only competed lots with a published count are included.

Past bids do not predict this tender.

Last 36 months.

This buyer44 lots with bid counts · all categories
14% had one bid
The market127 lots with bid counts · division 79 · East Midlands
8% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid14% / 8%
Buyer: 6 of 44 lots with published bid counts. Market: 10 of 127 lots with published bid counts.
2–320% / 26%
Buyer: 9 of 44 lots with published bid counts. Market: 33 of 127 lots with published bid counts.
4–652% / 23%
Buyer: 23 of 44 lots with published bid counts. Market: 29 of 127 lots with published bid counts.
7+14% / 43%
Buyer: 6 of 44 lots with published bid counts. Market: 55 of 127 lots with published bid counts.

How did awards compare with estimates?

i

Where winning prices landed against estimates.

Each colour shows awards below, close to or above the published estimate, one lot at a time.

Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.

Last 36 months.

This buyer48 lots with estimate and award · all categories
8% below estimate
The market117 lots with estimate and award · division 79 · East Midlands
41% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate8% / 41%
Buyer: 4 of 48 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 48 of 117 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%81% / 50%
Buyer: 39 of 48 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 58 of 117 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate10% / 9%
Buyer: 5 of 48 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 11 of 117 lots with an estimate and award.
2

Assess each lot
i

What past awards tell you about each lot.

See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.

No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.

Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list

Lot #1CPV 7912 monthsSME suitablePublished estimate£99k

This lot lists more than one class in CPV 79. The comparison uses that group.

Expected competition
i

How many bids this lot may attract.

The forecast uses similar past competitions. The bar shows either that forecast or past bid counts; the line below says which.

Each lot shows its own forecast based on its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative. The bar shows 127 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet8% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 127 similar lots
1 bid8%
10 of 127 similar past lots received 1 bid (8%).
2–326%
33 of 127 similar past lots received 2–3 (26%).
4–623%
29 of 127 similar past lots received 4–6 (23%).
7+43%
55 of 127 similar past lots received 7+ (43%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 5 bids.
Commercial price forecast
i

Where the award price may land.

The forecast uses similar awards and the buyer’s estimate. The band covers the middle half of likely prices.

No comparable awards for this lot yet.

A statistical guide from past awards, not a price to bid.

—No model forecast yet
No comparable awards on record for this lot’s category yet. The published estimate is £99k, and the forecast stays empty until the market has a record to read.

Who has supplied this buyer on similar work?
i

Who has done similar work for this buyer.

Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.

A past supplier may not bid again.

No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.

Who could compete for this lot?
i

Who could compete for this lot?

Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.

None is confirmed as a bidder.

Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.

About this data
  • Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New notices arrive through the day; the figures are rebuilt nightly.
  • Two views, kept apart. The authority’s own track record and the wider market for the same kind of work sit side by side and are never mixed. Where the local picture is too thin, a figure widens to a broader market and says which one it used.
  • Forecasts are labelled. The price forecast and its range, possible competitors and the earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards: not published facts, not win chances and not price advice. Official notices do not say who is bidding.
  • Every figure shows what it rests on. Not every notice publishes a bid count, a value or a delivery region, so each figure carries the number of records behind it, and one built on few records is marked as such. The on a figure explains it; the counting rules are in the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.

Procedure terms & legal framework

From the official record
Legal basis
UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
Procurement category
Services
Notice status
Planned procurement
Procurement threshold
Below threshold
Regulatory regime
Standard
Commercial structure
Stand-alone contract (no framework)
Competition type
Competitive procedure
GPA / WTO covered
Unspecified in notice
Recurring procurement
Unspecified in notice
First published
28 Aug 2026, 14:06 BST
Last source update
28 Aug 2026, 14:06 BST
Authority reference
DN827815
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-082204
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security
Delivery area
East Midlands (UKF22)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06ee96 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

28 Aug 2026 → 1 Oct 2026 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published60 days ago
    28 Aug 2026, 14:06 BST
  2. Market engagement31 days ago
    25 Sept 2026, 23:59 BST

    Please note this is not an opportunity to tender but is an information gathering exercise to inform East Midlands Freeports (EMF) future requirement. LCC are running this process on EMFs behalf.

    Please respond to the questions within the RFI document which an be found on Providers wishing to take part can register their interest via the Council's e-tendering portal EastMidsTenders : www.eastmidstenders.org ↗

    Providers should register/log-in to the East Midlands Tenders portal via the above link and search for the opportunity using the reference DN827815. Full event details, including information on how to register, are available under the opportunity listing.

  3. Contract starts26 days ago
    1 Oct 2026, 00:00 BST

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    28 Aug 2026, 14:06 BST
    UK2

Commercial outcome & contract awards

Pipeline notice
Awards (0)
No award published
Contracts (0)
No contract published
Bid statistics
No aggregate bid statistics published

Contracting authority & participating public bodies

Leicestershire County Council

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PNHT-9235-VXDV County Hall, Leicester, East Midlands, LE3 8RAContact email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure