Official UK procurement notice
Forensic Case Management System
Authority: Police and Crime Commissioner for West Midlands (Police & fire)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe Police and Crime Commissioner for West Midlands as the Contracting Authority for West Midlands Police is seeking information to inform the procurement strategy for a future tender for a Forensic Case Management System (FCMS) to support the delivery of forensic science activities. There is a possibility that this may lead to a collaborative opportunity with other contracting authorities.
The supplier market engagement is being held to explore if there are solutions, systems or innovations within the market place which may be able to provide the below and inform the future procurement strategy and/or specification:
Support all forensic science activities, including digital forensics, enabling the end-to-end management of forensic cases from submission through examination, reporting, review, and finalisation.
Support evidential integrity, continuity, and full auditability across multiple forensic disciplines.
Capable of integration with existing force systems, including Command and Control, Records Management and Property Management systems, to enable secure and efficient data exchange, reduce duplication, and support operational policing requirements.
Provide the capability to securely store, manage, and retrieve forensic imagery and documentation, including photographs, reports, exhibits, and associated materials, with appropriate access controls, versioning, and audit trails.
Functionality to support quality management, including compliance with applicable forensic standards and regulatory requirements, audit processes, non-conformance management, and continuous improvement.
An integrated asset register is required to record, manage, and track forensic assets, tools, and equipment, including calibration, maintenance, and lifecycle information.
Comprehensive management information and reporting, including configurable dashboards and reporting tools to support operational, performance, and strategic oversight.
Ability to support automation, including workflow management, task allocation, alerts, and automated retention and disposal of records and digital material in line with legislative, regulatory, and force retention policies.
The future engagement may also test feasibility, potential commercials and delivery models.
Participation in this, or any future market engagement, is not a condition of participation in any future procurement.
CPV: Records management · Software package and information systems
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Police and Crime Commissioner for West Midlands buys Miscellaneous business-related services (CPV 7999), and who usually turns up
Police and Crime Commissioner for West Midlands’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: Miscellaneous business-related services (CPV 7999) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
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.
Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.
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.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered outside the region where that award was delivered.
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.
Half of these awards have an award date within 68 days of the bid deadline.
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.
Missing bid counts may hide more single-bid awards. This share is a minimum.
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.
1 bid20% / 14%
2–380% / 27%
4–60% / 29%
7+0% / 30%
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.
Below estimate50% / 42%
Within ±2%50% / 35%
Above estimate0% / 22%
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.
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 7999Estimate not published
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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 138 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid14%
2–327%
4–629%
7+30%
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.
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.
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.
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
- Above threshold (FTS publication)
- 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
- 13 Jan 2026, 16:46 GMT
- Last source update
- 13 Jan 2026, 16:46 GMT
- Authority reference
WMP0919- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-002846- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-060519Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
13 Jan 2026 → 1 Apr 2028 · 3 dates- Planning notice published286 days ago13 Jan 2026, 16:46 GMT
- Market engagement26 days ago30 Sept 2026, 23:59 BST
Initial registration of interest to be invited to a Virtual MS Team event on Wednesday 21st January 2026, 10am to 11.30am.
Please register via email to: procurement@westmidlands.police.uk
Deadline for registration: Tuesday 20th January 2026, 12 noon
Possible future events could include:
Supplier Questionnaires/Requests for further information
1-2-1 Engagement Sessions by invitation
System demonstrations by invitation
- Today27 Oct 2026
- Contract starts1 Apr 2028, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published13 Jan 2026, 16:46 GMTUK2
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
Official documents & specifications (1)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender