Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 30 Oct 2026, 15:21 GMT

Official UK procurement notice

Public Cloud Hosting - AZURE

Authority: Home Office (Central government)

ServicesAward under frameworkAbove threshold
Sectors: IT Services & Software (72) Delivery: UK
Planned pipeline value£150,790,007pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected 4 Jan 2027from the planned procurement notice
Contract term 3 yrsends 30 Mar 2030 · up to 30 Mar 2031 with extensions · starts 31 Mar 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Renewal of Microsoft Azure public cloud services to support the Home Office’s current and future cloud hosting requirements.

CPV: IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1PlannedRenewal 3 yrs
Contract period: 31 Mar 2027 – 30 Mar 2030 (3 yrs) · up to 30 Mar 2031 with extensions
Delivery: UK
Extensions: Extension options published

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

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

How Home Office buys IT services: consulting, software, internet (CPV 72), and who usually turns up

Home Office’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: IT services: consulting, software, internet (CPV 72) →

1

How the contest usually goes

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

Question for the bid
This buyerHome Office · division 72
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: 6 of 35 known-size awards · market: division 72 · UK-wide, n=3,477
17%37%

Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning. Small firms win less of this buyer’s work than the market’s: 17% against 37%, n=35.

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.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 1 of 5 known-location awards · market: division 72 · UK-wide, n=2,595
20%36%

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 72 · UK-wide, n=399
—50 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 50 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 26 of 46 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: division 72 · UK-wide, n=5,336
57%63%

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 buyer27 lots with bid counts · all categories
11% had one bid
The market784 lots with bid counts · division 72 · UK-wide
12% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid11% / 12%
Buyer: 3 of 27 lots with published bid counts. Market: 97 of 784 lots with published bid counts.
2–337% / 28%
Buyer: 10 of 27 lots with published bid counts. Market: 219 of 784 lots with published bid counts.
4–641% / 28%
Buyer: 11 of 27 lots with published bid counts. Market: 220 of 784 lots with published bid counts.
7+11% / 32%
Buyer: 3 of 27 lots with published bid counts. Market: 248 of 784 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 buyer35 lots with estimate and award · all categories
46% below estimate
The market530 lots with estimate and award · division 72 · UK-wide
46% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate46% / 46%
Buyer: 16 of 35 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 244 of 530 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%34% / 38%
Buyer: 12 of 35 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 200 of 530 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate20% / 16%
Buyer: 7 of 35 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 86 of 530 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 7236 monthsPublished estimate£151m

This lot lists more than one class in CPV 72. 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 784 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet12% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 784 similar lots
1 bid12%
97 of 784 similar past lots received 1 bid (12%).
2–328%
219 of 784 similar past lots received 2–3 (28%).
4–628%
220 of 784 similar past lots received 4–6 (28%).
7+32%
248 of 784 similar past lots received 7+ (32%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 4 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 £151m, 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.

Restricted route (Stage 2 ITT / Shortlist): Bidding is restricted to invited candidates who qualified at Stage 1. Uninvited suppliers cannot participate in this round.

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
Procedure method
Award under framework
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
Call-off under a framework
Competition type
Competitive procedure
GPA / WTO covered
Unspecified in notice
Recurring procurement
Unspecified in notice
First published
30 Oct 2026, 15:21 GMT
Last source update
30 Oct 2026, 15:30 GMT
Authority reference
Project_19816
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-103364
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support
Delivery area
UK
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-0794e7 Find a Tender
Related procedures1

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

30 Oct 2026 → 31 Mar 2027 · 4 dates
  1. Planning notice published15h ago
    30 Oct 2026, 15:21 GMT
  2. Today
    31 Oct 2026
  3. Market engagementin 38 days
    8 Dec 2026, 23:59 GMT

    A TechUK virtual market engagement event will be taking place on 8th December 2026 for suppliers registered on G-cloud 15 Lot 1A. Further joining instructions will be sent via the Jaggaer e-sourcing portal shortly.

  4. Tender notice expectedin 65 days
    4 Jan 2027, 23:59 GMT
  5. Contract startsin 150 days
    31 Mar 2027, 00:00 BST

Notice history

2 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 30 Oct 2026
  1. Pipeline notice published
    30 Oct 2026, 15:21 GMT
    UK1
  2. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    30 Oct 2026, 15:30 GMT
    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

Home Office

Contracting authorityPublic authority - central government GB-PPON: PWGC-6513-PQLZ 2 Marsham Street, London, London, SW1P 4DFContact email

Official documents & specifications (2)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure