The Marketplace
Summary
This framework agreement, let under the Procurement Act 2023, gives public sector organisations access to products and services which may be classed as miscellaneous or outside of large, strategic contracts. This agreement supports both short term and longer term requirements.
Description
This agreement prioritises efficiency and flexibility to support low complexity, largely product focused spend. Low complexity spending can take a lot of different forms, including:
- low price, high frequency: these are items that have low individual value, but over time, are a significant amount of spend
- low price, low frequency: items at the far end of the tail of spending
- misclassified spending: items that are individually purchased and should be consolidated into existing supply contracts and competition systems
- fragmented spending: items that are repeatedly purchased by various parts of the organisation that could be consolidated
- maverick spending: spending that falls outside of the organisation’s procurement guidelines
- unaddressed spending: items that have not been addressed by procurement in a reasonable period (generally considered to be two to three years)
- unusual spending: high-value items that are new procurement’s or are procured only once, or so rarely that the organisation’s procurement staff has no expertise in the area
The aims of this commercial agreement include:
- providing a simple and compliant route to market to support delivery of efficiencies and reconciliations in the public sector
- empowering end users with a consumer style user experience allowing for more strategic deployment of skilled procurement resources
- helping organisations build a better picture of their often overlooked lower complexity spend; to allow it to be managed more appropriately
Benefits
Save time and be more efficient
- buy products and services from different categories in one place
find what you need quickly and easily - spend less time getting quotes
- get a clearer view of your spending and purchases through better reports and invoicing
- see where you can combine spending into existing contracts
Save money
- access the buying platform for free
- choose from a wide range of suppliers
Support social value and meet government targets
- supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) access to public sector spend
- choose suppliers based on their location or diversity status
select sustainable products - follow government rules on carbon reduction plans procurement policy note (PPN) 06/21
Product types
Product types have been finalised. Typical product categories are available under this agreement. For more details, download the bid pack.
Customer engagement
Customer engagement has ended. Contact the marketplace team if you would like to share feedback or requirements of this agreement.
We held a webinar session for public sector buyers on 24 October 2024 to provide an overview of the agreement and to gather feedback.
Contact themarketplace@crowncommercial.gov.uk with any questions or if you want to have a one on one discussion.
Supplier engagement
We held a briefing session for interested parties on 9 July 2024. The session covered the broad objectives of upcoming procurement exercise and potential scope. After the briefing session, there was a question and answer period.
A copy of the slides from the briefing session is available to download. Note, that some information shared during the session may have been removed, updated, or is no longer relevant.
Before submitting a bid, bidders must real all the latest tender documents and the framework contract documents. These are available in the attachments section of the eSourcing tool. Bidders should also make sure they read the published tender notice.
Important links
| Planned procurement notice | Read planned procurement notice |
| Contract Notice in Find a Tender (FTS) | Read Contract Notice |
| Tender Notice | Read Tender Notice |
Timeline
| Activity | Estimated dates |
| Pre-market engagement | July 2024 to August 2025 |
| Drafting of procurement documentation | Until November 2025 |
| Publication of find a tender (FTS) notice | 28 November 2025 |
| Framework Award | 22 July 2026 |
| Framework Go-Live | by October 2026 |
10/04/2025: Our estimated date for tender publication was April 2025, this date has been delayed due to unforeseen circumstances. This web page will be updated with the new estimated dates once confirmed.
15/09/2025: The new tender publication date is 28 November 2025.
01/12/2025: The tender was published on 28 November 2025, read the Tender Notice for more information.