The Marketplace
Summary:
This framework agreement, let under the Procurement Act 2023, gives public sector organisations access to products and services classified as tail spend. These are products that are often low complexity and one-off purchases which organisations usually buy to meet a specific, short-term or long-term need.
Description:
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:
This agreement will help make your organisation more efficient whilst improving your social value contribution. Benefits include:
- free: there will be no charge to buyers for accessing this agreement
- fast and convenient: we intend to provide the public sector with a buying platform to give a streamlined route for buyers to access a broad range of products and commoditised services. A range that constantly expands based on your demands
- social value focus: make ethical purchasing decisions based on social value criteria such as vendor locations, diversity status and sustainable products, we will aim to meet Government targets on SME spending
- efficiency savings: this solution will aim to pull multi-category product and commoditised service searches together in one place helping reduce the time your organisation spends sourcing multiple quotes, leaving you with more time to focus on other priorities
- reporting and invoicing: better visibility of spend and purchases
- compliance with the Procurement Policy Note 06/21: ‘Taking account of Carbon Reduction Plans in the procurement of major government contracts’
Product types:
Product types are to be determined following customer and market engagement.
Customer engagement
Customer engagement has commenced, please email the tail spend solution team using themarketplace@crowncommercial.gov.uk if you would like to share your current and future requirements that this agreement will need to meet or provide us with feedback.
Please email themarketplace@crowncommercial.gov.uk should you have any questions or would like a 1:1 discussion.
Supplier engagement
We will be holding a briefing session for interested parties on 9 July 2024. The session will cover the broad objectives of any subsequent procurement exercise and its potential scope. Following the briefing session, there will be an opportunity to engage with the team to seek further clarification.
To participate in the briefing session please email the team using themarketplace@crowncommercial.gov.uk with the following details by no later than midday on 8 July 2024:
- organisation name
- contact name
- job title of contact (including responsibility within your organisation)
- contact phone number
- contact email
- link to your organisation’s website
*The first draft of our specification is available for review. Please note that the draft is a working document being shared for information purposes only, and we expect to make iterative updates as we refine the specification based on both continued customer and market feedback. To provide feedback please email the tail spend team using themarketplace@crowncommercial.gov.uk .
** We have documented required compliance, accreditation’s and insurances. Please note that the requirements are subject to change as we develop the agreement. The final bid pack will confirm our requirements.
Important links
| Planned procurement notice | Read planned procurement notice |
| Contract Notice in Find a Tender (FTS) | Read Contract Notice |
| Tender documents | Read draft specification* |
Timeline
| Activity | Estimated dates |
| Pre-market engagement | July 2024 to April 2025 |
| Drafting of procurement documentation | Until April 2025 |
| Publication of find a tender (FTS) notice | To be confirmed |
| Framework Award | To be confirmed |
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.