Business procurement

Doing Business with the Council

We want to encourage local businesses to tender or quote competitively to supply the Council because we recognise the positive contribution small businesses can have in the in the local economy.

The Council's Procurement Strategy explains how the Council approaches the procurement of its works, goods and services. For a copy of this document, please see the 'relevant documents' section to the right of this page. The Council sees procurement as playing a vital role in delivering efficient and effective services to the public and helping to support sustainable local communities.

In April 2006 the Council signed the Concordat for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises aimed at emcouraging trade between local authorities and small business. The Concordat sets out what small firms and other community and voluntary organisations supplying the Council can expect when tendering for contracts. For a copy of this document, please see the 'relevant documents' section to the right of this page.

The Council has produced a leaflet, Doing Business with the Council, A Guide for Suppliers. This includes key information from these web pages. For a copy of this document, please see the 'relevant documents' section to the right of this page. Copies are also available at our reception areas and local libraries.

Business Opportunities

You can find out about current and planned business opportunities at the District Council as follows:

Check for advertisements in:

• The local press

• Any trade journal applicable to your industry

• The Official Journal of the European Union

In the list of tendering opportunities. For a copy of this document, please see the 'relevant documents' section to the right of this page.

In the list of current Council contracts. This list provides details of current contracts and named contact officers for further information on individual contracts. For a copy of this document, please see the 'relevant documents' section to the right of this page.

The Council's tendering process

Any interested business or enterprise can express an interest in any of our advertised tendering opportunities.

For construction related contracts the Council no longer operates a Select List of Approved Contractors. In February 2003 the Council agreed to use Constructionline as its its selection method for construction related contracts. Constructionline is a national register of contractors jointly administered by the Department of Trade and Industry, and Capita. If you need further information about the register visit their website (external link at the bottom of this page).

The pre-qualification process for certain contracts that fall below OJEU requirements includes a standard self assessment questionnaire used by all Sussex councils. Where the pre-qualification process is used only those who pass the pre-qualification stage will be invited to submit a tender. For a copy of this document, please see the 'relevant documents' section to the right of this page.

At the European (OJEU) tender threshold, the Council has the choice of a number of procedures. We will chose the most appropriate one and make this clear when placing the notice. This may require the completion of a more formal and detailed Pre-Qualification Questionnaire.

N.B. All successful bidders will be contracted on the Council's terms and conditions.

The Council's quotation and tendering value thresholds

These thresholds fall into four categories:

European Requirements (The thresholds can be found on the Office of Government Commerce web site - please see the relevant external link at the bottom of this page).

Contracts costing £25,000 or more

Contracts between £5,000 and £25,000

Contracts less than £5,000

The thresholds and associated procedures are described in Our Procurement Procedures. For a copy of this document, please see the 'relevant documents' section to the right of this page.