Procurement policy

Procurement process

Procurement is the process of acquiring goods, works and services, covering both acquisitions from third parties and from in house providers. It is a much broader term than ‘purchasing’. 

The process spans the whole cycle from identification of needs through to the end of a service contract or the end of the useful life of an asset. It involves options appraisal and the critical 'make or buy' decision that may result in the provision of services in-house.

All procurement of goods, works and services is based on value for money, having due regard to propriety, regularity and our legal obligations. 

Value for money as a contract award criterion is defined for the purposes of our Contract Procedure Rules as "the optimum combination of whole life cost and quality - or fitness for purpose - to meet the customer's requirement", which is consistent with government procurement policy. 

In a procurement process 'obtaining best value for money' means choosing a bid that offers the best combination of costs and benefits to meet our requirement. It means assessing the ongoing revenue costs as well as the initial capital investment. Our requirement can include social, environmental and other strategic objectives and is defined at the start of the procurement cycle.