Route One is designed to reflect the legal requirement to ensure all public sector procurement is undertaken in an open, objective and equitable manner.
You should consider whether your requirement could be met through an existing national, sector led, local or UK wide framework or contract, such as one provided by UK Universities Purchasing Consortia (UKUPC). You can check with your local procurement department if you are in doubt.
When selecting suppliers to submit quotations, it is worthwhile remembering that a diverse range of organisations - whether multi-national companies, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), social enterprises or third sector bodies - may be ideally placed to provide innovative solutions to meet you requirements and to deliver value for money, either individually or as part of a group.
Note: the contract value is the total value of the contract, excluding VAT, over the entire lifetime of the contract. Requirements must not be 'split' into contracts of lower value, or contracts reduced in duration, to avoid the need to advertise/conduct a full tender exercise.
Files and documents forming part of this procurement process should be kept for any future audit. You should ensure you are familiar with your institutions’ document retention policy and any guidance which may impact on the project prior to seeking quotations. It should be noted that purchases of goods and services may routinely be the subject of Freedom of Information requests.
This process should not be used where advertising is required. Note, advertising may be required as a result of the procurement exceeding the transparency requirements, procurement thresholds or your organisation’s own financial regulations requiring the procurement to be advertised. Where advertising is necessary, the requirement should be formally tendered, and there may be a requirement to advertise on Find a Tender or Contracts Finder. If you need to advertise a contract, please contact your Head of Procurement or Central Procurement team.
Before carrying on, please check you've got everything you need:
