Sell to Herefordshire Council

Each year, we buy around £130m of products and services. These can range from road salt and CCTV equipment, through to adult social care and child fostering services.
Our contracts register will give you a better idea of the kinds of products and services we currently buy. Our Procurement and commissioning strategy 2018 is also a useful source of information.

Current contracts for tender

The pipeline of future opportunities details tenders that are in the development stage prior to their publication to the market.

We list all our contract opportunities on our electronic procurement portal Supplying the South West. Registering on the portal will keep you informed of relevant opportunities as they arise and enable you to bid for a tender. On the portal you can:

  • View all our advertised tender opportunities
  • Register for free
  • Express interest in relevant tender events
  • Submit tender responses electronically

Procontract support

Support with using the procurement portal is available:

Tender process

For contracts under £75,000 we will ask at least three companies to tender. For contracts larger than this we will go through a formal tendering process. When the value of the goods or services we buy is more than £214,904 including VAT for services or £5,372,609 including VAT for works contracts, we follow the Procurement Act 2023 and Procurement Regulations 2024. The council is required to publish a contract notice for procurements above these thresholds in Find a Tender Service (FTS).

Businesses will be expected to demonstrate their competence and financial stability. We will send you full instructions on how to do so, along with a pricing schedule, a detailed specification, our terms and conditions and the criteria we will use to evaluate your bid.

How bids are evaluated

We award contracts under the value of £75,000 using standard terms and conditions. Bids are evaluated by teams of specialists who review particular aspects of it, like finance or technical and a score is given to each bid based on a set of criteria and guiding principles. We always look for the best balance of quality and price. We monitor all contractors and their sub-contractors to make sure they comply with the performance criteria agreed.

If your bid is not successful, we can provide feedback on what were its strongest and weakest aspects and potential areas for improvement. You can also tell us about your experience of our tendering process.

Terms and conditions

The terms and conditions for each contract opportunity will be uploaded to the electronic procurement portal as part of the tender pack together with the Invitation to Quote or Tender. The terms and conditions used will depend on the nature of the services and works.

For simple, low value procurements the council's standard purchase order terms and conditions will be used, unless we state otherwise, for example, where the we have issued separate terms and conditions.

Terms and conditions for the supply of low value goods and services

Purchase Orders

The council has a No Purchase Order, No Pay policy. This means that invoices received without a correct and valid Purchase Order number quoted will not be paid. This is a key financial control measure, and forms part of our approved Financial Procedure Rules, ensuring that all spend is correctly authorised in our payments system. This also helps to speed up the processing of invoices for suppliers and ensure fair and consistent terms and conditions on goods, works and service.

If you supply goods, works or services to us, you must ask for a valid Purchase Order number from your council contact when an order is placed.

You must not accept verbal or written instruction to supply goods, works or services from any member of staff unless they give you a valid Purchase Order number.

If a Herefordshire Council employee requests goods, works or services from you without giving you a valid Purchase Order number do not accept the order until they give you a Purchase Order number.

Invoices which do not quote a Purchase Order will be returned to the supplier without obligation to pay.

Cooperating with this policy is the best way to make sure your invoice is paid promptly.

What to include on your invoice:

  • Your company name and address
  • Your VAT registration number, if you have one
  • Invoice number
  • Invoice date
  • A valid Purchase Order number
  • Customer name (this must be Herefordshire Council) and address
  • Name of the service area requesting goods or service, or council contact person (you can find this on our purchase order)
  • Full description of the goods or services supplied
  • Quantity, description, unit price, net value, VAT rate, VAT value and line total for each line item
  • Invoice totals of net, VAT and gross

Where goods or services do not have VAT, this should be shown clearly, indicating the VAT treatment as exempt, out of scope or zero rated.

Please note that purchases made using a Corporate Procurement Card do not require a purchase order. Requirements for use of the Corporate Procurement Card are contained within the Corporate Procurement Card Policy and should also be adhered to at all times.

Payment terms

Our standard payment terms are 30 days from the date of a valid and undisputed invoice.

You can find out more from our commercial services team by emailing commercialservices@herefordshire.gov.uk