Working with the council

What the benefits of working with us are

We are fair, non-discriminatory and professional, a long established organisation and prompt to pay.

There is a great deal of competition for our contracts, and this guidance is intended to inform and assist organisations in identifying contract opportunities and participating in the tendering process. However, it cannot assure individual organisations of success.

We do not operate in isolation and have a strong regional presence as a member of the North East Procurement Organisation (NEPO).

Rules and regulations

Our procurement is not only governed by procurement regulations at a European and national level, but also at a local level through our own Contract Procedure Rules. These state that for applicable procurements above £5,000, we will approach the market through the NEPO Portal (ProContract), as governed by our Contract Procedure Rules which are part of our Constitution. In line with The Public Contracts Regulations 2015, we will also advertise through the Gov.uk: Find a Tender Service. Our procurement activity must:

• achieve value for money by achieving the optimum combination of whole life costs, quality and benefits to meet the customer's requirements
• be consistent with the highest standards of integrity
• operate in a transparent manner
• ensure fairness in awarding public contracts
• comply with all legal requirements
• support our corporate and service aims and policies
• comply with our corporate strategy for Commissioning and Procurement and Procurement Code of Practice or documented and approved Sourcing Strategy

What we buy and who buys it

Our default method of inviting tenders and quotations is to use our online etendering system, the NEPO Portal.

As long as you have an email address you can register your interest against a tender and follow the instructions as a supplier. When you register, you can state your interest against certain categories of contracts and will then receive notification of upcoming opportunities.

Who else we procure for

We provide procurement services to a number of other public bodies, who can enter into an agreement with us, allowing them to use our contracts, suppliers, and services.

Becoming a contractor for us therefore means that you may also be winning business with other organisations who may be able to purchase from you through our contracts.

If you are a public contracting authority and would be interested in obtaining our procurement services, please contact us.

How To Do Business guide

Our Guide on how to become a supplier of goods, works and/or services is designed to help suppliers and contractors who wish to supply us with goods or services, or carry out works for us. We use our values to guide us and we encourage all our suppliers and contractors to embrace these values so we collectively achieve our organisational objectives. For information on the causes we support visit Our commitment to equality standards.

Public procurement legislation - The Procurement Act 2023

Later this year significant new regulations will come into effect that will transform public procurement - the Procurement Act 2023. Following the laying of secondary legislation last month, we can confirm that we are working towards a 'go-live' date for the new regime from Monday 28 October 2024.

This is an important piece of legislation that will change the way the public sector buys goods and services. Consequently, you need to know about these changes and our plans to prepare for go-live.

The Cabinet Office, who are leading the Transforming Public Procurement programme have a dedicated page at Gov.uk: Transforming Public Procurement.

Benefits for Prospective Suppliers to the Public Sector sets out how the new regime will deliver a range of benefits for suppliers of all sizes wishing to do business and deliver contracts for the public sector. For further information see Gov.uk: Benefits for prospective suppliers to the Public Sector.

A key objective for the Procurement Act 2023 is to make it easier for suppliers to do business with the public sector - some of those benefits include:

• A central place to register and to store your core business details so that they can be used for multiple bids.
• Improved transparency and access to information, with all public procurement opportunities in one place - making it easier to search for and set up alerts for procurements of interest to you.
• Better visibility of procurement plans, engagement events and tender opportunities - including those below threshold - increasing the number of opportunities available to bid on.
• Simplified bidding processes to make it easier to bid, negotiate and work in partnership with the public sector - including a new 'competitive flexible' procedure.
• A new duty on contracting authorities to have regard to the particular barriers facing Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and Voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSEs), and to consider what can be done to overcome them throughout the procurement lifecycle, helping level the playing field for smaller businesses so they can compete for more contracts.
• Strengthened provisions for prompt payment throughout the supply chain - enabling SMEs to benefit from 30-day payment terms on a broader range of public sector contracts.
• A stronger exclusions framework will take tougher action on underperforming suppliers.

This is a long-term change, so although these benefits may not be visible on day one - we are confident that the new regime will help break down barriers to entry into procurement.

Our procurement team is now working through the necessary training and guidance materials, so we are ready to operate under the new regulations and realise the benefits of the new regime when it goes live.

There is already a range of information and resources about the new regime at Gov.uk: Transforming Public Procurement.

If you haven't already- we strongly recommend you watch the 'Knowledge Drop' videos at Gov.uk: The Official Transforming Public Procurement Knowledge Drops with dedicated versions designed specifically for suppliers, including SME and VCSE suppliers - these will give you a broader understanding of the changes which will be coming.

There are other actions you can start to take to prepare:

• Sign up for regular updates at Cabinet Office: Transforming Public Procurement form
• Familiarise yourself with the Act - check out the summary documents and videos at Gov.uk: Transforming Public Procurement.

Further updates dedicated to private, and third sector organisations, are expected to be issued by Cabinet Office over the coming months, as well as specific Industry events dedicated to informing organisations of the key changes to the Public Procurement Regulations. 

We at Durham County Council will be supporting events over the coming months and ensure we work closely with our Business Durham colleagues to ensure our local and regional suppliers including SME's and MSME's are supported with the transition.