Corporate report

DESNZ procurement policy

Published 24 March 2026

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/desnz-procurement-policy/desnz-procurement-policy

How procurement works in DESNZ

DESNZ buys a wide range of services, goods and works to meet our needs. A dedicated commercial directorate works with project and delivery teams. We source the best contracts, grants, and other agreements to deliver what is required.

First, we check if the required goods, services, or works can be provided in-house. If not, we check if they can be bought through an existing contract or framework. We use Crown Commercial Service (CCS) frameworks to procure our common goods and services.

DESNZ takes the following approach to procurement:

  • for low value orders up to £12,000 including VAT, we require multiple quotes to ensure value for money
  • we work in collaboration with our shared service provider, UK Shared Business Services (UKSBS), who manage most of the lower value common goods and services procurements on our behalf
  • we are committed to running procurements through fair and open competition wherever possible and we comply with the Government Commercial Function standards

Transparency

DESNZ is committed to the government transparency agenda and publishes information about its commercial activities to support accountability to the public and achieve better value for money.

In particular:

  • details of Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR15) tenders and contract documents over £12,000 including VAT are on Contracts Finder
  • details of Procurement Act 2023 (PA23) procurements over £12,000 - right across the life of the project - are published through notices on Find a Tender service
  • monthly spend transactions over £25,000 are published on GOV.UK

Please note that if you are awarded a DESNZ contract valued over £5 million, a copy of the contract between your organisation(s) and DESNZ will be published via a Contract Details Notice on the Find a Tender service.

For these contracts, we will also publish performance information against key performance indicators (KPIs) at least once every 12 months.

In some circumstances, limited redactions will be made to the contracts before they are published, to comply with existing law and for the protection of national security, personal privacy and commercially sensitive information.

DESNZ commercial pipeline

DESNZ provides a forward look of anticipated commercial activity over the next 18 months by publishing a UK1 Pipeline Notice for each opportunity valued at least £2 million.

Note that as circumstances change some procurements will not proceed and the timeline, value and requirements of others may be impacted.

Opportunities available

DESNZ advertises new opportunities and then information about the progress of the project through a series of Notices on the Find a Tender platform. All notices relating to a single project are linked together with a project number issued by Find a Tender. The main notices to launch a new project are:

  • Preliminary Market Engagement: we use this to gather feedback from industry on procurement ideas and to find out about new and innovative services
  • Planned Procurement Notice: information about a procurement expected to launch within 12 months
  • Tender Notice: live invitations to tender for a new contract
  • Transparency Notice: issued in advance of making a direct award to a supplier, where a competitive process is not appropriate

Our commitment to supplier diversity

The government has committed to create and maintain a more diverse range of suppliers, accessing the numerous benefits that result from doing so, such as improved resilience, access to innovation, and sharing government procurement opportunities with more organisations right across the country.

DESNZ is committed to ensuring a diverse range of suppliers. Encouraging supplier diversity provides our department with partners who provide innovative solutions.

Read the National Procurement Policy Statement.

Opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)

Check whether your business qualifies as an SME.

DESNZ recognises the importance of SMEs to the UK economy and the agility and innovation they can bring to supplying goods and services:

  • the 3-year DESNZ group target up to the 2027 to 2028 financial year has been set at 29% and this target includes our Arm’s length bodies (ALBs)
  • in some areas such as development of clean energy sources, DESNZ works with suppliers to develop innovative solutions. The Procurement Act 2023 enables the department to design a procurement process that suits this special circumstance using the Competitive Flexible Procedure
  • the UK Business Climate Hub provides a one-stop-shop of information for those who want to act and where businesses can sign up to the globally recognised small business climate commitment

In DESNZ we encourage SMEs to bid for contracts and monitor the amount of departmental spend with SMEs directly (by winning contracts) or indirectly (through supply chain spend).

Some of our largest areas of spend with SMEs are:

  • ICT
  • Professional Services
  • Research

See our SME action plan.

Small and Medium Business Hub

The Small and Medium Business Hub provides useful information for SMEs who would like to work with government, including:

Visit the Small and Medium business hub.

Opportunities for voluntary, community and social enterprises (VCSEs)

Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise business hub

The voluntary, community, and social enterprise business hub is now available.

Visit the Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise business hub.

Commercial policies

DESNZ follows the public procurement policies which are set out in the Procurement Policy Notes (PPNs).

Read the Crown Commercial Service public procurement policy guidance.

Contract terms and conditions

DESNZ uses a range of standard Terms and Conditions, which are issued to potential suppliers as part of the tender documentation. Where purchases are not supported by a specific written contract, the standard terms and conditions must be accepted to participate.

  • Model Services contact is used for services contracts with a value of £20 million or more or complex and high-risk contracts
  • Mid-Tier contract is used over the procurement threshold and up to £20 million
  • Short form contract is used for a value below the procurement threshold and simple contracts above threshold where the department decides this is appropriate

The procurement thresholds are typically revised every 2 years. The levels are notified to the markets through a PPN. The current thresholds can be found in PPN 11/23: New Thresholds.

DESNZ also expects all our suppliers to follow the government supplier codes of conduct   These codes outline the standards and behaviours expected from suppliers and grant recipients.

Prompt payment

At DESNZ, we aim to pay our suppliers promptly and follow the government’s prompt payment policy. Invoices must specify the correct purchase order (PO) number to be valid. This will be provided to you when an order is placed. We aim to pay all compliant invoices as soon as they have been authorised by the officials responsible for the PO and encourage all our suppliers to do the same in their supply chains.

DESNZ publishes its prompt payment data quarterly. We aim to pay 80% of valid invoices (and 90% of valid SME invoices) within 5 days of receipt. All invoices should be paid, or issues be resolved within 30 days.

DESNZ is committed to ensuring fair and prompt payment throughout the public sector supply chain. Under Section 73 of the Procurement Act 2023, 30-day payment terms are implied into all public sub-contracts. We expect all our suppliers to comply with these terms and ensure sub-contractors are paid within 30 days of receiving a valid and undisputed invoice.

Social Value Model

DESNZ applies the social value model to above threshold procurements. This applies at least 10% of the evaluation weighting to assess how well potential suppliers will contribute to the public good in delivery of the contract.

DESNZ will identify one or more of the themes from the social value model to assess proposals which should be over and above core requirements in the specification necessary to achieve the contract or project objectives.

The DESNZ commercial team has undergone training to implement the new model into each procurement and to consider how proportionate social value outcomes can be achieved in every contract above threshold.

For more information, see: PPN 002: The Social Value Model

Public Sector Equality Duty

DESNZ has due regard under the Equality Act 2010 to the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) in all our procurement and related activity.

We abide by the aims to:

  • eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Act
  • improve equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it
  • foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it

We evaluate procurement on a case-by-case basis. If the PSED applies to a contracted service or public function, we ensure the supplier meets the requirements.

For more information on procurement and the PSED please refer to PPN 01/13 and the Equality Act 2010 legislation.

Sustainable procurement

Sustainable procurement is a process where the government meets its needs for goods and services in a way that improves sustainability outcomes on a whole commercial lifecycle basis. It creates positive socio-economic impacts and reduces environmental damage in the global supply chain, while achieving value for money.

To embed sustainable procurement into our commercial activity, we will:

Modern slavery

DESNZ is determined to eradicate modern slavery and human trafficking in direct suppliers and through supply chains. We are taking steps to reduce the risk, including:

  • conducting a risk assessment, which is mandatory for procurements over £1 million and recommended for procurements between £12,000 and less than £1 million, and recording the results in our procurement platforms
  • conducting additional due diligence where a procurement is recorded as medium or high risk, including questions in the Pre-Qualification (PQ) and Invitation to Tender (ITT) to understand suppliers’ exposure to risk and how they are managing that in their supply chains
  • raising awareness of the risk of modern slavery in our supply chains and training staff on how to carry out modern slavery risk assessments
  • encouraging new and existing suppliers to use the modern slavery assessment tool (MSAT), with its annual completion being a requirement for medium or high-risk procurements
  • applying PPN 009: Tackling modern slavery in government supply chains including supplier exclusions from bidding for public contracts where the supplier has been convicted of certain modern slavery offences under the Modern Slavery Act within the last 5 years

Partner organisations

DESNZ partner organisations, including non-ministerial departments, executive agencies, non-departmental public bodies and public corporations have their own procurement processes.

To find out how to contract with them, follow the links below to their procurement guidance.

Non-ministerial departments

Non-departmental public bodies

Public corporations

Other

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