Procurement at Historic England

Historic England is the government’s statutory adviser on the historic environment; championing historic places and helping people to understand, value and care for them. Historic England is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS).

Historic England has a devolved approach whereby operational departments manage their own procurements with support and advice from the central Procurement Team who are responsible for ensuring compliance with the appropriate procedures. As with other government departments and many other public bodies, Historic England is obliged to follow the relevant public procurement regulations, which ensures that we achieve value for public money in a transparent, open and fair manner. The most recent regulations applicable are the Public Contract Regulations 2015.

The Regulations set value thresholds for contracts, above which certain procedures must be applied to the tendering and award of contract and set out rules relating to advertising the requirement. Wherever possible and cost effective we make use of central framework arrangements set up by Crown Commercial Service or by other government departments.

Where a suitable framework agreement is not available; requirements with an estimated value of more than £10,000 (ex VAT) will be advertised via Contracts Finder, and on the Historic England electronic Tendering Portal where applicable. Registering on the Portal will enable you to see all our current opportunities and to receive automated alerts when suitable opportunities arise. All tendering is carried out electronically using the Portal.

Requirements with an estimated value of more than £100,000 (ex VAT) will also be advertised via Find A Tender (FTS), the new UK e-notification service where notices for new public sector procurements are required to be published.

Details of contracts we expect to be tendering in the next 18 months can be found below:

Sustainable and ethical procurement

While always ensuring best value for money, procurement can play a vital role in delivering socially responsible policy objectives. Some of the ways in which we incorporate these factors into purchasing decisions are:

Social Value

Where appropriate 10% of the evaluation score will be allocated to how the suppliers proposal addresses the relevant themes from the Government’s Social Value Model.

There are 5 themes in total;

• Covid Recovery
• Economic Inequality
• Fighting Climate Change
• Equal Opportunities
• Wellbeing

Carbon Net Zero

As part of the Selection process suppliers bidding for contracts worth more than £5 million will be required to submit their plans for achieving Carbon Net Zero by 2050 in UK, and to set out the environmental management measures that they have in place and which will be in effect and utilised during the performance of the contract.

Modern Slavery

Historic England will work with its suppliers to identify and eradicate slavery in their supply chains. Read our Modern Slavery Statement.