Strategic procurement hub

Wiltshire Council spends c£350 million per annum on a range of goods and services to meet the needs of the residents of Wiltshire. The Strategic Procurement Hub provides specialist procurement resources working across the full commercial cycle including commissioning, procurement and contract management.

The Corporate Procurement Strategy provides the framework for the council to obtain value and social capital from all of its bought in goods and services.
The strategy focuses on the delivery of the following corporate and social goals:

• Identifying and delivering efficiencies, but not at the expense of quality
• Developing and embracing the principles of sustainable procurement

To deliver these priorities the procurement strategy will be used to encourage the adoption of a mixed economy approach, evaluating on the basis of whole life costings and breaking down barriers to participate in council opportunities. Using transparent processes, the council will commit to meeting its obligation to ensure that all of our procurement activity addresses relevant social, economic and environmental standards.

Unless utilising established frameworks awarded by the council or professional buying partners such as Crown Commercial Services, we list all contract opportunities on our electronic tendering portal.

On the portal you can:

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

Where appropriate, we also advertise these opportunities in the Official Journal of the European Union plus the national tender portal established to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

All council expenditure for payments above £250 can be found on Open data.

The precise terms and conditions of contract with the council may vary depending on the

• Contract type
• Service
• Works
• Supply

will be reflected within the applicable tender or request for quote (RFQ).  
The council has drawn up standard terms and conditions of contracts.  These can be found in the downloads section.

Within Wiltshire Council the insurance section use the following as a guide for levels of insurance required from suppliers:

• Public Liability - £5 million
• Employers Liability - £5 million
• Professional Indemnity - £2 million

While it is viewed that these levels are appropriate for the majority of contracts placed by the council, for lower value procurements, a more flexible risk based approach may be more appropriate. This will encourage more SMEs and 3rd sector organisations to carry out services for the council.

The proposal is that for procurements less than £250,000, staff involved in procurement exercises should consider if these levels of insurance are appropriate for that particular contract. If it is felt that these levels could be reduced then this decision must be documented. During this process, it is possible that you seek advice either from the insurance or risk management sections.

It should be noted that not having these insurance requirements should not preclude any suppliers from taking part in any procurement process.

It is the duty of the person leading the procurement to ensure that the adequate level of insurance is in place prior to contract award.

Wiltshire Council recognises that Parish/Town Councils and community groups may wish to run services that are currently delivered by the council locally. The council agreed its Service delegation to Town and Parish Councils and Funding of Delegated Services Policy at its Cabinet Meeting on 19 October 2010. There is also "The Community Right to Challenge" that was introduced by the The Localism Act 2011. The Community Right to Challenge will let communities challenge to take over local services that they think they can run differently and better. The Community Right to Challenge came into effect on 27 June 2012. 

GDPR replaces the current data protection law and will have an impact on the way we collect, process, store and destroy our information.

The data protection legislative landscape is changing and will impact on the way we all manage and deal with our information. The council needs to ensure it is compliant with all data protection legislation and this includes updating existing contracts.

GDPR procurement privacy notice [25.68KB]

GDPR template letter [123.36KB]

GDPR supplementary terms [38.54KB]

GDPR general variation agreement template [82.5KB]

GDPR supplier information required [21.89KB]