About us

Supplier information

How London Fire Brigade buys goods and services

London Fire Brigade currently spends around £90 million each year on a wide range of goods and services.

We have a responsibility to ensure that the public money we receive is used as carefully as possible and that we achieve the best value for that money.

To obtain the best value we can, most of our procurement is carried out through corporate contracts which have been subject to reasonable competition or joint arrangements with other local authorities and emergency services.

Financial thresholds

The Brigade has separate procedures for routine and for major procurement. Routine means items such as stationery and cleaning materials. Major means high value/high impact projects. This is how it works:

Routine procurement

Costs of £10,000.00 and under - no formal requirements.
Costs between £10,000.01 to £20,000.00 - we invite competitive tenders unless a single tender can be justified economically.

Major procurement

Costs of £20,000.01 to £173,934 - we invite competitive tenders unless special circumstances apply.
Costs of over £173, 934 - we follow EU procurement rules.

Advertising our tenders

Our tenders are advertised on BlueLight (www.bluelight.gov.uk) and where applicable low value contracts are advertised on CompeteFor (www.competefor.com). For goods and services contracts over the EU threshold (£173,934 in January 2012) we advertise in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU).

We have listed details of some of our term contracts including their expiry dates on the London Contracts Register.

Working with businesses

We aim to ensure that opportunities to work for the Brigade are offered fairly, are transparent, accessible and encourage participation by all of London’s diverse communities. We therefore especially welcome tenders from small businesses and the third sector. You can find detailed information in our sellers’ guide, "Selling to the London Fire Brigade" and our "Tips for Responding to LFB Contract Opportunities" (see Related documents).

For help on the procurement process and public sector procurement requirements, the free e-learning course ‘Winning the Contract’ can be accessed from Learn Direct.

Procurement Strategy

Our three year procurement strategy, Improvement and Efficiency through Procurement, came to an end in November 2011. See our related documents (below) for progress made to date in implementing key objectives.

Responsible procurement

Responsible procurement is the purchase of goods, works and services in an environmentally and socially responsible way that delivers value for money and benefits the local area. To find out more about how we are delivering sustainability in the procurement of goods and services, visit our Responsible Procurement page.

Contacts

For contacts see Related documents.

London Fire Brigade

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