Doing Business with the Council

When the Council buys goods, services or carries out works of any kind, we have to ensure that the contracts we award are procured fairly and transparently. From the 1st January 2021, the UK were no longer bound to comply with EU Procurement Rules and Regulations and instead became a member of the World Trade Organaisation (WTO) Government Procurement Agreement (GPA).

The majority of goods and services contracts that are competitively tendered by us are governed by the following financial thresholds:

• Below £7,500 - a minimum of one quotation but good practice to seek most favourable prices and terms
• Between £7,501 and £50,000 - a minimum of 3 written quotations
• Between £50,001 and GPA threshold - invitation to tender by advertisement or select list, or use framework/consortium
• Above GPA threshold - GPA tender process or where this does not apply, invitation to tender by advertisement

Contracts Register

In seeking to make the public sector more transparent to the public, the Government introduced The Local Government Transparency Code 2015 which requires all local authorities to publish details of contracts, tenders and agreements over £5000.

Please select the link below to view the Contracts Register.  This contains a list of contracts and framework agreements for goods, services and works supplied to the Council.  After following the link, please select Torridge District Council from the drop down menu under Organisations on the narrow your results side bar Contracts register (due-north.com)

e-Tendering with Torridge District Council

Torridge District Council use the ProContract e-Tendering portal www.supplyingthesouthwest.org.uk when procuring selected services, goods and works.  Contractors and suppliers can register for free. This regional portal will allow you to view contract opportunities from a number of councils in the South West.  We also advertise our opportunities on Contracts Finder and Find a Tender Service (FTS) for contracts over the threshold within the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.

The Council may not advertise every opportunity as there maybe a contract or framework agreement that we can use or it is under the threshold for advertising in accordance with our Contract Procedure Rules

Members of the Procurement Team are bound by the Code of Ethics of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS)

The Devon & Cornwall Procurement Partnership (DCPP)

The main aim of this partnership collaboration between procurement representatives from Devon's and Cornwall's Public Sector organisations (particularly Local Authorities) is with a view to maximising the benefits of Devon's and Cornwall's spend with external suppliers.

The Devon & Cornwall Procurement Partnership (DCPP) has a number of complementary strategic objectives based around sustainability, local economic development and continuous improvement.  The majority of Local Authorities within Devon and Cornwall are currently represented on the partnership together with Devon & Cornwall Police, Devon Fire & Rescue and Dartmoor National Park.