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PROCUREMENT OPPORTUNITY

Specialist advice and testing on corrosive protection of Steelwork

National Highways Limited · Contract details notice on Find a Tender

Tender information last checkedLast checked 13 Oct 2026, 16:31.

Opportunity overview

National Highways (NH) is looking to secure the provision of a single supplier to provide independent specialist technical advice on all issues relating to paints and the corrosion protection of steelwork used in our highway structures. As well as providing specialist technical advice the services will include undertaking inspections of paint to structures on sites within England, obtaining and testing paint samples and the testing of paints to ensure durability of products used. The strategic road network includes motorways, and single and dual carriageway all-purpose trunk roads. It is proposed to construct a large number of steel highway structures associated with major schemes. National Highways is also responsible for maintaining approximately 1750 steel bridges, 3000 steel gantry structures and many minor steel structures such as masts and lighting columns on the strategic road network

Awarded to

Amounts belong to published awards or contracts. Where several suppliers share one value, it is labelled as shared and is not a supplier-specific allocation.

Socotec UK Limited

Matched by exact name
Published award value
£300k
Awarded
31 May 2026
Award ID
1
Status
active
Identifier
GB-PPON PHHH-6545-HJVV
Location
Burton on Trent, UKF13, DE15 0YZ, United Kingdom

Classification

No classification was supplied.

Lots

  • Lot 1Value not stated

Documents and notices

Published notice details

Additional information from the published procurement release. Fields appear only when supplied by the source; check the original notice and tender documents before acting.

Scope, procedure and submissions

Id
ocds-h6vhtk-058291
Status
complete
Procurement Method
direct
Procurement Method Details
Direct award
Why this procedure was chosen
The specialist advice and testing contract requires a company which can provide independent specialist technical advice on paints and the corrosion protection of steelwork used in our highway structures, as well as undertaking inspections of paint to structures on sites within England and the testing of paints to ensure durability of products used. National Highways can only contract with organisation that has laboratories based in the UK including that the paint inspection and facility capabilities are fully UKAS accredited, and self deliver all elements of the scope. There is a need for a UK testing facility and UKAS accreditation requirements. There is also a mandatory requirement that all personnel must be qualified to a minimum level 2 of the National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE) Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP) and Institute of Corrosion (Corr) personnel. National Highways released a UK2 Market Engagement Notice in August 2025 to start market engagement activities and understand the capability of the suppliers in this sector. Following extensive engagement there was only one supplier identified that could provide the services are described above and so NH moved away from an open market competition to a Direct Award approach.

Legal basis

Id
2023/54
Scheme
UKPGA

Procedure reasons

Entry 1
Id
singleSuppliersTechnicalReasons

Lots and requirements

Entry 1
Id
1
Status
complete

Published documents

Entry 1
Id
conflictOfInterest
Document Type
conflictOfInterest
Description
Not published

Buyer, suppliers and contacts

Organisation 1
Name
National Highways Limited
Id
GB-PPON-PGMJ-3793-VBBN

Identifier

Scheme
GB-PPON
Id
PGMJ-3793-VBBN

Address

Street Address
Three Snowhill, Snow Hill Queensway
Locality
Birmingham
Postal Code
B4 6GA
Country
GB
Country Name
United Kingdom
Region
UKG31

Contact

Telephone
0300 123 5000

Roles

buyer

Details

Classifications

Entry 1
Scheme
UK_CA_TYPE
Id
publicAuthorityCentralGovernment
Description
Public authority - central government
Organisation 2
Name
Socotec UK Limited
Id
GB-PPON-PHHH-6545-HJVV

Identifier

Scheme
GB-PPON
Id
PHHH-6545-HJVV

Address

Street Address
Derwent House, Bretby Business Park Ashby Road
Locality
Burton on Trent
Postal Code
DE15 0YZ
Country
GB
Country Name
United Kingdom
Region
UKF13

Contact

Roles

supplier

Details

Scale
large
Vcse
No
Public Service Mission Organization
No
Sheltered Workshop
No

Award information

Award 1
Id
1
Status
active
Main Procurement Category
services

Items

Item 1
Id
1
Related Lot
1

Additional Classifications

Entry 1
Scheme
CPV
Id
71337000
Description
Corrosion engineering services

Suppliers

Supplier 1
Id
GB-PPON-PHHH-6545-HJVV
Name
Socotec UK Limited

Related lots

1

Contracts and changes

Entry 1
Id
1
Award ID
1
Status
active
Has Renewal
Yes
Above Threshold
Yes
Date Signed
7 Oct 2026, 00:00
No Agreed Metrics Rationale
Contract is not above the threshold for publication of KPI's

Period

Starts
8 Oct 2026, 00:00
Ends
7 Oct 2028, 23:59
Max Extent Date
7 Oct 2030, 23:59

Renewal

Description
A possible extension of up to 2 years is included in the contract

Value

Including VAT
360,000
Amount
300,000
Currency
GBP

Documents

Entry 1
Id
096630-2026
Document Type
contractNotice
Notice Type
UK7
Description
Contract details notice on Find a Tender
Published
13 Oct 2026, 14:59
Format
text/html

Recorded locations

  • Buyer location · Birmingham · UKG31 · B4 6GA · United Kingdom

Notice and amendment history

3 published notice versions reviewed by ProcuraAxis.

3 VERSIONS
  1. 058427-2026Transparency notice on Find a Tender ·
  2. 072377-2026Contract award notice on Find a Tender ·
  3. 096630-2026Contract details notice on Find a Tender ·

PROCURAAXIS AWARD ANALYSIS

Award outcome intelligence

Evidence-bound analysis of the published award appears below the official tender and award information.

ANALYSIS PREVIEW

Award intelligence at a glance

National Highways Limited awarded SOCOTEC UK LIMITED a direct-award contract for specialist advice, inspection and testing relating to paint systems and corrosion protection for highway steelwork in England.

Published outcome signals

  • Procurement statusComplete direct-award procurement; award and contract records are active.Evidence: Tender status is "complete"; award 1 and contract 1 are both recorded as "active".
  • Contract signatureSigned on 7 October 2026.Evidence: Contract 1 dateSigned: 2026-10-07.
  • Contract start8 October 2026.Evidence: Contract 1 period startDate: 2026-10-08.
96% approved-analysis confidence1 supplier record analysed5 source limitations

SOURCE AND FRESHNESS

Traceable procurement data

Source
Find a Tender
Notice reference
096630-2026
OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-058291
First published
30 Jul 2026
Last checked
13 Oct 2026, 16:31
Notice versions reviewed
3
View Find a Tender notice ↗

HOW THIS WAS PREPARED

Approved, evidence-bound analysis

ProcuraAxis structures information found in published procurement records, checks the result for consistency and publishes only approved analysis. Confidence describes the completeness and consistency of the available source information; it is not a guarantee of eligibility or contract award.

Analysis status
Approved for publication
Analysed
13 Oct 2026
Read the analysis methodology →