Tender
SCAPE begins market engagement on 8.5 billion pound defence framework
By Staff Writer | 18 August 2026
SCAPE Procure Limited has issued a preliminary market engagement notice for a proposed Defence and Complex Environments Framework covering England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, with two lots carrying capacities of 500 million pounds and 8 billion pounds.
The notice was published on 18 August 2026 under the Procurement Act 2023 and carries the buying organisation's own reference SCP016. It is a preliminary market engagement notice, the earliest stage of a regulated procurement, and it states in terms that it is not an invitation for formal expressions of interest. Its stated purpose is to give details of the pre-market engagement activities that will inform the development of the framework ahead of a tender notice being submitted.
The framework is described as being for the provision of construction works and services within complex environments, including but not limited to the defence sector. It follows engagement activities carried out for the buying organisation's next generation Construction Works and Services Framework, from which it records positive market feedback and strong interest expressed by the market.
Two lots are envisaged. Lot 1 carries a lot capacity of 500 million pounds for call-offs between zero and 15 million pounds, on a United Kingdom wide basis, with an anticipated annual turnover requirement of 10 million pounds for each supplier including its associated suppliers. Lot 2 carries a lot capacity of 8 billion pounds for call-offs between 10 million pounds and 8 billion pounds, also United Kingdom wide, with an anticipated annual turnover requirement of 150 million pounds. The two lot capacities together come to 8.5 billion pounds.
A multi-party framework with six suppliers is anticipated, three on each lot. The notice records an intention to design the framework so that small and medium sized enterprises can engage through the successful bidders' supply chains, and states that bids from consortia or joint ventures of which such enterprises may form part will be accepted.
The published procurement timetable runs well beyond this year. A market awareness period runs from July to September 2026, with a market awareness webinar on 15 September 2026 between 10:00 and 11:30. A tender notice is planned for November 2026, with the supplier questionnaire stage and its evaluation running from November 2026 to March 2027. Invitations to tender are planned for April 2027, with the tender stage and evaluation running from April to September 2027. A contract award notice is planned for October 2027, and framework mobilisation and launch for October to December 2027.
Craig Murphy, Director of Frameworks, said that engagement with clients and delivery partners had "highlighted that there is strong demand for a dedicated solution that reflects the unique requirements and governance of defence and complex environments".
What the practitioner should take from this
The procurement stage matters more here than the headline figure. A capacity of 8 billion pounds on a lot is the ceiling of what may be called off over the life of a framework, not work that has been placed, and at this point no framework exists at all. What has been published is notice that a buying organisation is considering establishing one. A contractor reading the number should treat it as an indication of scale and of the length of the runway, and on the published timetable that runway is long: the first call-off cannot be made before the end of 2027.
The turnover thresholds will do most of the work in deciding who can bid. A requirement of 150 million pounds a year on the upper lot, measured across the supplier together with its associated suppliers, sets the field before any quality submission is read. Firms sitting near that line should be looking now at how associated suppliers are counted for the purpose, and at whether a consortium or joint venture structure brings them within it. That is a corporate question with a long lead time rather than a bid question to be settled in the weeks before an invitation lands.
Security is the other feature to read early. Construction in defence estates and other secure settings carries vetting, clearance and information handling obligations that reach the supply chain as well as the main contractor. Those obligations affect who may be employed on a project, how design information moves between parties, and what a subcontractor may be shown before it prices the work. A contractor that treats clearance as an administrative step taken after appointment will find it sitting on the critical path instead. The market awareness period exists so that questions of this kind can be put while the documents are still capable of being changed, which is the cheapest moment to ask them.