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Bid Assessment FAQS

  • The BAF is a structured approach to support a competitive bidding market for water resources, demand management, leakage services and bioresources. It provides the basis and process for inviting and considering third party bids and comparing them against potential in-house solutions and builds on existing processes and obligations such as water resources planning requirements, procurement principles, and competition obligations, with a focus on ensuring consistency and transparency throughout the tendering process.

  • The BAF covers water resources, demand management, leakage services and bioresources only.

  • The requirement for a BAF was introduced to enable a competitive bidding market for water resources, demand management, leakage services and bioresources and to ensure this was done in a transparent and non-discriminatory way.

  • All other goods, works and services required by United Utilities Water Limited would be procured by the Commercial Department utilising its category management process and in compliance with the Utilities Contracts Regulations 2016 (UCR). Further details are available on United Utilities’ supplier pages.

  • Generally speaking the UCR do not apply to the procurement of water resources however they may apply to demand management or leakage services. In the event UCR do apply these will override and take precedence over the BAF and a full regulated process, via the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) will be undertaken.

  • Anyone can submit a proposal to us under the BAF however please note there will be pre-qualification criteria applicable to competitive processes. Such are described in high level terms in the BAF document and will be disclosed in advance of any competition within the Procurement Documents.

  • Any issue or question should be raised to the following mailbox where one of the Sourcing Excellence team will review and respond to you: Sourcingexcellence@uuplc.co.uk

  • Yes, all Water Companies should have their own BAF document regulating their approach to water resources, demand management and leakage services. These are available on Ofwat's website.

  • United Utilities intends to contract on its own standard terms and conditions with all suppliers, but there will be the opportunity for dialogue during any competitive process. We believe this will ensure consistency and transparency across all processes so all tenderers are bidding against the same set of terms and the same risk profile. Copies of United Utilities’ standard terms are available on our website.

  • Yes, all unsuccessful bidders will receive written feedback on their submission detailing why the winning submission won and how the unsuccessful bidder can improve their submission and approach when bidding again in the future.

  • United Utilities takes confidentiality very seriously and has a range or processes and procedures to ensure the submissions to the Bid Assessment Framework are only available to those who have a legitimate need to see them.  More information about our approach is available in our confidentiality document (PDF 238 KB opens in a new window)

  • Initially, any proposal should be submitted by completing our online form for review and consideration. As above, if further United Utilities’ staff need to see the submission a confidential agreement would be entered into. Following further review it may be appropriate to meet and discuss the proposal, including presenting any submission to managers and directors of United Utilities however this would be looked at on a case by case basis as to what was appropriate for the specific submission.

  • In order for a proposal to be fully considered under the framework, you will need to review the relevant evaluation criteria below before completing the form.

    Your details will then be passed to the UU Sourcing Excellence team at Sourcingexcellence@uuplc.co.uk.

  • For both water resources and demand management (including leakage), worked examples have been provided to show the sort of proposals that are likely to be taken forward immediately and those which are likely to be considered at a later date under the Water Resources Management Planning process. The worked examples can be found here. Worked examples for Bioresources bids can be found here.

  • For both water resources and demand management (including leakage), evaluation criteria have been set which lay out each of the different considerations which will be taken into account when assessing a submission. The evaluation criteria can be found here.

  • We recognise that proposals will enter the process in many shapes and forms therefore we have designed a process which has multiple routes, each of which is designed to accommodate a different eventuality. A graphical overview of the various routes can be found here.

  • To give the competitive bidding market confidence that the process is operating in the right way, a multi layered governance and assurance approach has been set out. For more detail in relation to this, please see the related document here.