RM6399 Lot 1 of 10
RM6399 Lot 1: Multidisciplinary
Integrated requirements that draw on several disciplines at once, giving buyers one route to the scope of Lots 2 to 9 for projects capped at £2 million including VAT. Part of the £5 billion excluding VAT (£6 billion including VAT) Consultancy and Professional Services framework, which replaces RM6309 Management Consultancy Framework Four (MCF4).
Submissions close 3pm on Monday 9 November 2026 (32 days remaining). Clarification questions close 3pm on Thursday 22 October 2026.
Lot 1 at a glance
- Framework
- RM6399 Consultancy and Professional Services
- Buyer
- Government Commercial Agency
- Submissions close
- 3pm on Monday 9 November 2026
- Clarifications close
- 3pm on Thursday 22 October 2026
- Estimated lot value
- £600 million excluding VAT
- Award criteria
- Quality 20%, price 80%
- Call-off cap
- £2 million maximum call-off value, inclusive of VAT and any extension options
- Term
- 24 June 2027 to 23 June 2031 (estimated), four years
- Suppliers
- Maximum 500 across all ten lots
- Portal
- CCS/GCA BravoSolution (Jaggaer)
- Scope cues from the notice
- Business and management consultancy, feasibility and advisory studies, business analysis, project management consultancy, financial consultancy, research and development consultancy, economic impact assessment, and IT consulting where it sits inside a blended engagement.
How Lot 1 is scored
Award criteria as published on Find a Tender notice 2026/S 000-087183. Confirm the question set and sub-weightings in the ITT on the portal.
This is a price-led lot. The commercial model decides the outcome and the written response can only lose it. Build the rate card before the quality response, not after.
This is the only lot on RM6399 where price carries more weight than quality. The notice gives price assessment at 80 percent and quality at 20 percent. Every other lot except Lot 10 runs at 90 percent quality. That inversion changes the bid completely: a well-written response with uncompetitive rates loses here, and a competent response with a sharp, well-modelled rate card wins.
Who should bid this lot
Mid-sized generalist consultancies and SME firms that can field a blended team across strategy, finance, people and delivery on engagements under £2 million. It is also the natural lot for firms whose work does not sit cleanly in one of the specialist lots. Boutique single-discipline firms should think hard before bidding here, because the price weighting rewards scale and rate-card discipline rather than depth in one area.
The notice flags every RM6399 lot as particularly suitable for SMEs and VCSEs, and caps the framework at 500 suppliers in total. The general rule is to bid the lots you can evidence rather than the lots you would like to hold. Evaluators score depth of evidence per lot, and firms that bid two or three lots properly consistently outperform those that spread thin across six.
What actually scores
A rate card built from real delivery cost, not from the top of the market, with a credible explanation of how blended teams are resourced across grades. Evidence of delivering integrated engagements where more than one discipline was needed, with the cost and the outcome stated. Evidence of controlling scope on fixed-fee work, because a £2 million cap with VAT and extensions inside it is a hard ceiling the buyer will police.
The mistake that loses marks on this lot
Bidding Lot 1 as a catch-all. Firms list it alongside four specialist lots because it looks like the widest door. On an 80 percent price lot, a rate card you set to protect your specialist-lot margins is uncompetitive, and the quality 20 percent cannot recover it. Decide whether you are a price competitor on blended work. If you are not, leave this lot alone and bid the specialist lots properly.
Lot 1 questions
What is the £2 million cap on RM6399 Lot 1?
The tender notice states that all contracts awarded through the multidisciplinary lot are subject to a strict £2 million maximum call-off value, inclusive of VAT and any extension options. That is roughly £1.67 million before VAT with no headroom for extensions, so a buyer with a larger blended requirement has to use the specialist lots instead.
Why is Lot 1 weighted 80 percent on price?
The Find a Tender notice gives Lot 1 as price assessment 80 percent, quality assessment 20 percent. The buyer is using it as a value route for smaller, blended requirements where the services are drawn from Lots 2 to 9 anyway, so it is paying for commercial efficiency rather than paying twice for specialist depth.
Can I bid Lot 1 and the specialist lots together?
Yes. Nothing in the notice prevents it. The question is whether your Lot 1 rate card and your specialist lot rate cards can both be competitive without undermining each other, because buyers will see both once the framework is live. Model the rates together before you commit to both.
Lot values, weightings and the timetable were taken from Find a Tender notice 2026/S 000-087183 and last reviewed on 6 October 2026. The ITT on the CCS/GCA BravoSolution (Jaggaer) portal is the only authority on the questions, the word counts and the conditions of participation, so confirm them there before you plan.
Bidding RM6399 Lot 1?
Submissions close 3pm on Monday 9 November 2026. Tell us which lots you are considering and what evidence you hold, and a director will come back the same working day with a straight view on whether the bid is winnable and what it would take.