Contractors And Consultants

Dear Mr Perez

Thank you for contacting the Highways Agency Information Line on 19/10/10 with your Freedom of Information (FOI) request. Your request has been forwarded to the relevant team within the Highways Agency to make a decision on whether your request will be answered under the FOI act and respond within 20 working days. In the meantime, please take a look at the following link: http://www.highways.gov.uk/foiresponses/... for more information regarding the Highways Agency's process for FOI requests.

Kind regards

Heather Wilcox
Highways Agency | National Traffic Control Centre | 3 Ridgeway, Quinton Bus. Park | Birmingham | B32 1AF
Tel: 0300 123 5000 | Fax: +44 (0) 121 3358370
Web: http://www.highways.gov.uk
GTN: 6186 8342

Safe roads, Reliable journeys, Informed travellers
Highways Agency, an Executive Agency of the Department for Transport.

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Dear Joe

Thank you for your enquiry to our Information Line. This has been forwarded to the Procurement Division to provide an answer. The information you have requested is actually the type of information we make available to the public on a regular basis. I am therefore handling your request under normal business processes, which means it is not being handled in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act.

In these circumstances we aim to send a response from the Highways Agency, containing the information required, within 15 working days of the original request or subsequent clarification. In order that I can arrange for a response to your e-mail, can you please clarify exactly what you are looking for. Is it

(i) a list of suppliers to which the Agency has awarded this type of contract in the past, or
(ii) a list of suppliers which we might use for such work (such as an Approved List).

If you can confirm exactly what information you require I will endeavour to get you an answer within the normal 15 days.

Regards

Helen

Helen Lewis
Highways Agency | Temple Quay House | 2 The Square, Temple Quay | Bristol | BS1 6HA
Tel: +44 (0) 117 3728799 | Fax: +44 (0) 117 3728465
Web: http://www.highways.gov.uk
GTN: 1371 8799

Safe roads, Reliable journeys, Informed travellers
Highways Agency, an Executive Agency of the Department for Transport.

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Dear Joe

Thank you for your enquiry. Please see the Supplier Selection and Development page in the Procurement section of our Website for full details of Highways Agency (HA) procurement processes and policies. Here is some general information about our procurement methods which you may wish to investigate.

Please note that the HA no longer operates an "approved supplier list". Much of our procurement is done through framework contracts and indirectly through our Managing Agents.

Information on HA contracts and frameworks is available on the Current and Forthcoming HA Contracts webpage. The contractors listed may be interested in procuring goods and services from suitable specialist companies; contact details are provided.

Additionally, the HA is split into fourteen geographical areas and each has a Managing Agent in place that carries out work on our network (up to a certain financial limit) and they may also be interested in employing suitable specialist companies such as yourselves. Further details are available on the Highways Works and Consultancy webpage by clicking on "Current & Forthcoming" in the "Network Maintenance Arrangements" table.

For our larger one-off contracts, we publish a Contract Notice in the Official Journal of the European Union (commonly referred to as an "OJEU Notice") and invite expressions of interest. Further information on OJEU Notices is available from the Tenders Electronic Daily website; this site also lists non-HA OJEU Notices. Although this might not be directly relevant to your business, the site could still be useful for finding potential opportunities in your area.

The HA also uses the Office of Government Commerce's (OGC's) Catalist frameworks which provide us with easy access to more than 500,000 products and services. To find out more visit the OGC Buying Solutions website; the Supplier Zone in particular has a lot of useful information. We're also starting to use OGC/Bravo eSourcing for some of our procurement. This is still at the pilot stage for now, but the use of this method is likely to develop significantly over the next few years.

Please note that the HA uses Constructionline to assess a company's financial status and capabilities. There is a chance that our Contractors and Consultants would also look to Constructionline registration as a means of assessment.

Please let me know if I can help you any further.

Kind regards
Supply Chain Management

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