Planning

Security Services to the Museums Security Consortium

VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM

This public procurement record has 2 releases in its history.

Planning

30 Jan 2026 at 15:14

Planning

13 Jun 2025 at 09:28

Summary of the contracting process

The Victoria and Albert Museum and the Natural History Museum have announced a planned procurement process for "Security Services to the Museums Security Consortium," with a notice set to be published on 1 April 2026. This procurement falls under the services category and involves selective procurement methods with a competitive flexible procedure. The procurement is in the planning stage with an expression of interest deadline on 1 May 2026, and the contract award period is to conclude by 1 October 2026. The contract, estimated at £102,995,629, seeks a lead supplier for security services across multiple sites, including regions UKI, UKJ, and UKK, in the United Kingdom. The process is covered by GPA and aims to involve suppliers by offering opportunities for SMEs, with service delivery starting on 17 March 2027 and potentially extending until 2035.

This tender presents a significant opportunity for businesses specialising in security services to collaborate with prestigious cultural institutions in the UK, ensuring high visibility and potential long-term engagement. Businesses involved in providing 24/7 control room operations, security guarding, event security, and related logistics will find this tender particularly suitable. The project encourages participation by SMEs, suggesting it is accessible to a broad range of suppliers capable of delivering comprehensive security solutions. By engaging in this competitive process, businesses can enhance their growth prospects through partnership with government-backed entities and access to a substantial contract value.

How relevant is this notice?

Notice Information

Notice Title

Security Services to the Museums Security Consortium

Notice Description

Security tender invites for the Natural History Museum and V&A are coming soon! We are giving advance notice that on 01 April 2026 we will be posting a Tender Notice to kickstart a procurement process for security services to our organisations. This is not a call for competition, just an update with our timeline for the procurement process. This will be a single contract for a lead supplier to deliver the services. The contract will include the following services at a number of sites: * 24/7 Control room services (command and control, CCTV and alarm monitoring) * Security guarding and patrols * Key and pass issue * Event security * Logistics (deliveries etc) More information will be available in the pack once we go live on 01 April 2026. Unfortunately due to market engagement rules we can't discuss this any further with individual suppliers. All the information in this notice is accurate to the best of our knowledge but is subject to amendment between now and April as we develop our tender pack. The current contract is held by a consortium comprising the V&A, NHM and Science Museum Group. The Science Museum Group has decided to leave the consortium and proceed alone for the re-tendering of its security services. Therefore the new consortium comprises the V&A and NHM.

Lot Information

Lot 1

Options: Option to vary range of services within the CPV code range. Option to add or remove sites.

Renewal: Up to three one year extensions by mutual agreement

Planning Information

To respond to our survey, please use this link: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=pqhybT5ixEK4FwRbTfKt1P9TzZfPOsVLljXFrpdOTGFUM08wNE1GSElNRllaOTNaRENCOE83Q0QwVyQlQCN0PWcu We are looking to go out to market for security services in 2026 for a start date of March 2027. We are currently considering our options for how those services could be provided. This includes thinking about whether we remain as a consortium and if so, in what form. We want to hear your views to help us make this decision so we are issuing this survey as part of our preliminary market engagement. The purpose of this survey is to help us understand suppliers' appetite and capability for providing these services to us a. individually or as a consortium, and b. as a single combined contract or in various packages. We want to get your opinion on what benefits there might be from us packaging up the contract in various ways. Responses submitted in this survey will not in any way impact any future submission for these - or any other - tenders with the NHM, SMG and V&A. Any data received as part of our preliminary market engagement activities will be retained and deleted in line with Regulation 98 (4) of the Procurement Act 2023 (three years after a contract is entered into). We will not share responses to this survey with any third parties except in an anonymised format. We have carried out a conflicts interest assessment for all individuals that will have sight of the responses received. To fulfil our duty under the Regulation 16(3) of the Procurement Act 2023 we will include in our tender pack an aggregated summary of all responses received once we go out to market for these services but such summary will not contain any personally identifiable information. The survey closes at the end of the day on 07 July 2025.

Notice Details

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-05483c
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/008560-2026
Current Stage
Planning
All Stages
Planning

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
UK3 - Planned Procurement Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Services
Procurement Method
Selective
Procurement Method Details
Competitive flexible procedure
Tender Suitability
SME
Awardee Scale
Not specified

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

79 - Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security


CPV Codes

79710000 - Security services

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
£85,829,691 £10M-£100M
Lots Value
£85,829,691 £10M-£100M
Awards Value
Not specified
Contracts Value
Not specified

Notice Dates

Publication Date
30 Jan 20261 weeks ago
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
1 Apr 20262 months to go
Award Date
Not specified
Contract Period
17 Mar 2027 - 16 Mar 2032 Over 5 years
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Planned
Lots Status
Planned
Awards Status
Not Specified
Contracts Status
Not Specified

Buyer & Supplier

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM
Additional Buyers

NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM

SCIENCE MUSEUM GROUP

Contact Name
Not specified
Contact Email
nhmprocurement@nhm.ac.uk, procurement@sciencemuseum.ac.uk, procurement@vam.ac.uk
Contact Phone
Not specified

Buyer Location

Locality
LONDON
Postcode
SW7 2RL
Post Town
South West London
Country
England

Major Region (ITL 1)
TLI London
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLI3 Inner London - West
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLI33 Kensington & Chelsea and Hammersmith & Fulham
Delivery Location
TLC North East (England), TLD North West (England), TLE Yorkshire and The Humber, TLG West Midlands (England), TLI London, TLJ South East (England), TLK South West (England)

Local Authority
Kensington and Chelsea
Electoral Ward
Brompton & Hans Town
Westminster Constituency
Kensington and Bayswater

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

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