---
title: "Older Buildings Research (OBR) Professional Engineering Expert Advice Role"
ocid: "ocds-h6vhtk-05f859"
canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-05f859"
markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-05f859.md"
json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-05f859.json"
source: "Find A Tender Service"
current_stage: "Award"
buyer: "DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION"
published: "2025-12-17"
---

# Older Buildings Research (OBR) Professional Engineering Expert Advice Role

Buyer: DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION  
Current stage: Award  
OCID: ocds-h6vhtk-05f859

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## Summary

The Department for Education has awarded a contract under the Older Buildings Research (OBR) project titled "Older Buildings Research (OBR) Professional Engineering Expert Advice Role" to Useful Simple Group Limited. The procurement process involved a direct award, in compliance with specific provisions allowing continuity with existing services, due to the need for a consistent technical approach. This award is part of the project's final phase, focusing on enhancing fieldwork inputs to support the Large Language Model (LLM) development, and applying the established fieldwork approach across additional schools. The contract runs from January 19, 2026, to March 31, 2026, with potential options for additional services subject to budget efficiencies. The project spans multiple regions in the United Kingdom, including UKC, UKK, UKJ, and UKH, and falls under the "Architectural, construction, engineering and inspection services" industry category.

This tender offers significant opportunities for businesses specialising in engineering services and research, particularly those with a focus on post-war educational estates. The work requires expert engineering advice to enhance existing research, making it ideal for businesses with a proven track record of delivering complex consultation services in these areas. SMEs and organisations with a focus on social value (VCSEs) can find room for growth due to the project's scope and demand for specialised technical insights. The procurement method's strategic approach ensures precision and continuity, presenting an excellent opportunity for businesses adept at providing innovative solutions in architectural and engineering fields.

## Notice

The Department for Education (DfE) requires further specialist technical services from an existing supplier to support the final phase of the Older Building Research (OBR) project. The OBR project has already been procured and a consortium bid was successful; of which the supplier was a party, fulfilling the Engineering Expert role as a subcontractor to the prime supplier. This supplier is Useful Simple Group Limited. Through the OBR project, the Department is investigating, cataloguing and extrapolating the condition of the post-war education estate, including through onsite intrusive investigations. This research project will enable the Department to improve its understanding of the post-war education estate. This work is underpinned by a bespoke risk model, designed using research and investigations conducted to date and based on the technical assumptions and interpretative approach applied by the Engineering Expert Advice role. The project requires a further final phase not originally included in the contract with the prime supplier successful in the original procurement. This final phase involves interpreting and enhancing fieldwork inputs for model development, support on Large Language Model (LLM) workflows to support LLM development, providing engineering-led interpretation of fieldwork findings to enhance model relevance and insight, and applying the already established fieldwork approach across up to six additional schools, developing proposals for alternative methodologies to enhance data quality and fieldwork insights. To ensure continuity and compatibility with the research and model developed to date, the services under this additional appointment must be delivered by the supplier who fulfilled the Engineering Expert Advice role in the original procurement and using the same technical assumptions and interpretative approach previously developed by them and applied. This consistency is essential; the model and supporting analysis have been built incrementally as a single coherent system. Introducing outputs based on different assumptions and knowledge base would require significant re-engineering and re-validation of existing work, creating disproportionate technical complexity and undermining the integrity of the model. The appointed supplier will provide engineering-led interpretation of the above scope to integrate new data into the current risk model without compromising its structure or functionality. These services will enable the Department to maintain a consistent technical approach, ensuring that new findings complement and strengthen the existing evidence. While the "Notice Linking" section of this notice states no other have been published, this is infact an error and a limitation of system this notice was published via. This notice is infact linked to the Contract Award Notice 33c8f7e5-1b28-45a8-b750-f00d7f6471d3 (https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/33c8f7e5-1b28-45a8-b750-f00d7f6471d3).

### Procurement Information

Justification under Paragraph 7, schedule 5: (a) The justification applies where the contracting authority is procuring services from i) an existing supplier ii) which are an extension to existing services and iii) in circumstances where a change in supplier would result in the receipt of services different from or incompatible with the previous services and iv) this difference would result in disproportionate technical difficulties. All four tests are met here: (b) As regards i), the supplier was part of the winning consortium in the original procurement as a subcontractor to the prime and therefore is the existing supplier of these services. The Contracting Authority now needs to contract directly with this supplier. (c) As regards ii) these research services are an extension to existing research services as it is the final phase where 6 additional schools will be added; (d) As regards iii), The next phase of the OBR project requires the same fieldwork approach to be applied across 6 additional schools and for alternative methodologies to be developed and tested. In order for new findings to be compatible with earlier work, this must be done using the same assumptions and interpretative approach that had been applied previously, in the existing research and risk model. (e) As regards iv), Iif a different supplier were appointed, the interpretation of earlier and new fieldwork would inevitably be carried out using different professional judgements and assumptions. This would change how findings are assessed and how they are used to inform the model. As a result, the outputs produced would not be compatible with the existing model and the data used to inform it. It would risk wasting the work already done. Consequently, a change in supplier would result in the Department receiving services and outputs that are different and incompatible with those already developed. This incompatibility arises from how the model and supporting work are conducted and built up incrementally over the course of the project, and not due to cost, time, or other considerations. Further and finally, it should be noted that the value is currently anticipated to be below threshold by PS88 and therefore this Transparency Notice is voluntary at the current time as the contracting authority also has the ability to award a below-threshold contract to the supplier. However if for whatever reason the value exceeds the threshold, ad the contract becomes a Convertible Contract, then the contracting authority will seek to rely on the direct award exemption at Schedule 5 paragraph 7.

## Key Details

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication source | Find A Tender Service |
| Latest notice | https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/084057-2025 |
| Notice type | UK5 - Transparency Notice |
| Procurement type | Standard |
| Procurement category | Services |
| Procurement method | Direct |
| Procurement method details | Direct award |
| Tender suitability | SME, VCSE |
| Awardee scale | SME |
| All stages | Award |

## Dates

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication date | 17 Dec 2025 |
| Submission deadline | Not specified |
| Future notice date | Not specified |
| Award date | 17 Dec 2025 |
| Contract period | 19 Jan 2026 - 31 Mar 2026 |
| Recurrence | Not specified |

## Values

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender value | Not specified |
| Lots value | Not specified |
| Awards value | Not specified |
| Contracts value | Not specified |

## Status

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender status | Complete |
| Lots status | Complete |
| Awards status | Pending |
| Contracts status | Not specified |

## Buyer

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Main buyer | DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION |
| Locality | LONDON |
| Post town | South West London |
| Postcode | SW1P 3BT |
| Country | England |
| ITL 1 | TLI London |
| ITL 2 | TLI3 Inner London - West |
| ITL 3 | TLI35 Westminster and City of London |
| Local authority | Westminster |
| Electoral ward | St James's |
| Westminster constituency | Cities of London and Westminster |
| Delivery location | Not specified |

## Supplier

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Number of suppliers | 1 |
| Supplier names | USEFUL SIMPLE GROUP |

## CPV Codes

### Divisions

- 71 - Architectural, construction, engineering and inspection services

### Codes

- 71000000 - Architectural, construction, engineering and inspection services

## Release History

- 17 Dec 2025 at 17:08 - Award - UK5 - Transparency Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/084057-2025

## Documents

- https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/084057-2025
  17th December 2025 - Transparency notice on Find a Tender

## Notice URLs

- https://expedition.uk.com/
- https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/33c8f7e5-1b28-45a8-b750-f00d7f6471d3
- https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/54/contents

## Provenance

This Markdown file is an alternate public rendering of the D3 Tenders contract record. The canonical page is https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-05f859. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-05f859.json.