---
title: "Digital Licensing Modernisation PME Webinar"
ocid: "ocds-h6vhtk-06b82d"
canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-06b82d"
markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-06b82d.md"
json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-06b82d.json"
source: "Find A Tender Service"
current_stage: "Planning"
buyer: "DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS & TRADE"
published: "2026-06-18"
---

# Digital Licensing Modernisation PME Webinar

Buyer: DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS & TRADE  
Current stage: Planning  
OCID: ocds-h6vhtk-06b82d

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## Summary

The Department for Business & Trade (DBT), located in London, has commenced a planning phase for a potential future procurement titled "Digital Licensing Modernisation PME Webinar." This initiative focuses on modernising digital trade and business licensing services, targeting improvements in user-centred digital licensing journeys, data standardisation, and system integration. The industry category is IT services, specifically consulting, software development, Internet, and support. Currently, in the preliminary stage of the procurement process, DBT is conducting preliminary market engagement. An open supplier webinar is scheduled for 9 July 2026, and interested suppliers must register their interest by 7 July 2026 to participate in pre-market engagement activities.

This procurement process presents significant opportunities for businesses specialising in IT services, particularly those well-versed in digital service design and development, data management, and systems integration. The focus on interoperability and reducing administrative burdens suggests that organisations experienced in developing scalable digital solutions could have a competitive edge. Small to medium enterprises (SMEs) could particularly benefit from this initiative as the suitability criteria are favourable. Participation in the preliminary market engagement allows businesses to engage early, understand the market dynamics, and potentially influence the shaping of the final procurement strategy.

## Notice

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) is exploring a potential future procurement to support the modernisation of digital trade and business licensing services across central government and local authorities. This may include the design, development, and delivery of user-centred digital licensing journeys, alongside supporting data, integration, and interoperability capabilities. At this stage, DBT is seeking to understand market capability and delivery approaches. As such, the scope and scale of any future procurement are not yet defined. Indicative areas of interest include digital service design and development, data standardisation and validation, integration with existing systems, and approaches to improving data quality and reducing administrative burden.

### Planning Information

UK2 – Preliminary Market Engagement Notice
Digital Licensing Modernisation
1. Contracting Authority
Department for Business and Trade (DBT)
2. Purpose of this Notice
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) is undertaking preliminary market engagement to inform its understanding of the market and to help shape a potential future procurement relating to the modernisation of digital trade and business licensing services.
This engagement is intended to support early thinking and learning only. It does not constitute a call for competition and DBT makes no commitment to commence a procurement as a result of this engagement. DBT has not made any decisions on delivery approach, commercial structure, route to market, or solution at this stage.
3. Background and Context (High Level)
Licensing services represent a significant point of interaction between businesses, local authorities, and central government. DBT’s work to date indicates that many licensing submission routes remain fragmented and heavily document based, creating friction for users and inefficiencies for public authorities. A key underlying issue is the lack of shared infrastructure and interoperability between licensing systems, which leads to duplication, rekeying and inconsistent processes across authorities.
In some areas, legacy arrangements operate under time limited contractual and technical constraints, creating maintainability and continuity risks over time. This reinforces the need for an orderly transition that can work alongside local authority adoption constraints and existing systems. Previous exploratory work by DBT has highlighted that there may be opportunities to:
• improve how licensing services are delivered digitally;
• reduce avoidable administrative burden for businesses and public authorities;
• improve the quality, consistency, and usability of licensing data at the point of submission; and
• support improved regulatory and safeguarding outcomes where appropriate.
DBT is seeking to engage with the market at an early stage to better understand what is feasible, what challenges exist, and what considerations should inform any future approach, without presupposing solutions, delivery models, technologies or platforms.
4. Focus of the Engagement
At this stage, DBT is deliberately focusing on outcomes, risks, and feasibility, rather than detailed requirements or predefined solutions.
Indicative areas of interest include:
• designing repeatable and user‑centred digital licensing journeys;
• improving data quality through validation at the point of submission;
• where appropriate, the role of identity‑related or eligibility checks;
• approaches to scaling delivery across additional licence types;
• development and adoption of common data standards;
• approaches to interoperability and shared infrastructure (including common data models and integration patterns) that can work across multiple local authorities and suppliers;
• options for data storage and retention; and
• the feasibility of automation or pre‑submission checks to support regulatory or safeguarding requirements.
DBT is keen to understand supplier perspectives on these areas, including delivery risks, dependencies, constraints, and lessons learned from comparable work, in order to shape a future procurement that is realistic, proportionate, and value for money.
5. Scope of Pre‑Market Engagement Activity
The pre‑market engagement is expected to include:
• an open supplier webinar to provide context and frame the areas where DBT is seeking input;
• an opportunity for suppliers to provide feedback and observations following the webinar; and
• potential follow‑up 1‑to‑1 engagement for clarification purposes only, where helpful.
No commitments, commercial discussions, or detailed solution proposals will be sought or agreed during this engagement.
DBT will ensure that any material information arising from this engagement is shared transparently with all participants. Responses may be summarised and shared in anonymised form to support a fair process.
6. Indicative Timeline (Non‑Binding)
Indicative timings (subject to refinement following engagement) are currently anticipated as follows:
Pre‑market engagement: July 2026 (including a supplier webinar currently anticipated for 9 July 2026, subject to change)
These timelines are indicative only and may change.
7. Registering Interest
Suppliers wishing to participate in this pre‑market engagement are invited to register their interest by emailing:
commercialddat@businessandtrade.gov.uk
Please include the following information in your email:
Subject: Digital Trade Licensing Modernisation – PME Registration
Organisation name
Primary contact name
Contact email address (for webinar communications)
Contact role/title
Organisation size (SME / Large / VCSE – optional)
Confirmation of interest in attending the webinar
DBT will confirm registration and share further details, including webinar arrangements, in due course.
8. Important Information
Participation in this pre‑market engagement is voluntary.
Participation will not provide any advantage or disadvantage in any subsequent procurement.

## Key Details

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication source | Find A Tender Service |
| Latest notice | https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/057610-2026 |
| Notice type | UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice |
| Procurement type | Standard |
| Procurement category | Services |
| Procurement method | Not Specified |
| Procurement method details | Not specified |
| Tender suitability | SME |
| Awardee scale | Not specified |
| All stages | Planning |

## Dates

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication date | 18 Jun 2026 |
| Submission deadline | Not specified |
| Future notice date | 7 Jul 2026 |
| Award date | Not specified |
| Contract period | 1 Nov 2026 - 1 Nov 2028 |
| 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 | Planning |
| Lots status | Planning |
| Awards status | Not specified |
| Contracts status | Not specified |

## Buyer

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Main buyer | DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS & TRADE |
| Locality | LONDON |
| Post town | South West London |
| Postcode | SW1A 2DY |
| 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 |

## CPV Codes

### Divisions

- 72 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

### Codes

- 72000000 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

## Release History

- 18 Jun 2026 at 13:13 - Planning - UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/057610-2026

## Documents

- https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/057610-2026
  18th June 2026 - Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender

## Notice URLs

- 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-06b82d. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-06b82d.json.