---
title: "Physical and Personnel Security Assessment for UK Telecoms"
ocid: "ocds-h6vhtk-06db8f"
canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-06db8f"
markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-06db8f.md"
json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-06db8f.json"
source: "Find A Tender Service"
current_stage: "Planning"
buyer: "DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY"
published: "2026-08-04"
---

# Physical and Personnel Security Assessment for UK Telecoms

Buyer: DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY  
Current stage: Planning  
OCID: ocds-h6vhtk-06db8f

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## Summary

The Department for Science, Innovation & Technology is in the planning stage of a procurement process titled "Physical and Personnel Security Assessment for UK Telecoms". This project falls within the telecommunications network and security services industry categories and is located in the United Kingdom. The procurement is currently at the planning phase, with a crucial market engagement milestone scheduled for completion by 18th August 2026. The procurement seeks to enhance the security of the UK's public telecommunications networks, with an anticipatory project commencement date of October 2026 and a conclusion by February 2027. This initiative emphasizes addressing current vulnerabilities in physical and personnel security across telecoms operators.

This opportunity offers significant growth potential for businesses specializing in security consultancy, especially those accredited in handling and assessing critical infrastructure. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and voluntary, community, and social enterprises (VCSEs) equipped to provide security services are well-suited to participate. The project aims to develop a detailed assessment of vulnerabilities and propose mitigations, making it ideally suited for firms experienced in security analysis and threat mitigation in large-scale telecom infrastructures. The project budget, estimated at £100,000 to £120,000, further underscores its potential for businesses seeking to establish or expand their services in the telecom security domain.

## Notice

The UK's public telecommunications networks are a critical national infrastructure (CNI) subsector, underpinning the functioning of every other CNI sector, the digital economy, and essential public services, for which the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is the lead government department. Their continued availability, integrity and confidentiality are fundamental to national security, economic resilience, and the everyday lives of UK citizens and businesses. Telecoms operators manage complex, large-scale, geographically distributed systems, including exchanges, data centres, transmission sites and access network assets , which are increasingly attractive targets for hostile state and state-aligned actors seeking to disrupt, degrade or exploit UK infrastructure. Physical compromise and insider threat are significant attack vectors that hostile actors could seek to exploit. Strengthening physical and personnel security across the sector is therefore a priority area of work for DCMS. This Request for Information (RFI) is issued solely for preliminary market engagement purposes and does not constitute a call for competition, tender or contract opportunity. The Authority is seeking information to better understand market capability, capacity, security accreditation requirements and delivery approaches. Participation in this RFI will not confer any advantage or disadvantage in any future procurement process. DSIT is exploring options for obtaining specialist support to undertake a physical and personnel security assessment of UK public telecommunications networks and services. We are seeking engagement from accredited security consultancy firms to conduct a sector-level physical and personnel security assessment of UK public telecoms networks and services. This should include assessment of current vulnerabilities and potential threat vectors, and set out a prioritised list of recommended mitigations for operators to reduce the risk of security compromise stemming from physical and personnel security vulnerabilities. This list of prioritised mitigations should identify how existing NPSA guidance can be applied to address telecoms sector vulnerabilities. An estimated project commencement date is October 2026 , to conclude in February 2027, subject to a tender launch and agreed contract. Some of the core deliverables are listed below: A detailed report setting out: (i) current physical and personnel security vulnerabilities within the UK's public telecoms networks and services, (ii) physical and personnel security threat vectors (i.e. how threat actors could exploit these vulnerabilities, not a threat assessment), and (iii) a prioritised list of mitigations for operators to take to reduce the identified physical and personnel security risks - this should include identification of how existing NPSA guidance can applied to address telecoms sector vulnerabilities.

### Planning Information

Please contact Naomi Jones for clarifications :
Please provide details of any previous experience conducting physical security, personnel security or insider threat assessments for critical national infrastructure sectors.
Would your organisation be interested in participating in a future procurement for this requirement?
Do you hold the necessary facilities, personnel clearances and processes to receive, handle and share SECRET-classified material?
What approach would you take to obtaining evidence across multiple telecoms operators?
What level of access to operator facilities and personnel would be required?
What are the principal delivery risks associated with this requirement?
What indicative timescales would you expect for delivery?
Are there any barriers to market participation that DSIT should consider when developing a future procurement strategy?
Are there existing methodologies, frameworks or standards you would recommend applying to this assessment?

## Key Details

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication source | Find A Tender Service |
| Latest notice | https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/073819-2026 |
| 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, VCSE |
| Awardee scale | Not specified |
| All stages | Planning |

## Dates

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication date | 4 Aug 2026 |
| Submission deadline | Not specified |
| Future notice date | 7 Sep 2026 |
| Award date | Not specified |
| Contract period | 4 Oct 2026 - 1 Mar 2027 |
| Recurrence | Not specified |

## Values

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender value | £100,000 |
| 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 SCIENCE, INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY |
| Locality | LONDON |
| Post town | South West London |
| Postcode | SW1A 2EG |
| 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

- 32 - Radio, television, communication, telecommunication and related equipment
- 79 - Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security

### Codes

- 32412100 - Telecommunications network
- 79710000 - Security services

## Release History

- 4 Aug 2026 at 14:38 - Planning - UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/073819-2026

## Documents

- https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/073819-2026
  4th August 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-06db8f. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-06db8f.json.