RM6399 Consultancy and Professional Services: Supplier Guide

The RM6399 Consultancy and Professional Services framework is now open for bids, creating a significant new route into consultancy work across central government and the wider UK public sector. The framework has an estimated value of £5 billion excluding VAT and covers 10 lots spanning strategy, transformation, finance, HR, procurement, health and social care, infrastructure, sustainability and restructuring.

Suppliers have until 3pm on 9 November 2026 to submit their tenders, with the enquiry deadline falling earlier on 22 October. For businesses considering the framework, the immediate priorities are to choose the right lot, confirm that the required evidence is available and give the scored submission enough time and resource.

What is the RM6399 Consultancy and Professional Services framework?

RM6399 is being procured by the Government Commercial Agency and will replace RM6309 Management Consultancy Framework Four. It is intended to give central government and wider public sector organisations a compliant route to consultancy and professional services from businesses ranging from SMEs to large multinational suppliers.

The framework is the first iteration of this agreement being let under the Procurement Act 2023. GCA has set an estimated total value of £5 billion excluding VAT, or £6 billion including VAT, with the framework expected to run from 24 June 2027 to 23 June 2031.

Suppliers can review the official RM6399 Consultancy and Professional Services agreement page alongside the live Find a Tender notice. For suppliers unfamiliar with these agreements, our GCA framework support guide also explains how Thornton & Lowe helps businesses assess suitable frameworks, select lots and prepare their applications.

RM6399 key dates

The tender notice was published on 15 September, while the estimated award decision is currently 1 June 2027. As with any live procurement, bidders should work directly from the current tender documentation and check for clarifications or amendments before submission.

What are the 10 RM6399 lots?

RM6399 divides consultancy and professional services into 10 lots.

The scope ranges from organisational strategy and major transformation programmes through to financial management, procurement and supply chain consultancy, public infrastructure, environmental services and advice relating to distressed corporate situations.

That breadth does not necessarily mean suppliers should bid as widely as possible. The service scope and evidence requirements differ between lots, so lot selection should start with what you can prove rather than simply what you are capable of delivering.

How Lot 1 differs from the specialist lots

Lot 1 is designed for multidisciplinary requirements where several consultancy disciplines need to be combined into a single solution. Customers can access services spanning the areas covered by Lots 2 to 9, but each Lot 1 call-off is capped at £2 million including VAT and any extension options.

There's also an important distinction that bidders need to be aware of. Suppliers applying for Lot 1 cannot also apply for Lots 2 to 9, and vice versa. The purpose is to maintain a broader supplier mix across the agreement. Lot 1 also has different financial viability and Carbon Reduction Plan arrangements from the specialist lots.

That makes the decision between Lot 1 and the specialist lots commercially important. A supplier offering several consultancy disciplines may initially assume that the multidisciplinary lot is automatically the best fit. However, the £2 million call-off ceiling, different evaluation weighting and evidence requirements all need to be considered alongside the breadth of services offered.

The role of Technical Ability Certificates

One of the most important areas to address early is the Technical Ability Certificate, or TAC. This acts as the successor to the previous COTPA evidence requirement.

TACs are designed to demonstrate that a supplier has the technical and professional ability to deliver specific framework service lines. Examples need to meet minimum value and date criteria and be verified by the relevant customer. They are assessed on a strict pass/fail basis, so failing a mandatory TAC requirement can exclude a tender from the competition.

The scale of the evidence requirement varies considerably. The current TAC requirements include:

• Strategy and policy requires all 15 service lines to be evidenced, with three TACs per service line and a £1 million minimum value threshold.
• Transformation requires all 14 service lines, with three TACs per service line and minimum values of two examples at £5 million and one at £8 million.
• Finance requires evidence across at least nine of its 22 service lines, using two TACs per selected service line.
• Procurement requires at least 10 of 16 service lines, with three TACs for each.
• Health and social care requires at least five of its 14 service lines.
• Environment and sustainability requires at least four of its 19 service lines.

Lot 10 uses a different approach, requiring all seven primary restructuring and insolvency capabilities to be evidenced across a maximum of three TACs, with additional evidence available for further capabilities. This is why evidence availability should be tested before committing to a lot. A service may fit your commercial offer perfectly, but that does not necessarily mean you can satisfy the framework's mandatory evidence requirements.

Customer sign-off also creates a dependency outside the bid team. Leaving TAC preparation until the closing stages could mean waiting for client contacts at exactly the point when your internal resource is under the most pressure.

Other supplier requirements to check early

TACs are only one part of readiness. You'll also need to be aware of GCA's wider requirements, including Cyber Essentials, appropriate professional indemnity, public liability and employers' liability insurance, annual social value reporting and annual self-audit and assurance certification.

For Lots 2 to 10, suppliers are also expected to maintain a Carbon Reduction Plan and complete the relevant financial viability assessment. Prompt payment requirements and modern slavery obligations may also apply depending on the supplier and contract.

These requirements are best treated as a workstream alongside the written tender rather than a final compliance check. Finding a missing policy or incomplete piece of evidence early gives you options. Finding the same problem immediately before submission can put the whole tender at risk.

How will RM6399 tenders be evaluated?

The quality and price weightings vary significantly across the framework

Lot 1 Multidisciplinary is weighted:

• 20% quality
• 80% price

For Lots 2 to 9, the weighting is:

• 90% quality
• 10% price

Lot 10 Restructuring and Insolvency is weighted:

• 70% quality
• 30% price

This distinction should influence how bidders allocate their effort. For the specialist Lots 2 to 9, quality represents the overwhelming majority of the assessment. Clear evidence, direct answers, measurable outcomes and alignment with the question therefore deserve substantial attention. A technically compliant submission that does not make its evidence easy to evaluate can still leave valuable marks behind.

Lot 1 presents a very different challenge. Price represents 80% of the evaluation, so commercial competitiveness is much more influential and needs to be considered from the beginning rather than once the written responses are finished. The key here is not to ignore the quality side of the equation, but instead to ensure that it works together with your commercial strategy.

Five things to do before the RM6399 deadline

With the 9 November submission date approaching, suppliers should now be moving beyond general framework preparation.

1. Confirm your lot strategy

Compare the scope of the lots with both your delivery capability and your available evidence. Pay particular attention to the choice between Lot 1 and Lots 2 to 9.

2. Map the TAC requirements

Build a clear evidence matrix showing the relevant service lines, projects, contract values, delivery dates and customer contacts. Identify anything still requiring external verification as early as possible.

3. Separate compliance from quality

Policies, financial information, certificates and evidence should have their own owners and deadlines. This prevents the bid team discovering late compliance problems while concentrating on scored responses.

4. Plan around the evaluation weighting

A 90% quality competition demands a different emphasis from one that is 80% price. Make sure internal time, reviews and commercial approvals reflect the lot you are actually bidding for.

5. Leave time for an independent review

A final review should test more than spelling and presentation. It should check whether each question has actually been answered, whether claims are supported with evidence and whether the response makes it straightforward for the evaluator to award marks.

Thornton & Lowe's bid writing services can provide additional writing capacity, structured reviews or end-to-end support where internal teams are stretched.

Can SMEs bid for RM6399?

Yes. GCA explicitly positions RM6399 as suitable for a range of suppliers, from SMEs through to large multinational businesses, with both SMEs and voluntary, community and social enterprises identified as particularly suitable participants.

That does not mean every lot will suit every smaller consultancy. Some specialist lots have substantial TAC requirements, so SMEs should look closely at the evidence thresholds rather than assuming that their organisation size is the determining factor. A focused bid for a lot where you have strong, verifiable delivery evidence may make more sense than stretching into areas where the mandatory requirements are difficult to meet.

If RM6399 is not suitable, our overview of upcoming CCS and GCA frameworks can also help suppliers identify other agreements approaching the market.

What happens if you secure a place?

RM6399 allows work to be awarded through the framework with or without further competition, subject to the relevant call-off rules. The framework can appoint a maximum of 500 suppliers overall. GCA will also charge suppliers a fee equal to 1% of the charges invoiced to buyers under call-off contracts.

Winning a place should therefore be viewed as access to a route to market, rather than a guarantee of consultancy revenue. Successful suppliers will still need to understand the call-off process, remain visible to eligible buyers and compete effectively for individual opportunities. Our guidance on framework maximisation covers how suppliers can turn a framework position into a more active pipeline of public sector work.

How Thornton & Lowe can support your RM6399 bid

RM6399 combines detailed evidence requirements with significant scored quality content and a relatively short live tender period. Thornton & Lowe can support suppliers at different stages of the process, including:

• assessing framework and lot fit
• mapping TAC and supporting evidence requirements
• creating the bid plan and response structure
• writing and improving scored tender responses
• reviewing existing drafts
• managing compliance and submission checks
• providing additional bid resource when internal teams are at capacity

With the enquiry deadline on 22 October and final tenders due by 3pm on 9 November 2026, suppliers considering RM6399 should now have their lot strategy, evidence and bid resource confirmed.

If you need support preparing your Consultancy and Professional Services submission, speak to Thornton & Lowe. We can work alongside your existing team or provide more comprehensive bid support to help you submit a clear, compliant and competitive response.