Selling to the Metropolitan Police Service

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) spends on average £1billion each year on goods, services and works to support operational policing across Greater London. The MPS’s Procurement Services department co-ordinates procurement activity related to this expenditure across three broad categories:

Image of officers on bicycles
  • Information and Communications Technology
  • Corporate and Operational Police Procurement
  • Property

There is an incredibly diverse range of requirements which are contained within these three categories ranging from computer equipment to helicopters and police cars to construction and facilities management.

The work of Procurement Services does not stop once a contract has been signed, and the focus shifts to ensuring our supply partners continue to meet the ever changing requirements. The Supply Chain Management Team provides the infrastructure and capability to professionally manage a supply base of the size and complexity of the MPS.

The MPS makes every effort to ensure that the money it receives from the public is spent in the most responsible manner. There are several important reasons why the MPS spends time and energy on procurement processes:

  • The MPS is spending public money. We have a legal and moral responsibility to tax payers to ensure that it is spent as responsibly as possible.
  • The MPS delivers a wide range of services that have a fundamental impact on the lives of communities. We have to be sure that we are buying goods and services that enhance, not detract from, that quality of life.
  • The MPS has to be sure of who it is trading with, and be convinced that by trading with that company any risks to itself and its communities are reduced.
  • The MPS has a particular obligation to ensure that all its processes are open, transparent and give equal treatment to everyone. It also has a duty to promote free and fair competition in the market.

The MPS's Procurement Strategy sets out the process by which it obtains the goods services and works it requires to police Greater London. This can range from the purchase of stationery to long term contracts to support front-line policing. The MPS's Procurement Strategy was ratified by the MPA in June 2009.

The Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime

Under the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 ("the Act") the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) will be abolished and replaced with the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPC), a functional body of the Greater London Authority.

How does this change affect suppliers?

This change will have no impact (other than invoicing requirement) on existing suppliers to whom the MPA are currently contracted, as the Act specifies that the MPA will change to MOPC in name only and this change will not require any further amendments to or novation of existing contracts. From Monday 16th January 2012 new contracts will be executed in the name of the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime rather than the Metropolitan Police Authority.

Can all suppliers please ensure that any invoices issued on or after the 16th January 2012 are to the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime and not the Metropolitan Police Authority or the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS). Any invoices received referencing the MPA or MPS with an invoice date of 16th January 2012 will be returned unpaid as the legal entity of the MPA will no longer exist.

If you would like any more information on any of the above changes then please email us at ProcurementImprovements@met.police.uk

Procurement Process

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