DPS Transport for Education, Social care and other transport requirements (East Lothian Council)

East Lothian Council ("ELC") are responsible for the procurement of service transport contracts to meet the education and social care needs as well as other passenger requirements. Most of the transport will be within East Lothian area.

ELC is setting up a Dynamic Purchasing System ("DPS") to procure these contracts. A DPS is completely electronic system and is similar to a framework agreement but a key difference is that, unlike a framework agreement, suppliers can join a DPS at any time.

Contracts operated through this DPS can generally be undertaken by taxis, private hire cars, minibuses and buses, including the requirement for those of these vehicles to be capable of carrying passengers in wheelchairs.

The DPS will be split into the following categories:

-Category 1: MPVs (5-8 seats), including salon cars (4 seats).

-Category 2: MPV- Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle (WAV)- (5-8 seats)

-Category 3: Minibus (9-16 seats), including wheelchair accessible vehicles

-Category 4: Vehicles above 17 seats

Contracts under the DPS will be awarded following mini competitions.

-It is a requirement of the contract that all individuals who will be engaged in the delivery of the contracts must be appropriately vetted in accordance with the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007.

-Bidders will also be subject to Police Scotland checks and comply with GDPR Data Regulations.

-Suppliers interested in this opportunity are invited to attend a free webinar event with the Supplier Development Programme.

Please note this is a live demonstration of how to bid for this contract using PCS-T.

The event is taking place online on 23rd April 2026, 10:30am-12:00pm.

To register, visit the following link:

https://www.sdpscotland.co.uk/events/aligned-tender-training-east-lothian-councils-transport-journeys-dps-2074/

The buyer is using PCS-Tender to conduct this PQQ exercise. The Project code is 31372. For more information see: http://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/info/InfoCentre.aspx?ID=2343

The Contracting Authority does not intend to include a sub-contract clause as part of community benefits (as per Section 25 of the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014) in this contract for the following reason:

Sub contracting is only allowed in limited circumstances to other operators on the DPS.

See the applicable Terms and Conditions of Contract for full details.

Community benefits are included in this requirement. For more information see: https://www.gov.scot/policies/public-sector-procurement/community-benefits-in-procurement/

A summary of the expected community benefits has been provided as follows:

There is a contractual obligation for the delivery of Community Benefits once the aggregate spend with ELC reaches 50K in any financial year.