Crime Squad investigates a roster

The National Crime Squad is about to embark on the creation of its first design roster, Design Week can exclusively reveal.

The squad, which was established in 1998 to combat national and international organised and serious crime, is looking for consultancies to provide design services for identity, print, electronic, exhibition and consultancy work.

A spokesman for the squad says that it hopes to have compiled a list of consultancies that it will invite to present credentials within two weeks. It is establishing in detail what its requirements are, the value of its overall design spend and which design groups it wishes to meet now.

One of the main motivations for the establishment of a roster is to speed up and simplify the procurement of design services.

The squad is governed by the European Union public procurement directive, which forces it to advertise design jobs across Europe in the Official Journal for 37 days and to go through a tendering process that must last 42 days.

The rules apply when the total spend in a category, such as printed matter, exceeds £144 000 in a five-year period, which means that even individual leaflet or stationery jobs would have to be put through the standard 79-day procurement procedure.

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