Call-off Order

A call-off order is an individual order placed against an existing framework agreement or blanket contract. The framework has already fixed the approved suppliers, the commercial terms and the pricing mechanism, so the call-off is simply the instruction to supply a defined quantity, at a defined time, under conditions nobody has to renegotiate. The buyer calls off what they need, when they need it, within the limits the framework set.

Three terms get used interchangeably and should not be. A framework agreement is the umbrella contract that governs future orders. A call-off order is one of those future orders. A blanket purchase order is the private sector equivalent of the framework: a standing commitment to buy up to an agreed value or quantity over a period, against which individual releases are made. In practice a release against a blanket PO and a call-off against a framework do the same job under different names.

The mechanism is standard in UK public sector buying, where frameworks run by the Government Commercial Agency, NHS Supply Chain and regional buying consortia let eligible bodies place orders against pre-competed contracts without running a fresh procurement each time. The Government Commercial Agency is an executive agency sponsored by the Cabinet Office and describes itself as the UK's largest public procurement agency. For a supplier, a place on a framework produces no revenue at all until call-offs start arriving.

What the Procurement Act 2023 requires

Section 45 of the Procurement Act 2023 defines a framework as a contract between a contracting authority and one or more suppliers that provides for the future award of contracts. The same section sets the rules a call-off has to satisfy.

• Unless an exception applies, a framework may only provide for the future award of a contract following a competitive selection process - a mini-competition among the framework suppliers.
• A direct award without competition is allowed only where a single supplier is party to the framework, or where the framework sets out both the core terms of the contract and an objective mechanism for supplier selection.
• The framework itself must state the goods, services or works covered, the price payable or the mechanism for determining it, the estimated value, any selection process to be applied on award, the term, which contracting authorities may use it, and whether it is an open framework.
• Framework terms are capped: four years, or eight for a defence and security or utilities framework. An authority may go longer where the nature of what is being supplied requires it, but it must set out its reasons in the tender or transparency notice.

Two ways a call-off order goes wrong

The first is timing. A call-off has to be placed inside the framework's active term. An expired framework does not become a rolling arrangement because the trading relationship carried on, and orders placed after expiry sit outside the authority's route to award.

The second is scope. A call-off can only cover what the framework's description of goods, services or works actually covers, and that description is a mandatory part of the framework under section 45. Ordering adjacent work because the supplier is already on site invalidates the call-off and creates a compliance problem for the buyer rather than for you.

Both failures are avoidable at the point the order is raised, which is where the framework reference, the lot, the expiry date and the agreed rate should already be on the record. Holding those against the customer account rather than in an email thread is what makes a call-off order auditable a year later - the same habit that applies on the buying side when you raise a purchase order against your own supplier agreements.