Wandsworth Council has awarded a £932,675 laptop and desktop contract to the same supplier it has used since 2016, classifying it as a “routine matter” and publishing the decision this week, 15 days after the contract had already started.
The award, made on 20 April 2026 to XMA Limited, covers 615 devices over two years. It sits alongside a separate £3.7 million IT procurement for the same purpose, from the same supplier, that has sat frozen on the council’s forward plan for 13 months without a decision, as we reported last week.
The new contract, designated DD82, was signed off by Sam Olsen, the council’s Executive Director for Change and Innovation. The decision record states that “this delegated decision has been taken as a routine matter” and confirms that the relevant Cabinet member was sent a copy but was not required to decide. The contract value of £932,675 falls just £67,325 below the £1 million threshold that would have required the decision to be treated as a key decision and brought to Cabinet.
Nine companies registered interest in the contract. Six submitted bids by the 24 March deadline. Two were disqualified after attempting to introduce additional terms after the clarification window had closed. Of the four that were evaluated, XMA scored 100 per cent. Pure Data Solutions came second at 96.03 per cent, fewer than four percentage points behind.
The evaluation was 100 per cent price. There were two technical questions, both pass or fail. Bidders were required to submit pricing schedules on Lenovo products specifically, with the winner determined by whose basket of mandatory models cost least.
The five-year question
The frozen contract on the forward plan, known internally as EA25, was drawn up as a five-year commitment covering laptops, desktops and monitors for around 5,000 staff across Wandsworth and Richmond. Wandsworth’s share came to £2.27 million for just over 3,000 devices over five years: roughly 654 devices a year.
DD82 covers 615 devices over two years, around 308 a year, at an annual cost of approximately £466,000. The notional annual cost of the Wandsworth share of EA25, had it been awarded, would have been around £454,000.
Similar annual cost. Half the annual device volume.
XMA has held the equivalent Wandsworth contract continuously since 2016. It held the EA16 contract awarded that year, then EA21 in 2021. In August 2025, Putney.news reported that the council’s own risk register stated that if EA25 failed, the council would “simply revert to the existing providers.” DD82 is the existing providers. If it runs to its April 2028 end date, XMA will have supplied Wandsworth laptops and desktops for 12 continuous years.
What the council did not say
On 27 April 2026, Putney.news sent a right of reply to the council on the frozen £3.7 million contract. At that point, DD82 had been operational for seven days. The council did not respond and did not mention the parallel procurement.
Six days later, just days before polling day, the DD82 decision appeared on the council’s democracy portal.
