Introduction

Before you can purchase goods or services worth more than £2,000, you must complete a number of pre-checks to see whether you need to submit a request for your purchase.

1: Existing contract

You do not need to submit a request, and can continue with your purchase, if all of the following apply:

• You already have a contract that started before 10 February 2026.
• The goods or services you want are already included for the full length of the contract.
• You have the budget manager’s approval.

However, you may need to submit a request if the cost centre and detail codes for your contract are not excluded from the spend control process and you:

• want to renew or create a new contract
• have an existing contract and want to add any optional items or services that were not included in the original contract.

Continue to step 2.

2: Cost and detail codes

Every purchase made at the council must be allocated to a:

• six-digit cost code
• five-digit detail code.

Some types of expenditure have been excluded from spending controls. These include:

• capital expenditure
• grant funded schemes
• spend by schools
• goods for resale.

Follow the steps below to check if the cost and detail codes for your purchase are excluded from the spend control process.

A

Check the cost code

A cost code is excluded from the spend control process if it:

• starts with a letter, such as A, B or C
• is a capital cost code that starts with an X
• is listed as excluded in the document below.

B

Check the detail code

While the cost code for your purchase is not excluded, the detail code may be.

Download the document below to check if your detail code is included or excluded:

You can continue with your purchase, without submitting a request, if both of the following apply:

• your detail code is excluded
• you have the budget manager’s approval.

Otherwise you need to submit your request.