Every guide on this is written for the person receiving. This one is written for the person sending, which turns out to be a different question entirely.
Written August 2026. General information, not legal advice.
You can send something, but a gift of value is usually the wrong instrument. NHS trusts, councils and central government all run gifts and hospitality registers, most set a low declaration threshold, and many require anything above it to be declined or handed in. During a live procurement the answer hardens to no. The move that works is to send something with no monetary value: a properly written letter, a personalised page, a piece of research they can actually use. It cannot embarrass them, it does not need declaring, and it is the part that earns the meeting anyway.
Public sector staff are bound by their organisation's own standards of business conduct policy. The details vary by trust and by council, but the shape is consistent: gifts and hospitality must be declared above a modest threshold, registers are published, and anything that could be seen to influence a decision is refused. Some organisations set the threshold at 25 pounds, some higher, some require declaration of everything regardless of value.
That means a well meant hamper does not land as generosity. It lands as paperwork, and possibly as a conversation with a line manager. You have not built a relationship, you have created a small administrative problem with your name on it.
The procurement rule that catches people. Once a tender is live, contact outside the formal process is usually restricted, and anything that looks like an inducement can put a bid at risk. If you are in or near a procurement, send nothing and speak to the named contact through the process. Being the supplier who cost someone their bid is not a recoverable position.
The Bribery Act 2010 sets no monetary threshold. What matters is whether there is an intention to induce improper performance, and context does most of the work. Reasonable and proportionate promotional activity is not an offence. A significant gift to a decision maker during a live evaluation is exactly the sort of thing the Act exists to catch. If you have a compliance team, this is their call, not yours.
Rockkt Studio is the version of this product that sends no gift at all. It finds the address, writes and prints the letter, builds the personalised page and tracks engagement, and you decide whether anything goes in the envelope beyond paper. For public sector selling, that is usually the right shape.
General information, not legal advice. Individual organisations publish their own standards of business conduct and gift registers, and those documents, not this page, are what govern your contact's obligations.
Studio finds the address, writes and prints the letter and builds the personalised page. Nothing of value changes hands, so nothing needs declaring.