Official UK procurement notice
Market Engagement for Third-Party Contingency Support for Decontamination Services in Scotland
Authority: The Common Services Agency (more commonly known as NHS National Services Scotland) (NSS) (NHS & healthcare)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe National Decontamination Collaborative Programme is seeking market feedback and information to inform potential future procurement of reserved third-party contingency support for decontamination services across Scotland’s 14 Central Decontamination Units (CDUs) reprocessing approximately 40 million instruments every year to service all Scotland’s hospitals.
CPV: Decontamination equipment
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1Background:Planned
Background:
The main objectives of NHSScotland’s decontamination services are:
-Clean, disinfect and sterilise Reusable Medical Devices (RMDs) to strict standards, set in national policy and guidance;
-deliver the correct set of products at the correct time and places, in accordance with agreement with service users e.g. theatre, clinics etc.
CDUs are required to comply with a range of legal and technical requirements, guidance, and documentation systems to process RMDs that are fit for purpose and reduce risks to patient safety. CDUs are registered with the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (if applicable) and compliant with Medical Devices Regulations. They must operate their quality management system to BS 13485: 2021 and regulatory requirements. They are audited at least annually by an Approved body.
Scotland’s CDUs are facing increasing pressure to provide sufficient capacity during unplanned outages. Recent unplanned outages have disrupted service delivery and impacted patient care. There is currently not enough internal contingency processing capacity available to support Boards during such outages.
Purpose of this PIN:
This PIN is issued as part of a preliminary market consultation. It does not signify the start of a formal procurement process but aims to:
-Assess market capability to provide reserved capacity for processing approximately 1.5m re-usable medical devices per year.
-Identify suitably accredited suppliers with the reprocessing capabilities to support the range of services supplied by decontamination services
-Understand indicative costs for providing such contingency capacity.
-Invite innovative solutions and ideas to enhance the resilience of Scotland’s decontamination services through additional processing capacity.
Key Considerations:
-Frequency of contingency support requirement is variable and can’t be predicted. The number of un-planned outages tend to impact services for a period of 7 days up to 8 weeks.
-Capacity may also be used for increased workload, not just during planned and un-planned outages.
-The feedback will inform future strategy and potential procurement options.
Next Steps:
Interested suppliers are invited to express interest and provide relevant information, including:
-Capability statements
-Indicative cost information for such services
-Suggestions for service resilience and contingency planning
Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How The Common Services Agency (more commonly known as NHS National Services Scotland) (NSS) buys Machinery for cleaning bottles, packing and weighing and spraying machinery (CPV 4292), and who usually turns up
The Common Services Agency (more commonly known as NHS National Services Scotland) (NSS)’s published record next to the market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Machinery for cleaning bottles, packing and weighing and spraying machinery (CPV 4292) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
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How often small and medium firms win.
Share of awards where the winner’s size is known.
The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.
Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.
i
How often local firms win similar work.
Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.
Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered outside the region where that award was delivered.
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How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.
Middle value in days from the bid deadline to the award date, on competitions that published both.
Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.
Half of these awards have an award date within 32 days of the bid deadline.
i
How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.
Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.
Both shares are minimums: some awards have no bid count.
Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.
Direct awards or one recorded bid are common here. Check the route before spending time on a bid.
How many bids did past lots attract?
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How many bids past lots received.
Each colour is a bid-count range. Only competed lots with a published count are included.
Past bids do not predict this tender.
1 bid43% / 67%
2–329% / 33%
4–624% / 0%
7+5% / 0%
How did awards compare with estimates?
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Where winning prices landed against estimates.
Each colour shows awards below, close to or above the published estimate, one lot at a time.
Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.
Below estimate57% / 50%
Within ±2%14% / 25%
Above estimate29% / 25%
Assess each lot i
What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
i
What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list
Lot #1Background:CPV 4292Estimate not published
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How many bids this lot may attract.
The forecast uses similar past competitions. The bar shows either that forecast or past bid counts; the line below says which.
Each lot shows its own forecast based on its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative. The bar shows 23 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid39%
2–343%
4–613%
7+4%
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Where the award price may land.
The forecast uses similar awards and the buyer’s estimate. The band covers the middle half of likely prices.
No comparable awards for this lot yet.
A statistical guide from past awards, not a price to bid.
Who has supplied this buyer on similar work? i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
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Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.
Who could compete for this lot? i
Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
i
Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.
About this data
- Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New notices arrive through the day; the figures are rebuilt nightly.
- Two views, kept apart. The authority’s own track record and the wider market for the same kind of work sit side by side and are never mixed. Where the local picture is too thin, a figure widens to a broader market and says which one it used.
- Forecasts are labelled. The price forecast and its range, possible competitors and the earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards: not published facts, not win chances and not price advice. Official notices do not say who is bidding.
- Every figure shows what it rests on. Not every notice publishes a bid count, a value or a delivery region, so each figure carries the number of records behind it, and one built on few records is marked as such. The on a figure explains it; the counting rules are in the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record · publisher note attached- Legal basis
- CELEX · 32014L0024 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (Directive 2014/24/EU)
- Procurement category
- Goods
- Notice status
- Planned procurement
- Procurement threshold
- Unspecified in notice
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Yes (GPA)
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 30 Oct 2025, 10:22 GMT
- Last source update
- 30 Oct 2025, 10:22 GMT
- FTS notice number
2025/S 000-069633- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-05d6e2Find a Tender
Publisher note: Contact Information: Responses and enquiries should be directed to - William McCulloch william.mcculloch@nhs.scot Deadline for Responses: 30/11/2025 NOTE: To register your interest in this notice and obtain any additional information please visit the Public Contracts Scotland Web Site at https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/Search/Search_Switch.aspx?ID=814261. (SC Ref:814261)
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
30 Oct 2025 → 30 Nov 2025 · 2 dates- Notice published363 days ago30 Oct 2025, 10:22 GMT
- Tender notice expected332 days ago30 Nov 2025
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Pipeline notice- Awards (0)
- No award published
- Contracts (0)
- No contract published
- Bid statistics
- No aggregate bid statistics published
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Official documents & specifications
Official links; attachments are not copiedNo document links were published on the notice.