Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 26 Oct 2026, 14:17 GMT

Official UK procurement notice

Preliminary Market Engagement Questionnaire - Ultrasound Gel

Authority: Regional Business Services Organisation Procurement and Logistics Service (Central government)

Goods
Sectors: Medical Devices & Pharma (33) Delivery: Delivery location not published
Planned pipeline valueValue not publishedpipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Contract term 3 yrsends 31 Jul 2030 · up to 31 Jul 2032 with extensions · starts 1 Aug 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

This is a Prior Information Notice to seek engagement with the market place to gather information associated with the supply and delivery of Ultrasound Gel. To this end the Business Services Organisation, Procurement and Logistics Service on behalf of NIHSC Trusts, wish to engage with potential suppliers to obtain a market view of the potential requirements through the completion of a Questionnaire. Any interested suppliers are required to submit their response through the eTendersNI secure messaging area of the Call for Tender (CfT) Ref: 6817079. All correspondence in relation to this Preliminary Market Engagement exercise will be communicated via the eTendersNI secure messaging area. Suppliers will be required to submit their completed Questionnaire No Later than 3pm on 25th November 2026. To register on eTendersNI and access the Questionnaire, please use the following link: - etendersni.gov.uk ↗ and locate CfT Ref: enter the 6817079. Suppliers should also note that any interest shown does not constitute a commitment to participate in any future tendering exercise.

CPV: Medical equipments, pharmaceuticals and personal care products

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1PlannedRenewal 3 yrs
Contract period: 1 Aug 2027 – 31 Jul 2030 (3 yrs) · up to 31 Jul 2032 with extensions
Extensions: Extension options published

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published

How Regional Business Services Organisation Procurement and Logistics Service runs Medical equipments, pharmaceuticals (CPV 33) tenders for its clients, and who usually turns up

Regional Business Services Organisation Procurement and Logistics Service buys for other bodies; its column covers all its clients. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Medical equipments, pharmaceuticals (CPV 33) →

1

How the contest usually goes

Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.

Question for the bid
The marketMedical equipments, pharmaceuticals (CPV 33) · Northern Ireland (authority’s region)
What to do with it
How often do SMEs win?
i

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.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 21 of 33 known-size awards · market: division 33 · Northern Ireland (authority’s region), n=134
64%46%

Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.

How often do local suppliers win?
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. The market figure counts awards delivered in Northern Ireland (authority’s region).

A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 7 of 13 known-location awards · market: division 33 · Northern Ireland (authority’s region), n=91
54%14%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in the region where that award was delivered.

How long to a decision?
i

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.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 14 decided notices · market: division 33 · Northern Ireland (authority’s region), n=13
52 days57 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 52 days of the bid deadline.

How often single-bid or direct?
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.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: at least 7 of 35 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: division 33 · Northern Ireland (authority’s region), n=137
20%58%

Missing bid counts may hide more single-bid awards. This share is a minimum.

How many bids did past lots attract?

i

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.

Last 36 months.

This buyer48 lots with bid counts · all categories
13% had one bid
The market68 lots with bid counts · division 33 · Northern Ireland (authority’s region)
28% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid13% / 28%
Buyer: 6 of 48 lots with published bid counts. Market: 19 of 68 lots with published bid counts.
2–340% / 25%
Buyer: 19 of 48 lots with published bid counts. Market: 17 of 68 lots with published bid counts.
4–631% / 15%
Buyer: 15 of 48 lots with published bid counts. Market: 10 of 68 lots with published bid counts.
7+17% / 32%
Buyer: 8 of 48 lots with published bid counts. Market: 22 of 68 lots with published bid counts.

How did awards compare with estimates?

i

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.

Last 36 months.

This buyer21 lots with estimate and award · all categories
38% below estimate
The market38 lots with estimate and award · division 33 · Northern Ireland (authority’s region)
34% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate38% / 34%
Buyer: 8 of 21 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 13 of 38 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%38% / 42%
Buyer: 8 of 21 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 16 of 38 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate24% / 24%
Buyer: 5 of 21 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 9 of 38 lots with an estimate and award.
2

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.

Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list

Lot #1CPV 3336 monthsEstimate not published

This lot lists more than one class in CPV 33. The comparison uses that group.

Expected competition
i

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 68 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet28% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 68 similar lots
1 bid28%
19 of 68 similar past lots received 1 bid (28%).
2–325%
17 of 68 similar past lots received 2–3 (25%).
4–615%
10 of 68 similar past lots received 4–6 (15%).
7+32%
22 of 68 similar past lots received 7+ (32%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 3 bids.
Commercial price forecast
i

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.

—Estimate not published
The buyer published no estimate for this lot, so there is nothing to forecast against. A price prediction here would be a number about a number we do not have.

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.

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.

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
Legal basis
UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
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
Unspecified in notice
Recurring procurement
Unspecified in notice
First published
26 Oct 2026, 14:17 GMT
Last source update
26 Oct 2026, 14:17 GMT
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-101072
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Medical equipments, pharmaceuticals and personal care products
Delivery area
Not published
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-079045 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

26 Oct 2026 → 1 Aug 2027 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice publishedearlier today
    26 Oct 2026, 14:17 GMT
  2. Today
    26 Oct 2026
  3. Market engagementin 30 days
    25 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT

    This is a Prior Information Notice to seek engagement with the market place to gather information associated with the supply and delivery of Ultrasound Gel. To this end the Business Services Organisation, Procurement and Logistics Service on behalf of NIHSC Trusts, wish to engage with potential suppliers to obtain a market view of the potential requirements through the completion of a Questionnaire. Any interested suppliers are required to submit their response through the eTendersNI secure messaging area of the Call for Tender (CfT) Ref: 6817079. All correspondence in relation to this Preliminary Market Engagement exercise will be communicated via the eTendersNI secure messaging area. Suppliers will be required to submit their completed Questionnaire No Later than 3pm on 25th November 2026. To register on eTendersNI and access the Questionnaire, please use the following link: - etendersni.gov.uk ↗ and locate CfT Ref: enter the 6817079. Suppliers should also note that any interest shown does not constitute a commitment to participate in any future tendering exercise.

  4. Contract startsin 278 days
    1 Aug 2027, 00:00 BST

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    26 Oct 2026, 14:17 GMT
    UK2

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

Regional Business Services Organisation Procurement and Logistics Service

Contracting authorityPublic authority - central government GB-PPON: PWNJ-1991-NGDW 77 Boucher Crescent, Belfast, Northern Ireland, BT12 6HUContact email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure