Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 13 Mar 2026, 10:30 GMT

Official UK procurement notice

RFI ID Card Production · UK public procurement notice

Authority: University of Plymouth (Education)

GoodsBelow threshold
Planned pipeline value£100,000pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected 10 Apr 2026from the planned procurement notice
Contract term 3 yrsends 1 Oct 2029 · starts 1 Oct 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Market engagement to inform investment in the generation and production of identification and door access cards

CPV: Electronic cards · Entrance cards · ID cards · Industry specific software package · Magnetic cards · Magnetic-card system · Smart cards · Software package and information systems

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published

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

How University of Plymouth buys Security-type printed matter (CPV 2245), and who usually turns up

University of Plymouth’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: Security-type printed matter (CPV 2245) →

1

How the contest usually goes

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

Question for the bid
This buyerUniversity of Plymouth · all categories
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: 40 of 59 known-size awards · market: CPV 2245 · UK-wide, n=6
68%50%

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.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 56 of 70 known-location awards · market: CPV 2245 · UK-wide, n=5
80%20%

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: no decision dates published · market: division 22 · UK-wide, n=17
—48 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 48 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 31 of 88 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 2245 · UK-wide, n=10
35%40%

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?

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 buyerToo few to chart: 4 lots with bid counts, 5 needed · all categories
The market45 lots with bid counts · division 22 · UK-wide
7% had one bid
Market · select a colour for counts
1 bid7%
Market: 3 of 45 lots with published bid counts.
2–333%
Market: 15 of 45 lots with published bid counts.
4–629%
Market: 13 of 45 lots with published bid counts.
7+31%
Market: 14 of 45 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 buyerToo few to chart: 2 lots with estimate and award, 5 needed · all categories
The market25 lots with estimate and award · division 22 · UK-wide
44% below estimate
Market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate44%
Market: 11 of 25 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%48%
Market: 12 of 25 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate8%
Market: 2 of 25 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 302336 monthsPublished estimate£100k

This lot is listed as CPV 3023. The table above uses the notice category.

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 15 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet40% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 15 similar lots
1 bid40%
6 of 15 similar past lots received 1 bid (40%).
2–327%
4 of 15 similar past lots received 2–3 (27%).
4–620%
3 of 15 similar past lots received 4–6 (20%).
7+13%
2 of 15 similar past lots received 7+ (13%).
Check who supplied similar work and whether the route limits bidders.
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.

—No model forecast yet
No comparable awards on record for this lot’s category yet. The published estimate is £100k, and the forecast stays empty until the market has a record to read.

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
Below threshold
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
13 Mar 2026, 10:30 GMT
Last source update
13 Mar 2026, 10:30 GMT
Authority reference
DK_UoP_CardProduction_144_026
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-022779
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Electronic cardsEntrance cardsID cardsIndustry specific software packageMagnetic cardsMagnetic-card systemSmart cardsSoftware package and information systems
Delivery area
UK
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06696a Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

13 Mar 2026 → 1 Oct 2026 · 4 dates
  1. Planning notice published228 days ago
    13 Mar 2026, 10:30 GMT
  2. Tender notice expected200 days ago
    10 Apr 2026, 23:59 BST
  3. Market engagement200 days ago
    10 Apr 2026, 23:59 BST
  4. Contract starts27 days ago
    1 Oct 2026

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    13 Mar 2026, 10:30 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

University of Plymouth

Contracting authorityPublic undertaking GB-PPON: PQHL-4825-PGGL Drake Circus, Plymouth, Devon, South West, PL4 8AAContact name, email, phone

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure