Contract Notices should be used to advertise all Route 3 procedures. The only exceptions to this are:
Use of the negotiated procedure without prior publication (only available in strictly defined and exceptional circumstances)
In a Restricted Procedure, or Competitive Procedure with Negotiation, sub-central organisations can use a Prior Information Notice (PIN) if certain information is set out in the PIN. A sub-central Organisation is any Organisation which does not belong to Central Government or National Health Services.
The Contract Notice must contain the minimum and specific requirements for your procurement exercise.
You may choose to indicate:
Stating an indicative budget ensures that bidders' tenders for delivering the service are affordable. This may be appropriate if, for example, a procurement exercise fails and the organisation moves to negotiation with suppliers. In other circumstances, stating an indicative budget may make it difficult for an organisation to assess that the service represents value for money.
This is particularly important if there is an expectation that suppliers will submit consortia bids to allow discussions between suppliers to take place.
All Contract Notices must be published on Public Contracts Scotland (PCS).
PCS is the national advertising portal which provides suppliers with free access to contract opportunities. It guides you:
If using PCS-T or the SPD (Scotland) word document, you must set out the specific requirements and minimum standards for your procurement. These must be relevant and proportionate and included in your Contract Notice (or the PIN if that is being used as a call for competition).This is not necessary if using the online SPD (Scotland) Module on PCS as the relevant information is contained within this module.
You will receive a PCS alert after you have submitted the Contract Notice for publication on PCS.
You must retrospectively update your online SPD (Scotland) with your FTS reference number if using the PCS Module.
Accessing the Procurement Documents
You Contract Notice must contain details of how bidders can access your procurement your documentation.
From the date you publish your Notice you must make your Procurement Documents available:
The Regulations define ‘procurement documents’ very widely. This includes all documents related to the procurement i.e. including technical specifications, terms and conditions and tender documents to be used at subsequent stages
In practical terms, it is not always possible to have all documents available at the start of your procurement exercise. Only in an Open Procedure are you required to have the ITT available from the outset. For all other procedures you must provide sufficiently precise information. This will allow bidders to understand the nature and scope of your requirement and decide whether to request to participate.
PCS-T Publication Procurement documents must not be published in PCS-Tender until the FTS Publications Office confirms the FTS notice has been published.
If you use PCS Tender you must provide:
If uploading Procurement Documents to PCS (Advertising) file size restrictions apply. These are:
If you are using PCS-Tender, attachments cannot be added to the Contract Notice on PCS Advertising. You must add your documents to PCS-Tender.
You must put the exclusion statement under II.2.4 (Additional Information) of the contract notice, and the selection statements under III.1.4 (Objective Rules and Criteria for Participation) of the Contract Notice.
All notices relating to EU funded procurement exercises (even when the original contract notice is published after December 2020) need to be published via both the Find a Tender Service (FTS) and OJEU to ensure compliance. The publication of notices will be managed automatically by Public Contracts Scotland (PCS). If you are in doubt whether your procurement exercise is or is not EU funded please seek legal advice.
Please note that the information and guidance provided in the Procurement Journey routes are not designed to cover the specifics that are often applicable to such procurement exercises and we would always advise you to seek legal guidance where you need further support.
The Contract Notice must contain the minimum and specific requirements for your procurement exercise. You should include the standardised statements relating to their relevant SPD (Scotland) questions. This is not necessary if using the online SPD (Scotland) module on PCS as the relevant information is contained within the module.
If using the SPD (Scotland) Word document, you ou can create new statements or amend the existing statement(s) included in the Standardised Statements document. You will then include you statements your Contract Notice.
Additional or amended statements should only be used if no suitable standardised statements already exist. You must ensure all statements used in the procurement exercise must:
It is important that the Contract Notice provides the scope of the requirement, either by volume or by value
In the case of Contract Notices for Framework Agreements it must clearly identify the bodies entitled to use the Framework Agreement.
You must include in your Contract Notice whether your proposed contract is to be a reserved contract.. It must also state if:
If you do not intend to include community benefits in your contract you must state the reasons why in you Contract Notice.
All Organisations may give advance notice of planned procurements. This is done through the publication of a Prior Information Notice (PIN) which is not used as a means of calling for competition.
A PIN can allow potential bidders to prepare themselves to bid in time for the contracts announced. It can also enable reductions in timescales for competitions once the specific Contract Notice has been despatched.
The period covered by a PIN must be a maximum of 12 months from the date on which the notice is sent for publication.
Sub-central Organisations may publish the PIN used as a call for competition if it includes certain required information.
The PIN must:
Once a PIN has been published, reductions in timescales for competitions identified in the PIN are possible.
The period covered by a PIN must be a maximum of 12 months from the date on which the notice is sent for publication.