Contract Notice and Advertising

Contract Notices should be used to advertise all Route 3 procedures. The only exception 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.

Indicative Budget

You may choose to indicate:

the available budget for delivering the service in question,
specify the outcomes desired and
invite providers to submit proposals for achieving the outcomes within the resources available.

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.

Establishing a Timetable for the Procurement Process

This is particularly important if there is an expectation that suppliers will submit consortia bids to allow discussions between suppliers to take place.

Publication of Contract Notices

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:

through the process of creating a Notice on its website and
automatically creates a Notice on the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU).

If using PCS-T or the ESPD (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 ESPD (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. This alert will include your PCS identification number. You will also receive a separate mail from Tender Electronic Daily (TED) with your temporary OJEU reference number.

Once your Notice is published in the OJEU, TED will send you a permanent OJEU publication number. You must retrospectively your online ESPD (Scotland) with this permanent OJEU number if using the PCS Module.

Contract Notices must set out the information in Part C of Annex V of the 2014 EU Public Procurement Directive (as provided for in PCS).

Accessing the Procurement Documents

You Contract Notice must contain details of how bidders can access your procurement documentation.

From the date you publish your Notice you must make your Procurement Documents available:

on the internet
in unrestricted and full direct access form
free of charge

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 either:

the EU Publications Office confirms the OJEU notice has been published or
48 hours (2 working days) have elapsed since the EU Publications Office confirmed receipt of your notice

The procurement documents should be published in PCS-Tender on the same day of whichever of the above events occurs first.

If Using PCS-T

If you use PCS Tender you must provide:

the relevant reference numbers for the specific procurement and
set time limits for the receipt of tenders (bearing in mind statutory minimums).

If Using PCS

If uploading Procurement Documents to PCS (Advertising) file size restrictions apply. These are:

10Mb per document a maximum of 40Mb for the Procurement Officer; and
10Mb per document with a maximum of 30Mb for the Supplier

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.

Care and Support Services

When determining the start date of the contract, an organisation should take into account any process and timescales for registering a care service where this involves a new service or change in the registration of a service. In all cases, an organisation should seek to observe the timescales it has set for decision making.

Electronic auctions should not, in any circumstances, be used for Care and Support Services procurement.

For Care and Support Services you may use the Contract Notice examples below to develop the Social and other Specific Services Contract Notice.

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.

Selection Criteria and Minimum Standards

The Contract Notice must contain the minimum and specific requirements for your procurement exercise. You should include the standardised statements relating to their relevant ESPD (Scotland) questions. This is not necessary if using the online ESPD (Scotland) module on PCS as the relevant information is contained within the module.

If using the ESPD (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:

relate to a specific question in the ESPD (Scotland).
reflect the selection criteria
must reflect the minimum requirements

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:

you intend to hold an electronic auction;
presenting tenders in an electronic catalogues format is acceptable or required;
whether or not variants are authorised or required;
information in respect of any lots.

Community Benefits in Contracts

If you estimate your contract value at or greater than £4,000,000 you must include a community benefit requirements summary in your Contract Notice.

If you do not intend to include community benefits in your contract you must state the reasons why in you Contract Notice. Further information on the specific sections of the OJEU Contract Notice can be found below.

Prior Information Notice (PIN)

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.

PIN which is Not a Call 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 standard PIN form should be used.
The PIN must have been sent between 35 days and 12 months before the date on which the Contract Notice is sent
The PIN must contain the information set out in section I of Part B of Annex V of the 2014 EU Public Procurement Directive and be sent for publication

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.

PINs which are a Call for Competition

Sub-central Organisations may publish the PIN used as a call for competition if it includes certain required information (section I and II of Part B of Annex V of the 2014 EU Public Procurement Directive).

The PIN must:

Refer specifically to the supplies or services that will be the subject of the contract to be awarded;
State the contract will be awarded by Restricted Procedure or Competitive Procedure with Negotiation without further publication of a call for competition
invite bidders to express their interest;
be sent for publication between 35 days and 12 months prior to the date on which the invitation to be included in the procurement was sent;

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.

Contract Notice and ESPD (Scotland) Examples

Below are links to two sets of examples (for Open and Restricted Procedures) to help you complete an OJEU Contract Notice. The first example is for an Open Procedure:

1. Contract Notice Example - Open Procedure for Services and

ESPD (Scotland) v1.9 Example - Open Procedure for Services

And the second example if for a Restricted Procedure:

2. Contract Notice Example - Restricted Procedure for Services and

ESPD (Scotland) v1.9 Example - Restricted Procedure for Services

Both of these examples contain a completed OJEU Contract Notice and a corresponding ESPD (Scotland).

These examples are for guidance and are not definitive templates for the above mentioned two procedures. You are therefore required to make a professional judgment about the questions/statements you will use on a case by case basis.

It is not necessary to insert the standardised statements into the Contract Notice if using the online ESPD (Scotland) Module on PCS as the relevant information is contained within the module.

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