Contract Award Notice
A Contract Award Notice is how a public sector buyer formally advertises that a contract award has been made.
All Scottish public bodies must publish their Contract Award Notices on Public Contracts Scotland (PCS) for their regulated procurements. Regulated procurements are all contracts with an estimated value of £50,000 or above for goods and services (excluding VAT) for goods and services.
Buyers can also publish Contract Award Notices for unregulated procurements, if they choose to do so. Unregulated procurements are contracts with an estimated value below £50,000 (excluding VAT) for goods and services. These may be procured through Quick Quotes or a call off from a Framework Agreement.
How to Search for Contract Award Notices on PCS
1. go to the Search Notices area of PCS:
2. click on Notice Type
3. select Contract Results
4. then click Search to view all Contract Award Notices.
Your search will list many results on the left hand side of the page. Click on the title to look at each result in more detail:
You can use more of the filter options on the left hand of the page to streamline your results further. For example, add a keyword relating to your goods or services in the Keyword search box:
You should try a few different combinations of keywords as buyers may use different keywords to describe opportunities.
You can use Contract Award Notices to help you to Understand the Market. Through a Contract Award Notice you will be able:
- to see who has been awarded a contract. If it is a large contract you could contact the winning supplier to ask about sub-contracting opportunities
- find the CPV codes which the buyer has used and add these to your PCS Alert and Supplier Finder Profiles. This will mean that you are alerted to (and possibly invited to) tender for similar opportunities in the future
Quickfire Guide
Contract Award Notice Contents
The Contract Award Notice contains the following useful information (this is not an exhaustive list):
| Contact Details | the name and contact details of the lead buying organisation |
| Entitled Public Bodies | which public bodies will be entitled to use the contract (particularly if the contract has been placed on behalf of a group of public bodies) |
| Contract Description | a description of the goods and services being purchased |
| Geography | the geographical place(s) the contract services |
| Duration | the duration of the contract, including any possible contract extension periods |
| Value | the estimated total value of the contract. This should include all lots and any optional extension periods |
| Commodity/Service | the main commodity or service being procured e.g. IT equipment, and any other iterms which are not covered by the main category |
| Procurement Procedure | the procurement procedure that was followed |
| Timescales | the contract award date and the duration of the contract (including any possible contract extension periods) |
| Criteria | the criteria against w]hich the contract was awarded i.e. how it was scored |
| Supplier | details of the winning supplier(s) |