Prior Information Notice
Buyers can advertise their intention to tender future planned procurements by publishing a Prior Information Notice (PIN) on Public Contracts Scotland.
The PIN can be published up to twelve months in advance from the date on which the Contract Notice is sent for publication. PINs will contain some basic information regarding the goods or services to be purchased.
In the vast majority of cases, publishing a PIN is not a mandatory requirement. Some public bodies use them to advertise an opportunity (coming up within the next 12 months) to help you research and start to prepare your bid. PINs are a useful source of information to help you Understand the Market.
Buyers can issue a PIN as a means to seek information from suppliers to the market when developing a procurement.
The publication of a PIN can also help the buyer reduce the timescales needed to complete the procurement exercise.
In most cases public bodies will follow up the publication of a PIN with a Contract Notice when they are ready to carry out the procurement exercise.
How to Search for PINs on Public Contracts Scotland (PCS)
1. search for PINs in the Search Notices area of PCS:
2. click on Notice Type
3. select Future Opportunity
4. then click Search Notices to view all PINs.
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.