Official UK procurement notice
250202 – Preliminary Market Engagement for a Car Parking Management Solution at Queen’s Accommodation (Elms BT9)
Authority: Queen's University Belfast (Education)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionQueen’s is seeking to engage with suppliers to support a scoping exercise for potential replacement of the car parking management solution at Queen’s Accommodation Elms BT9 site at 78 Malone Road, Belfast.
The purpose of this Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) exercise is to gain a better understanding of the car park solutions available in the market, explore options for a specific solution at the Elms BT9 site, understand costs, and support a potential future procurement exercise. The PME process will provide interested suppliers with the opportunity to obtain further information on Queen’s requirements and also provide Queen’s with the opportunity to obtain feedback from the marketplace.
Queen’s is not looking for supplier proposals at this stage, but would like suppliers who wish to participate in the PME process to express their interest by registering at our e-tendering portal which you can find at the link below.
in-tendhost.co.uk/queensuniversitybelf… ↗
You can access the PME documents by searching “Tenders” – then “Current Tenders". Please complete and return the template form enclosed as Appendix 4 if you wish to participate in the PME process.
CPV: Car park control equipment · Car park management services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Queen's University Belfast buys Road equipment (CPV 3492), and who usually turns up
Queen's University Belfast’s own published record, next to the published market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are kept out: they attract a different number of bids. Whole-market view: Road equipment (CPV 3492) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
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.
Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.
i
How often local firms win similar work.
Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.
Here, local means the winner is registered in the region where that contract was delivered.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered outside Northern Ireland.
i
How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.
Middle value in days from the deadline to the first award notice, on competitions that published both dates.
Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.
Half of these awards were announced within 43 days of the bid deadline.
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.
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.
1 bid41% / 14%
2–344% / 39%
4–610% / 35%
7+5% / 12%
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.
Below estimate28% / 33%
Within ±2%24% / 52%
Above estimate48% / 14%
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.
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 3492Estimate not published
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 50 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid22%
2–354%
4–618%
7+6%
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.
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.
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.
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
- Unspecified in notice
- 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
- 20 Jan 2026, 16:26 GMT
- Last source update
- 22 Jan 2026, 10:01 GMT
- Authority reference
250202- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-005608- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Not published
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-060a64Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
20 Jan 2026 → 1 Jul 2026 · 5 dates- Planning notice published275 days ago20 Jan 2026, 16:26 GMT
- Latest notice published273 days ago22 Jan 2026, 10:01 GMT
- Market engagement254 days ago10 Feb 2026, 23:59 GMT
Queen’s is not looking for supplier proposals at this stage, but would like suppliers who wish to participate in the PME process to express their interest by registering at our e-tendering portal which you can find at the link below.
in-tendhost.co.uk/queensuniversitybelf… ↗
You can access the PME documents by searching “Tenders” – then “Current Tenders". Please complete and return the template form enclosed as Appendix 4 if you wish to participate in the PME process.
On receipt of Expressions of Interest in engaging with the PME process, Queen’s expects to schedule discussions with interested suppliers via Microsoft Teams at a time convenient to all parties, in order to discuss, high-level options and recommendations around:
- The supplier’s preferred approach at Elms BT9 given the aims of the project
- Indicative pricing
- Functionality e.g. barriers, payment etc.
- Contract administration and support e.g. dashboards, training, fault finding
- Payment solutions
- Installation and maintenance
- Flexibility and scalability
- Commercial information e.g. return on investment, warranties, SLAs
- Sustainability
Queen’s may choose to seek additional clarification from suppliers to inform the development of a specification, and which may include the provision of a demonstration.
It is expected that Microsoft Teams will be used to capture AI generated transcriptions of the meetings to support accurate record keeping.
- Tender notice expected192 days ago13 Apr 2026, 23:59 BST
- Contract starts114 days ago1 Jul 2026, 00:00 BST
Notice history
2 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 20 Jan 2026- Preliminary market engagement notice published20 Jan 2026, 16:26 GMTUK2
- Preliminary market engagement notice published22 Jan 2026, 10:01 GMTUK2
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
Official documents & specifications (2)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender