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Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 2 Apr 2026, 16:03 BST

Official UK procurement notice

HomeTest - Preliminary Market Engagement

Official notice Competition analysis

Authority: NHS England (Central government)

ServicesAbove thresholdSME suitable
Sectors: Health & Social Care (85) Delivery: Delivery location not published
Planned pipeline value£0pipeline notice, not a live tender · 1 value update
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Contract term 3 yrsends 31 Mar 2030 · starts 1 Apr 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

This is not a procurement exercise. This is a market engagement exercise in support of the NHS England's home testing programme which was announced as part of the 10 Year Plan. The programme is seeking to explore the feasibility of establishing a single, trusted national home testing capability that will enable individuals to order, complete and receive results from clinically validated diagnostic tests from home, integrated into the NHS App and aligned with national screening, monitoring, treatment and prevention ambitions.

This exercise is designed to understand the potential capability of the supplier market to inform the future development of the programme. This exercise does not currently include point of care testing capability but is focused on self-sample collection and laboratory analysis.

CPV: Health services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1Planned 3 yrsSME
Contract period: 1 Apr 2027 – 31 Mar 2030 (3 yrs)
Eligibility: SME eligible
85100000 Health services

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published

How NHS England buys Health services (CPV 8510), and who usually turns up

NHS England’s published record next to the market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Health services (CPV 8510) →

1

How the contest usually goes

Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.

Question for the bid
This buyerNHS England · division 85
The marketHealth services (CPV 8510) · Greater London (authority’s region)
What to do with it
How often do SMEs win?
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.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 285 of 926 known-size awards · market: CPV 8510 · Greater London (authority’s region), n=275
31%29%

Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.

How often do local suppliers win?
i

How often local firms win similar work.

Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.

Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered. The market figure counts awards delivered in Greater London (authority’s region).

A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 544 of 650 known-location awards · market: CPV 8510 · Greater London (authority’s region), n=386
84%51%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in the region where that award was delivered.

How long to a decision?
i

How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.

Middle value in days from the bid deadline to the award date, on competitions that published both.

Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 10 decided notices · market: CPV 8510 · Greater London (authority’s region), n=23
24 days65 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 24 days of the bid deadline.

How often single-bid or direct?
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.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: at least 276 of 425 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 8510 · Greater London (authority’s region), n=290
65%73%

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.

Last 36 months.

This buyer170 lots with bid counts · broad CPV 85
26% had one bid
The market60 lots with bid counts · CPV 8510 · Greater London (authority’s region)
32% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid26% / 32%
Buyer: 45 of 170 lots with published bid counts. Market: 19 of 60 lots with published bid counts.
2–341% / 32%
Buyer: 70 of 170 lots with published bid counts. Market: 19 of 60 lots with published bid counts.
4–615% / 23%
Buyer: 26 of 170 lots with published bid counts. Market: 14 of 60 lots with published bid counts.
7+17% / 13%
Buyer: 29 of 170 lots with published bid counts. Market: 8 of 60 lots with published bid counts.

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.

Last 36 months.

This buyer108 lots with estimate and award · broad CPV 85
36% below estimate
The market41 lots with estimate and award · CPV 8510 · Greater London (authority’s region)
39% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate36% / 39%
Buyer: 39 of 108 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 16 of 41 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%53% / 54%
Buyer: 57 of 108 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 22 of 41 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate11% / 7%
Buyer: 12 of 108 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 3 of 41 lots with an estimate and award.
2

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.

Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list

Lot #1CPV 851036 monthsSME suitableNo real estimate
Expected competition
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 60 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet32% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 60 similar lots
1 bid32%
19 of 60 similar past lots received 1 bid (32%).
2–332%
19 of 60 similar past lots received 2–3 (32%).
4–623%
14 of 60 similar past lots received 4–6 (23%).
7+13%
8 of 60 similar past lots received 7+ (13%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 3 bids.
Commercial price forecast
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.

—No real estimate
The buyer published £0 as the estimate (a placeholder, not the contract’s value), so there is nothing to forecast against.

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.

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.

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
Services
Notice status
Planned procurement
Procurement threshold
Above threshold (FTS publication)
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
2 Apr 2026, 16:03 BST
Last source update
10 Apr 2026, 11:37 BST
Authority reference
C436125
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-032748
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Health services
Delivery area
Not published
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-067c3a Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

2 Apr 2026 → 1 Apr 2027 · 4 dates
  1. Planning notice published208 days ago
    2 Apr 2026, 16:03 BST
  2. Latest notice published200 days ago
    10 Apr 2026, 11:37 BST
  3. Market engagement180 days ago
    30 Apr 2026, 23:59 BST

    The Authority is initially seeking to:

    Test market current activity, future capacity and capability

    Understand commercial models, pricing structures and supply chain and logistics approaches

    Identify innovative approaches

    Assess risks and delivery models

    Proposed Engagement Activities:

    To address the above, the Authority is seeking responses to a market questionnaire and in addition to this, the Authority may undertake:

    One-to-one meetings

    All supplier meetings

    Solution workshops

    How to Participate:

    Those wishing to participate in the engagement process should register their interest by completing and submitting the questionnaire which can be found at the following link:

    atamis-1928.my.site.com/s/Welcome ↗ C436125

    The closing date for responses is: 5pm on Thursday 30th April 2026. Responses received after this time will not be accepted.

    Important Information:

    This notice is not a call for competition and no submissions will evaluated leading to any contract award as this is about understanding the market.

    The Authority is not committed to undertaking any procurement.

    Participation will not prejudice involvement in any future procurement process.

    Information shared may be published to ensure transparency.

    Participation will not give any advantage in any future procurement process

    Note the above may be subject to change and NHSE will update the market should this be the case.

    The response deadline to the Market Engagement Questionnaire is 5pm, 30th April 2026, via Health Family Atamis Portal - atamis-1928.my.site.com/s/Welcome ↗

  4. Today
    28 Oct 2026
  5. Contract startsin 154 days
    1 Apr 2027, 00:00 BST

Notice history

3 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 2 Apr 2026
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    2 Apr 2026, 16:03 BST
    UK2
  2. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    10 Apr 2026, 11:37 BST
    UK2
  3. Published value updated to £0
    10 Apr 2026, 11:37 BST
    was £35,000,000
Published amendments (1)

This notice has been updated to remove the estimated contract value. These figures were always indicative only. However, as a Preliminary Market Engagement exercise rather than a procurement, their inclusion risked creating a misleading impression of the purpose and status of this engagement. This notice is intended solely to help NHS England understand the current market landscape for home testin…

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

NHS England

Contracting authorityPublic authority - central government GB-PPON: PDPT-3135-BWWY Wellington House, 133-135 Waterloo Rd, London, London, SE1 8UGContact name, email

Official documents & specifications (2)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure