Official UK procurement notice
Pathology Off Site Storage
Authority: Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionGloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust ("the Authority") would like to engage with potential suppliers to explore the provision of an offsite storage solution for pathology archive materials.
The Trust currently manages a substantial archive of histology blocks and slides and requires a secure, compliant, and scalable storage solution to support ongoing service requirements and future archive growth. The service will include the storage, management, tracking, retrieval, and transportation of pathology materials in accordance with relevant legislation and regulatory requirements, including Human Tissue Authority (HTA) standards where applicable.
Current archive volumes are approximately:
- 63,463 histology blocks and slides currently held in archive
- 130,000 histology blocks generated annually
- 180,000 histology slides generated annually
This Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) exercise aims to understand the market's capacity, capability, and interest in providing these services. The Trust is seeking feedback on the proposed requirements and would welcome suppliers' views on the deliverability and proportionality of the draft specification.
The purpose of this engagement is to:
- Assess whether the proposed specification is realistic and achievable.
- Understand the capacity and capability of the market.
- Identify potential barriers to participation and competition.
- Obtain feedback on operational requirements, including storage capacity, retrieval timescales, onboarding arrangements, and governance requirements.
- Refine the specification and procurement approach prior to commencing any formal procurement process.
This exercise is not a call for competition, invitation to tender, or request for pricing. Participation in this engagement will not confer any advantage or disadvantage in any future procurement process.
The Authority invites interested suppliers to review the draft specification and respond to the accompanying questionnaire. Feedback will be used to inform the final service requirements and procurement strategy.
The feedback received will help the Authority determine the most appropriate route to market and assess whether there is sufficient market capacity and interest to support a competitive procurement process.
The Trust may contact suppliers who participate in this engagement to seek clarification on responses and to discuss feedback received. Any such discussions will be conducted in a fair and transparent manner.
Although this Preliminary Market Engagement Notice has been issued in accordance with the Procurement Act 2023, it does not represent a commitment by the Authority to commence a procurement exercise. Should a future procurement be undertaken, the Authority reserves the right to determine the most appropriate procurement procedure and route to market in accordance with the legislation and circumstances applying at that time.
CPV: Storage and retrieval services · Warehousing services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust buys Storage and warehousing services (CPV 6312), and who usually turns up
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’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: Storage and warehousing services (CPV 6312) →
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 registered in South West England.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered outside South West England.
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 bid13%
2–335%
4–633%
7+20%
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 estimate35%
Within ±2%42%
Above estimate23%
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 6312Published estimate£187k
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 40 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid13%
2–335%
4–633%
7+20%
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
- 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
- 14 Aug 2026, 11:30 BST
- Last source update
- 14 Aug 2026, 11:30 BST
- Authority reference
C464949- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-077607- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06e476Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
14 Aug 2026 → 1 Jan 2027 · 4 dates- Planning notice published69 days ago14 Aug 2026, 11:30 BST
- Market engagement45 days ago7 Sept 2026, 23:59 BST
The market engagement documentation is available for unrestricted and direct access, free of charge, via the Health Family e-Sourcing portal (Atamis) at: health-family.force.com/s/Welcome ↗.
Suppliers interested in this opportunity are invited to register their interest by accessing the Atamis e-Sourcing portal and searching for Atamis Reference: C464949.
Requests to participate must be submitted electronically via Atamis. Upon registration, suppliers will be granted access to the published materials, which include the Market Engagement Questionnaire. Respondents are encouraged to review and complete this questionnaire as part of the engagement process.
- Tender notice expected31 days ago21 Sept 2026, 23:59 BST
- Today22 Oct 2026
- Contract startsin 70 days1 Jan 2027
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published14 Aug 2026, 11:30 BSTUK2
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 (1)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender