Official UK procurement notice
Plastic Straws · UK public procurement notice
Authority: NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership-Procurement Services (hosted by Velindre University NHS Trust) (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionCardiff and Vale University Health Board (CAVUHB) require the supply of drinking straws intended for use within hospital wards, clinics, and care environments to assist patients who are unable to drink independently or safely without the use of a straw. The product shall be suitable for use with both hot and cold beverages and designed for single-patient use. The straws are intended to support safe and dignified hydration for patients with limited mobility, coordination, or swallowing ability, and to facilitate assisted drinking by healthcare staff.
Please see full requirement list below and provide the details to [email protected] - Please include the price and unit of measure.
The product shall comply with the following, or equivalent, standards and regulations:
- UK Food Contact Materials (FCM) Regulations (Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004 and SI 2019 No. 704)
- UK Plastic Packaging Tax (where applicable)
- UK Single-Use Plastics Directive exemptions for healthcare or patient-care use
- Relevant BS EN standards for plastics in contact with food (e.g., BS EN 1186 series)
- Food Safety Act 1990
Material Requirements:
- Material: Food-grade polypropylene (PP) or biodegradable plastic alternative (e.g., PLA) suitable for contact with liquids intended for human consumption
- Must be non-toxic, BPA-free, latex-free, and phthalate-free
- Shall not impart taste, odour, or discoloration to liquids
- Must withstand temperatures from 0°C to 70°C without deformation or leaching
- Note: Paper or fibre-based materials are not acceptable under this specification
Design and Dimensions:
- Type: Flexible (bendable) drinking straw
- Length: 200 ± 5 mm (standard adult)
- Diameter: 6 ± 0.5 mm internal bore (suitable for water, juice, and nutritional supplements)
- Colour: Natural, white, or light blue (transparent or translucent preferred)
- Surface: Smooth finish with rounded, non-sharp edges to prevent oral injury
- Flex section shall be durable and maintain shape after repeated bends
- Option for shorter length (e.g., 150 mm) to suit paediatric or specialist care areas (if applicable)
Safety and Performance:
- Must maintain structural integrity during normal use
- Shall not collapse under typical suction pressures (<10 kPa)
- No component shall detach or fragment during use
- Free from defects such as cracks, splits, or irregularities
- Material must comply with food-contact migration limits (overall and specific) as defined in Regulation (EU) No. 10/2011
Hygiene and Handling:
Straws shall be clean and hygienically manufactured to prevent contamination during production and packing.
Products shall be supplied either:
- Individually wrapped, or
- In hygienic bulk dispensers with protective packaging
Packaging must maintain cleanliness until point of use. Product is intended for single-patient use only, not for communal catering or reuse.
CPV: Catering supplies · Plastic products
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Cardiff and Vale University Health Board runs Kitchen equipment, household and domestic items and catering supplies (CPV 3922) tenders for its clients, and who usually turns up
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board procures on behalf of other bodies; its record below covers every client it has tendered for, 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: Kitchen equipment, household and domestic items and catering supplies (CPV 3922) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
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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 Wales (Cymru).
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered outside Wales (Cymru).
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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 57 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.
The market share is a minimum: 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?
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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 bid14% / 0%
2–314% / 22%
4–671% / 78%
7+0% / 0%
How did awards compare with estimates?
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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 estimate50% / 30%
Within ±2%27% / 70%
Above estimate23% / 0%
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 3922Published estimate£3k
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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 28 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid4%
2–332%
4–657%
7+7%
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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
- Below threshold
- 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
- 7 Nov 2025, 10:11 GMT
- Last source update
- 7 Nov 2025, 10:11 GMT
- FTS notice number
2025/S 000-071899- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-05dc6fFind a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
7 Nov 2025 → 1 Feb 2026 · 4 dates- Planning notice published348 days ago7 Nov 2025, 10:11 GMT
- Market engagement320 days ago5 Dec 2025, 23:59 GMT
Please provide the range of products that meet this specification, including the price and unit of measure (box size) to [email protected]
- Tender notice expected317 days ago8 Dec 2025, 23:59 GMT
- Contract starts263 days ago1 Feb 2026
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published7 Nov 2025, 10:11 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 (1)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender