Official UK procurement notice
Preliminary Market Engagement for Optometry Services for NI Prison population
Authority: Regional Business Services Organisation Procurement and Logistics Service (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe purpose of this Prior Information Notice is to inform the market of our envisaged procurement plan for the provision of optometry services for the Northern Ireland Prison (NIP) population.
Optometry services are required to support the assessment, diagnosis and management of eye health and vision needs and to ensure access to optometric care comparable to that available within community primary care. It is envisaged that the Supplier(s) will be expected to provide a comprehensive optometry service on behalf of Health and Social Care (HSC) in Northern Ireland, delivered within prison healthcare settings.
The service is expected to be delivered across the following Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS) sites:
Maghaberry Prison
Hydebank Wood Secure College
Magilligan Prison
This may include, but will not be restricted to:
- Provision of routine and urgent optometric assessments and examinations.
- Detection and diagnosis of ocular conditions and referral to appropriate healthcare services where clinically indicated.
- Prescription, supply, fitting, repair and replacement of spectacles.
- Provision of appropriately qualified and registered optometry professionals, able to work within a secure prison environment.
- Use of suitable clinical equipment and systems to support safe and effective service delivery.
- Administrative, record‑keeping and governance arrangements to support service oversight and continuity of care.
We hope that the Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) will help encourage supplier interest in this tender. It will also help us understand any barriers to tendering that suppliers currently face, including challenges associated with delivering optometry services within prison settings, so these can be considered when drafting the HSC tender.
CPV: Health services · Ophthalmologist services · Optician services · Prison services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Regional Business Services Organisation Procurement and Logistics Service buys Medical practice and related services (CPV 8512), and who usually turns up
Regional Business Services Organisation Procurement and Logistics Service’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: Medical practice and related services (CPV 8512) →
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.
Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in the region where that award was delivered.
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.
Half of these awards have an award date within 52 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.
Missing bid counts may hide more single-bid awards. This share is a minimum.
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% / 24%
2–340% / 22%
4–631% / 31%
7+17% / 23%
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 estimate38% / 25%
Within ±2%38% / 68%
Above estimate24% / 7%
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 8512Estimate 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 69 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid36%
2–335%
4–626%
7+3%
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
- 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
- 27 Feb 2026, 09:56 GMT
- Last source update
- 27 Feb 2026, 09:56 GMT
- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-017708- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Not published
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-065ddaFind a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
27 Feb 2026 → 1 Nov 2027 · 3 dates- Planning notice published242 days ago27 Feb 2026, 09:56 GMT
- Market engagement227 days ago13 Mar 2026, 23:59 GMT
The PME is an information-gathering exercise designed to help inform the development of
the future tender. It includes the CP12 - Preliminary Market Engagement Questionnaire
v1.0 and CP13 - Explanatory Document v1.0.
What you need to do now:
- If you are not registered on eTendersNI, please do so as soon as possible
(etendersni.gov.uk/epps/home.do ↗).
- Those interested in participating in such preliminary market engagement should access
the 'Preliminary Market Engagement for Optometry Services for NI Prison population ' via eTendersNI
(etendersni.gov.uk/epps/home.do ↗) at their earliest convenience, by searching for
Resource ID / CfT Reference Number 6359685
- Using the eTendersNI secure messaging service, please see a broadcasted copy of the CP12 PME Questionnaire and a copy of the CP13 PME Explanatory Document.
All completed responses must be submitted via the secure eTendersNI messaging area of the CFT no later than 15:00, Friday 13th March 2026.
Please note that with reference to the information containing estimated date of publication of contract notice - this is only an anticipated date and subject to change.
- Today26 Oct 2026
- Contract startsin 370 days1 Nov 2027
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published27 Feb 2026, 09:56 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