A pipeline notice is an advance notice of the larger contracts a big buyer expects to advertise. It is a planning tool for suppliers, not an invitation to bid.
Where it appears in the Act. Section 93 applies to a contracting authority that expects to pay more than £100 million under relevant contracts in the coming financial year. It must publish the notice within 56 days of that year starting. The notice covers contracts with an estimated value above £2 million for which the authority intends to publish a tender or transparency notice during the reporting period. The reporting period is 18 months, starting on the first day of the financial year. Private utilities and transferred Northern Ireland authorities are excluded.
Not the same as a planned procurement notice. Under section 15, any buyer may publish an optional planned procurement notice for a single procurement, and a notice published at least 40 days but not more than 12 months before the tender notice can shorten the tendering period. gov.uk’s e-learning compares the planned procurement notice with the old prior information notice (PIN). A pipeline notice is a separate, mandatory notice for large spenders.
What it means for a small supplier. A pipeline notice lists only contracts over £2 million, so smaller contracts will not appear in it. It can still be useful in two ways: you can see what the biggest buyers plan to buy, and you can approach the winners of large contracts about subcontracting. Check which large buyers in your sector publish them.
Next: how to find tenders and how to win public sector contracts.