PCS tender: how Scottish public contracts are advertised

A PCS tender is a contract advertised on Public Contracts Scotland, the site gov.uk lists for opportunities with public sector bodies in Scotland. TenderWorthy is independent. We have no connection with Public Contracts Scotland, the Scottish Government or the UK government.

The short version: Scottish councils and other devolved Scottish bodies are generally outside the Procurement Act 2023, so they follow Scottish law and advertise under it. If you want Scottish work, you need Public Contracts Scotland alongside Find a Tender.

What TenderWorthy covers

We take notices from Find a Tender and Contracts Finder only. We do not ingest Public Contracts Scotland, PCS-Tender or TED. A Scottish notice appears in our lists only where it is also on Find a Tender or Contracts Finder.

In the week to 10 Oct 2026 we counted 21 live notices with a Scottish delivery region, out of 470 across the UK (as of 10 Oct 2026; how we count). That is what we saw on those two services. It is not a count of what Scotland has open, so don’t read it as one. Today’s list is on our tenders in Scotland page.

If you sell in Scotland, set up Public Contracts Scotland yourself. Treat what we send as an extra view, not the whole picture.

Public Contracts Scotland: what a PCS tender is

gov.uk’s Contracts Finder page says “Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own dedicated public sector procurement websites”, and names Public Contracts Scotland for opportunities with Scottish public bodies.

The law behind it is the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014. Section 22 requires the Scottish Ministers to establish and maintain a “Public Contracts website” to publicise, for regulated procurements, the seeking of offers and the award of contracts. Section 23 requires a contracting authority to publicise its intention to seek offers, and the award of a contract, under a regulated procurement. The Act says “Public Contracts website”; the service gov.uk lists for Scotland is Public Contracts Scotland.

Who must do this? The Act’s schedule 1 lists the contracting authorities. They include the Scottish Ministers, local authorities and joint boards, health boards and a range of other public bodies.

When a contract is regulated

Under section 3, a contract is regulated if it is a public contract, its estimated value is at or above the contract threshold, and it is not an excluded contract. The thresholds are £50,000 for a public contract other than a works contract and £2,000,000 for a public works contract. The Scottish Ministers can amend those figures by order, so check the current ones. In the 2015 Regulations, a “public contract” is a written contract for pecuniary interest for works, products or services.

Sections 22 and 23 are framed around regulated procurements, so a contract under those figures may not be advertised on the website. Check the buyer’s own procurement page.

What PCS-Tender means on a notice

You will also see the name PCS-Tender. Neither gov.uk nor legislation.gov.uk, the only sources we are using for this page, describes it, so we don’t describe it either. We would rather say so than guess.

What we can say: the notice itself tells you where and how to respond. Our Scotland page and portals comparison set out what the Scottish Government says about it, with links.

Which rules a Scottish tender follows

Section 2(5)(a) of the Procurement Act 2023 makes a devolved Scottish authority an excluded authority, except where it carries out procurement within section 115A. A body is a devolved Scottish authority if its functions are exercisable only in or as regards Scotland and not all of them relate to reserved matters (s.2(6)). gov.uk’s guidance says they are “generally excluded from the application of the Act” (para 24) and that Scottish procurement legislation continues to apply to them (para 18).

That legislation is the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015 and the 2014 Act. This is the Scotland exception to the rest of our site: elsewhere we use Procurement Act 2023 terms, but a Scottish council’s notice follows the Scottish rules, so older procedure names are current there. Our entry on competitive tendering covers which names apply in Scotland.

Two cautions. A body whose functions go beyond Scotland is not a devolved Scottish authority under s.2(6), so its notice may follow the Act and sit on Find a Tender. And section 115A applies the Act to some procurement by devolved Scottish authorities. So read the notice to see which rules it says apply.

How to watch Scottish tenders

Our suggestion, not a rule:

1. Use Public Contracts Scotland directly for Scottish buyers. For registration and alert options, use the portal’s own help. gov.uk doesn’t document them, and we won’t guess.
2. Keep a Find a Tender alert too, for UK-wide bodies and cross-listed notices. See how to use Find a Tender, and Find a Tender vs Contracts Finder for what each holds.
3. Read the notice for the deadline, the buyer and where to respond. Then check the tender pack for insurance, turnover and accreditations. In the week to 10 Oct 2026 only 29 of 470 live UK notices on our two services (about 6%) stated insurance requirements in the notice itself (as of 10 Oct 2026).

For the other national portals, see UK tender portals compared.

Or let us check them for you

We can check notices that are on Find a Tender or Contracts Finder. We cannot check a notice that is only on Public Contracts Scotland.

Tell us your trade and postcode to join the free weekly list of live tenders, starting soon. On Pro (£49/month), notices that fit your trade and area are checked against what each states about insurance, certifications and location, and you get an email each morning on days with new matches.