---
title: "An Assessment of the Risk Posed by Groundkeepers to the Virus Heath of Scottish Seed Potato Production"
ocid: "ocds-r6ebe6-0000801768"
canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-r6ebe6-0000801768"
markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-r6ebe6-0000801768.md"
json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-r6ebe6-0000801768.json"
source: "Public Contracts Scotland"
current_stage: "Tender"
buyer: "SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT"
published: "2025-06-16"
---

# An Assessment of the Risk Posed by Groundkeepers to the Virus Heath of Scottish Seed Potato Production

Buyer: SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT  
Current stage: Tender  
OCID: ocds-r6ebe6-0000801768

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## Summary

The Scottish Government has initiated a tender process titled "An Assessment of the Risk Posed by Groundkeepers to the Virus Health of Scottish Seed Potato Production," focusing on general public services within the UKM region, specifically Edinburgh. This procurement, using an open procedure, is currently at the tender stage, with crucial dates including a submission deadline by 10th July 2025 at 12:00 PM, and the procurement period expected to commence on 21st July 2025, with completion by 31st March 2027. This service category tender calls for electronic submissions through the Public Contracts Scotland website.

This tender presents an excellent opportunity for businesses specialising in agricultural research, specifically those with expertise in virus management and risk assessment in the agricultural sector. Companies capable of formulating management strategies for potato crop diseases, along with providing policy recommendations, would find this tender particularly relevant. Businesses are required to demonstrate robust economic credentials, including insurance coverages, to participate effectively. The project promises significant engagement, allowing specialists to contribute solutions to a critical issue in the seed potato industry, potentially enhancing their market standing and expertise.

## Notice

2. Scotland is renowned worldwide for the quality of the seed potatoes it produces, underpinning the whole UK potato industry and exporting to over 30 countries outside of the EU. This reputation is primarily due to low levels of virus disease present in Scottish seed potatoes enabling production of high health seed by highly specialised growers. The most important potato viruses present in Scotland are spread by aphids moving from infected to healthy plants. Scotland's cool, maritime climate has historically kept aphid numbers, and therefore virus levels, low but factors including the changing climate and loss of effective insecticides have meant that virus levels have been increasing in recent years. Virus is managed through certification, crop inspections, and the industry. The Seed Potato Certification Scheme (SPCS) sets disease and quality tolerances, including tolerances for virus in seed potato crops, which limits the inoculum in crops and the risk of spread to other crops in the vicinity. Likewise statutory inspections of growing ware crops maintain limits on levels of virus. The industry face financial consequences if their crops do not meet tolerances required for certification and subsequently marketing; these include downgrading/no grading of seed crops, and potential destruction if ware or seed crops are above tolerances permitted. It is therefore of financial and reputational benefit for growers to take efforts to minimise the risk of virus to their crops. However, there is one potential source of virus inoculum that is neither controlled nor monitored, and whose importance is not quantified - Groundkeepers. Groundkeepers are 'volunteer' potato plants and therefore known hosts for potato viruses. 'Volunteers' are potato plants which usually grow from tubers that, at time of harvest during the previous season, were too small to be picked up by modern harvesters. Estimations of the number of tubers left on the soil surface or up to 20 cm underground varies widely throughout production areas. Some studies have reported an average tuber loss of 142 000 tubers per hectare, ranging from about 39 000 to 210 000 tubers. Consequently, volunteer potato plants are among the most important weeds in crops grown in rotation with potatoes. Incidence of groundkeepers is believed to have increased due to milder winters (with fewer ground frosts) and a loss of chemicals available to farmers. Groundkeepers are a known potential source of virus inoculum which currently sits outside the controls of both SPCS and potato producers, who often grow crops on rented ground. However, without fully understanding and quantifying the risk posed, it is impossible to justify policy changes or expensive mitigation/management processes.

### Lot Information

Lot 1

Section 3 - Scope /Statement of Requirement 3. There are four key requirements in this commissioned research: 1) Determine the average occurrence of groundkeepers in fields on a national level following harvest of potato crops 2) Assess the associated risk of virus transmission from these groundkeepers present after harvest 3) A smaller, targeted (qualitative) assessment of how groundkeeper levels and virus risk may differ from these averages following potato production from fields considered 'higher risk' due to crop history 4) Formulate advice for growers for groundkeeper control and disease management practices, and policy recommendations to support Scotland's reputation.

## Key Details

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication source | Public Contracts Scotland |
| Latest notice | https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=JUN532594 |
| Notice type | PCS Notice - Website Contract Notice |
| Procurement type | Standard |
| Procurement category | Services |
| Procurement method | Open |
| Procurement method details | Open procedure |
| Tender suitability | Not specified |
| Awardee scale | Not specified |
| All stages | Tender |

## Dates

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication date | 16 Jun 2025 |
| Submission deadline | 10 Jul 2025 |
| Future notice date | Not specified |
| Award date | Not specified |
| Contract period | 21 Jul 2025 - 31 Mar 2027 |
| Recurrence | Not specified |

## Values

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender value | Not specified |
| Lots value | Not specified |
| Awards value | Not specified |
| Contracts value | Not specified |

## Status

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender status | Active |
| Lots status | Active |
| Awards status | Not specified |
| Contracts status | Not specified |

## Buyer

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Main buyer | SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT |
| Locality | EDINBURGH |
| Post town | Not specified |
| Postcode | N/A |
| Country | Not specified |
| ITL 1 | Not specified |
| ITL 2 | Not specified |
| ITL 3 | Not specified |
| Local authority | Not specified |
| Electoral ward | Not specified |
| Westminster constituency | Not specified |
| Delivery location | TLM Scotland |

## CPV Codes

### Divisions

- 73 - Research and development services and related consultancy services

### Codes

- 73000000 - Research and development services and related consultancy services

## Release History

- 16 Jun 2025 at 00:00 - Tender - PCS Notice - Website Contract Notice - https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=JUN532594

## Documents

- https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/NoticeDownload/DownloadDocument.aspx?id=JUN532594&idx=1
  16th June 2025 - RRF/016/25 - ITT
- https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/NoticeDownload/DownloadDocument.aspx?id=JUN532594&idx=2
  16th June 2025 - Schedule 5 - Payment Schedule
- https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/NoticeDownload/DownloadDocument.aspx?id=JUN532594&idx=3
  16th June 2025 - RRF/016/25 - Model Terms and Conditions
- https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=JUN532594
  An Assessment of the Risk Posed by Groundkeepers to the Virus Heath of Scottish Seed Potato Production - 2. Scotland is renowned worldwide for the quality of the seed potatoes it produces, underpinning the whole UK potato industry and exporting to over 30 countries outside of the EU. This reputation is primarily due to low levels of virus disease present in Scottish seed potatoes enabling production of high health seed by highly specialised growers. The most important potato viruses present in Scotland are spread by aphids moving from infected to healthy plants. Scotland's cool, maritime climate has historically kept aphid numbers, and therefore virus levels, low but factors including the changing climate and loss of effective insecticides have meant that virus levels have been increasing in recent years. Virus is managed through certification, crop inspections, and the industry. The Seed Potato Certification Scheme (SPCS) sets disease and quality tolerances, including tolerances for virus in seed potato crops, which limits the inoculum in crops and the risk of spread to other crops in the vicinity. Likewise statutory inspections of growing ware crops maintain limits on levels of virus. The industry face financial consequences if their crops do not meet tolerances required for certification and subsequently marketing; these include downgrading/no grading of seed crops, and potential destruction if ware or seed crops are above tolerances permitted. It is therefore of financial and reputational benefit for growers to take efforts to minimise the risk of virus to their crops. However, there is one potential source of virus inoculum that is neither controlled nor monitored, and whose importance is not quantified - Groundkeepers. Groundkeepers are 'volunteer' potato plants and therefore known hosts for potato viruses. 'Volunteers' are potato plants which usually grow from tubers that, at time of harvest during the previous season, were too small to be picked up by modern harvesters. Estimations of the number of tubers left on the soil surface or up to 20 cm underground varies widely throughout production areas. Some studies have reported an average tuber loss of 142 000 tubers per hectare, ranging from about 39 000 to 210 000 tubers. Consequently, volunteer potato plants are among the most important weeds in crops grown in rotation with potatoes. Incidence of groundkeepers is believed to have increased due to milder winters (with fewer ground frosts) and a loss of chemicals available to farmers. Groundkeepers are a known potential source of virus inoculum which currently sits outside the controls of both SPCS and potato producers, who often grow crops on rented ground. However, without fully understanding and quantifying the risk posed, it is impossible to justify policy changes or expensive mitigation/management processes.

## Notice URLs

- http://
- http://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk
- https://api.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/v1/Notice?id=ocds-r6ebe6-0000801768
- https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/ESPD/ESPD_Download.aspx?id=801768
- https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/Search/Search_Switch.aspx?ID=801768
- https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/sitehelp/help_guides.aspx

## Provenance

This Markdown file is an alternate public rendering of the D3 Tenders contract record. The canonical page is https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-r6ebe6-0000801768. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-r6ebe6-0000801768.json.