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Government tenders in the United Kingdom: where they are published.
Government tenders in the UK are published on Find a Tender: TRINTA counted 13,237 notices inviting tenders there from January to September 2026, 88.2% of them under the Procurement Act 2023. Suppliers register once, on the same service, which the Cabinet Office calls the Central Digital Platform, and Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland keep their own portals beside it.
The steps were read on GOV.UK, legislation.gov.uk and the four nations' notice services on 12 October 2026. The figures are TRINTA's count of the Find a Tender open data (OCDS), harvested 12 October 2026.
How to find and bid for UK public tenders, step by step
Each step is what the official source says, linked under it. The documents of each procurement decide the rest.
Register once on Find a Tender, the Central Digital Platform
Under the Procurement Act 2023 a supplier registers its organisation on Find a Tender with a GOV.UK One Login. The Cabinet Office says it is free to use for everyone, that you only need to register at the point you want to bid, and that the unique identifier it gives you is shared with the contracting authority before a contract is awarded. The registration, step by step.
Search Find a Tender for every new procurement
From 24 February 2025, both above and below threshold notices about new UK procurements are published on Find a Tender, except below threshold in Scotland. A signed-in account can save searches and sign up for notifications by email.
Use Contracts Finder for the older, lower-value contracts
For procurements that started before 24 February 2025, Find a Tender carries only the above-threshold notices, usually over £139,688 including VAT. Their below-threshold contracts over £12,000 including VAT (or £30,000 outside central government) are on Contracts Finder for England and the other non-devolved territories, because a procurement started under the old rules stays under them.
Scotland: Public Contracts Scotland, under Scotland's own regulations
Find a Tender lists the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015 and the other Scottish rules as the legislation that applies in Scotland, and Scottish below-threshold notices are not published on it: they are on Public Contracts Scotland, which gives suppliers free registration. In TRINTA's count, 960 of the 1,008 Scottish calls for tenders on Find a Tender from January to September 2026 stated an EU directive as their legal basis, not the Act.
Wales: Sell2Wales, with your Find a Tender identifier
Welsh contracting authorities' notices are on Sell2Wales and on the Central Digital Platform, and Sell2Wales asks suppliers to upload the unique supplier ID from Find a Tender to their Sell2Wales profile to continue to be able to tender there.
Northern Ireland: eTendersNI
eTendersNI advertises opportunities to supply Northern Ireland government departments, agencies and arms-length bodies; to respond to one and receive its notifications, a supplier must register there as a supplier organisation. For procurements started before the Act, Find a Tender names eSourcing NI and eTendersNI for Northern Ireland's below-threshold contracts.
Check the threshold and the time limits before you plan the bid
Above the thresholds in Schedule 1 the Act's procedures apply: a competitive award runs as an open procedure or a competitive flexible procedure, the tendering period is at least 25 days where tenders are submitted electronically and the documents all come with the notice (10 days after a qualifying planned procurement notice, among the shorter periods section 54 allows), and where a standstill applies the contract is not signed until 8 working days after the contract award notice. Below them, an authority that advertises a contract of £12,000 or more (central government outside Wales) or £30,000 or more (the others) must publish a below-threshold tender notice first.
UK public tenders, measured: Find a Tender, January to September 2026
Find a Tender carried 13,237 notices inviting tenders from January to September 2026, between 1,332 and 1,593 a month. 11,680 of them (88.2%) stated the Procurement Act 2023 as their legal basis and 1,557 (11.7%) an EU directive instead, which is how a notice under the older regulations reads: procurements started before 24 February 2025, and Scotland, where 960 of 1,008 calls did.
By the buyer's address: England 10,262, Wales 1,090, Scotland 1,008, Northern Ireland 724, and 153 with no UK region. Of the notices under the Act, 42.8% were below threshold (5,005 of 11,680): since the Act, lower-value contracts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are advertised on the same service.
The median open procedure above threshold left 30 days between publication and the deadline for tenders (4,472 notices under the Act); the median below-threshold open competition left 26 days (4,996 notices).
10.7% of the 16,033 competed lots awarded in the same months drew a single bid, and the median lot drew 5: every CPV code and buyer behind that share.
60.9% of the winners whose size the notice states were SMEs: 43,875 of 71,953, each counted once per procurement across contract award, contract details and older award notices. The notices state the size of 99.6% of the 72,192 winners they name.
| CPV | Division | Notices |
|---|---|---|
| 45 | Construction work | 1,656 |
| 85 | Health and social work services | 1,186 |
| 79 | Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security | 983 |
| 90 | Sewage, refuse, cleaning and environmental services | 575 |
| 71 | Architectural, construction, engineering and inspection services | 549 |
| 80 | Education and training services | 482 |
| 50 | Repair and maintenance services | 369 |
| 72 | IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support | 317 |
A notice is placed in a division only when all its CPV codes sit in that division, which is true of 67.8% of them; a notice's codes do not line up with its lots, so any other attribution would be invented.
- Counted on Find a Tender's OCDS releases by release date, one per notice number. 78 dynamic market intention notices (UK13) are tagged as tenders and are not calls for tenders, so they are left out.
- Scottish below-threshold notices are not published on Find a Tender, so Scotland is undercounted here, and the Contracts Finder notices of procurements started before the Act are not in these figures.
- The nation is the ITL region of the buyer's address: a central government buyer in London that buys for the whole UK counts as England.
- The single-bid share counts competed procedures only: awards made without a call for competition, 8,235 lots, are excluded, as Portugal excludes the ajuste direto and France the marchés passed without publicity.
- The size of a winner is the one its notice gives; a winner named in a contract award notice and again in the contract details notice counts once.
UK procurement thresholds from 1 January 2026
Schedule 1 of the Procurement Act 2023, as amended by S.I. 2025/1200 from 1 January 2026. The thresholds decide the value above which a contract is regulated by the Act's substantive regime, and nothing in the 2025 regulations affects a procurement commenced before that day.
| Contract | Threshold |
|---|---|
| Goods, services or works for a central government authority | £135,018 |
| Goods, services or works for a sub-central government authority | £207,720 |
| Works contracts | £5,193,000 |
| Light touch contracts | £663,540 |
| Concession contracts | £5,193,000 |
| Utilities contracts, other than works and light touch | £415,440 |
| Utilities works contracts | £5,193,000 |
| Defence and security contracts, other than works and concessions | £415,440 |
Rows 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 of the table in Schedule 1, paragraph 1(1), as legislation.gov.uk printed it on 12 October 2026.
Below the thresholds, a notifiable below-threshold contract is one of £12,000 or more for a central government authority that is not a devolved Welsh authority, and of £30,000 or more otherwise (section 87(4)); its tender notice comes first, and the authority may not restrict who tenders by assessing their suitability (section 85(1)), except for works above the central and sub-central amounts.
The national channels
The United Kingdom publishes above-threshold notices on Find a Tender and lower-value contracts on Contracts Finder, while Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run their own national portals. TRINTA maps 17 UK sources across the four nations.
These are the public, national-level sources: anyone can find them in one search. They carry a large share of the notices, not all of them.
How to register as a supplier in the United Kingdom
Any supplier that wants to bid for a procurement run under the Procurement Act 2023. The Cabinet Office says you can register now but only need to at the point you want to bid for a contract, and that Find a Tender is free to use for everyone. Source: gov.uk
Create a GOV.UK One Login with your individual work email address and agree to its terms of use and privacy policy. If you already have one, sign in and go straight to the next step.
Source: gov.ukAgree to the Central Digital Platform service privacy policy and enter your first and last name.
Source: gov.ukFrom My account, select Register an organisation, then choose Supplier rather than Buyer.
Source: gov.ukGive the organisation's Companies House number or an equivalent, such as a Charity Commission number. If it has no such number, the platform assigns it a unique identifier, and a non-UK address can be entered.
Source: gov.ukSelect the SME status if it applies, check the registered name, give a shared organisation email address your team can access and the registered address, check your answers and save.
Source: gov.ukOpen the organisation with View to find its unique identifier, and share that identifier with the contracting authority before being awarded a contract.
Source: gov.uk
Worth knowing
- Find a Tender is free to use for everyone: the Cabinet Office says there are no charges and you should not pay to view opportunities in the public sector. Source: gov.uk
- An account on the old Find a Tender does not carry over: you re-register, and with the same email address your saved searches are pulled through. Source: gov.uk
- The supplier information it asks for includes the Companies House number if you have one, the most recent two years of accounts if you have them, people or businesses connected to the organisation or with significant control over it, and any convictions or offences. Source: gov.uk
- To keep tendering on Sell2Wales, upload the unique supplier ID to your Sell2Wales profile. Source: sell2wales.gov.wales
Checked on against the official sources linked above. Procedures change, and each tender's own documents decide.
And everything that publishes beside them
Beyond the national channels, 13 more sources in the United Kingdom publish their own notices. We count them by category without naming them: the complete source map is what sets the radar apart, and it is not published.
- 5regional, state and municipal buyers with their own portals
- 3public agencies and institutions publishing directly
- 1health buyers, hospitals and medical purchasing agencies
- 1defence buyers
- 3other public buyers publishing their own notices
Devolution is the trap in the UK map: a supplier watching only the England-facing services misses the procedures Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland publish at home.
What TRINTA does on this market
TRINTA reads these sources every day so the company does not have to. The radar is built per client: it starts from the company's real catalogue, builds a multilingual keyword profile, then scores every notice 0 to 100 against what the company actually sells, with the reasoning shown. Procedure documents are retrieved and attached, and a short scored list arrives each morning.
The same radar covers 170+ countries and 1,627 mapped official platforms, plus the multilateral lenders. A company selling in the United Kingdom rarely sells only in the United Kingdom.
Frequently asked questions
01How do I find government tenders in the UK?
On Find a Tender, where both above and below threshold notices about new UK procurements have been published since 24 February 2025, except below threshold in Scotland; TRINTA counted 13,237 notices inviting tenders there from January to September 2026. Contracts Finder carries the lower-value contracts of procurements started before then in England, Public Contracts Scotland the Scottish ones, Sell2Wales the Welsh ones and eTendersNI those of Northern Ireland's government bodies.
02Is Find a Tender free?
Yes. The Cabinet Office says Find a Tender is free to use for everyone, that there are no charges, and that you should not pay to view opportunities in the public sector.
03What is the difference between Find a Tender and Contracts Finder?
Find a Tender is the UK's notice service and, since 24 February 2025, carries above and below threshold notices of every new procurement outside Scotland's below-threshold ones. Contracts Finder carries the below-threshold contracts, over £12,000 including VAT or £30,000 outside central government, of procurements in England and the other non-devolved territories that started before that day.
04What are the UK procurement thresholds for 2026?
From 1 January 2026, Schedule 1 of the Procurement Act 2023 sets £135,018 for goods, services or works bought by a central government authority, £207,720 for a sub-central authority, £5,193,000 for works and concessions, £663,540 for light touch contracts and £415,440 for utilities goods and services. A procurement commenced before that day is not affected by the change.
05Where are Scottish public tenders published?
On Public Contracts Scotland, which gives suppliers free registration; above-threshold Scottish notices also appear on Find a Tender, but its below-threshold ones do not. Scotland runs its own regulations, the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015 among them, and in TRINTA's count 960 of the 1,008 Scottish calls for tenders on Find a Tender from January to September 2026 stated an EU directive as their legal basis rather than the Procurement Act 2023.
06How many public tenders are published in the UK?
TRINTA counted 13,237 notices inviting tenders on Find a Tender from January to September 2026, between 1,332 and 1,593 a month, one per notice number. That leaves out Scotland's below-threshold notices, which are not on Find a Tender, and the Contracts Finder notices of procurements started before the Act. Of the competed lots awarded in the same months, 10.7% drew a single bid.
07What share of UK public contracts go to SMEs?
On Find a Tender, 60.9% of the winners whose award notice states their size were SMEs from January to September 2026: 43,875 of 71,953, each counted once per procurement. The notices state the size of 99.6% of the winners they name. It is a count of winners, not of contract value.
08How do I register as a supplier in the United Kingdom?
Any supplier that wants to bid for a procurement run under the Procurement Act 2023. The Cabinet Office says you can register now but only need to at the point you want to bid for a contract, and that Find a Tender is free to use for everyone. 1. Create a GOV.UK One Login with your individual work email address and agree to its terms of use and privacy policy. If you already have one, sign in and go straight to the next step. 2. Agree to the Central Digital Platform service privacy policy and enter your first and last name. 3. From My account, select Register an organisation, then choose Supplier rather than Buyer. 4. Give the organisation's Companies House number or an equivalent, such as a Charity Commission number. If it has no such number, the platform assigns it a unique identifier, and a non-UK address can be entered. 5. Select the SME status if it applies, check the registered name, give a shared organisation email address your team can access and the registered address, check your answers and save. 6. Open the organisation with View to find its unique identifier, and share that identifier with the contracting authority before being awarded a contract. Checked on 12 Oct 2026 against the official sources linked above. Procedures change, and each tender's own documents decide.
09How does TRINTA monitor tenders in the United Kingdom?
TRINTA reads United Kingdom's official sources every day, 17 mapped, 12 read by a dedicated connector. The radar is built per client: it starts from the company's real catalogue, builds a multilingual keyword profile, scores every notice 0 to 100 for fit with the reasoning shown, and attaches the procedure documents. A short scored digest arrives each morning. The same radar covers 170+ countries, so a company selling in the United Kingdom can watch neighbouring markets with the same profile.
How to cite
TRINTA, "Government tenders in the UK: find, register, bid", Find a Tender (OCDS), harvested 12 October 2026, https://trinta.ai/government-tenders/united-kingdom (accessed [date]).
Sources
- Find a Tender: Find information on UK public sector procurements and contractsfind-tender.service.gov.uk, About Find a Tender. Find a Tender (GOV.UK). Read on 12 October 2026.
- How to register your organisation and find your unique identifier: a guide for suppliersCabinet Office, Procurement Act 2023 short guides (first published 18 February 2026, updated 23 June 2026). Cabinet Office (GOV.UK). Read on 12 October 2026.
- The Procurement Act 2023: a short guide for suppliersCabinet Office, Procurement Act 2023 short guides (updated 23 June 2026). Cabinet Office (GOV.UK). Read on 12 October 2026.
- Guidance: transitional and saving arrangementsCabinet Office, Procurement Act 2023 guidance documents (updated 15 April 2026). Cabinet Office (GOV.UK). Read on 12 October 2026.
- Procurement Act 2023, Schedule 1: threshold amounts2023 c. 54, Schedule 1, paragraph 1(1), as amended from 1 January 2026. legislation.gov.uk (The National Archives). Read on 12 October 2026.
- The Procurement Act 2023 (Threshold Amounts) (Amendment) Regulations 2025S.I. 2025/1200. legislation.gov.uk (The National Archives). Read on 12 October 2026.
- Procurement Act 2023, section 20: competitive tendering procedures2023 c. 54, s. 20. legislation.gov.uk (The National Archives). Read on 12 October 2026.
- Procurement Act 2023, section 51: standstill periods on the award of contracts2023 c. 54, s. 51. legislation.gov.uk (The National Archives). Read on 12 October 2026.
- Procurement Act 2023, section 54: time limits2023 c. 54, s. 54. legislation.gov.uk (The National Archives). Read on 12 October 2026.
- Procurement Act 2023, section 85: regulated below-threshold contracts, procedure2023 c. 54, s. 85. legislation.gov.uk (The National Archives). Read on 12 October 2026.
- Procurement Act 2023, section 87: regulated below-threshold contracts, notices2023 c. 54, s. 87. legislation.gov.uk (The National Archives). Read on 12 October 2026.
- Public Contracts Scotlandpubliccontractsscotland.gov.uk, home page. Public Contracts Scotland (Scottish Government). Read on 12 October 2026.
- The Procurement Act 2023: key actions for suppliersSell2Wales, help and resources (updated 17 March 2025). Sell2Wales (Welsh Government). Read on 12 October 2026.
- Welcome to eTendersNIetendersni.gov.uk, home page. eTendersNI (Department of Finance, Northern Ireland). Read on 12 October 2026.
- Find a Tender OCDS APIEvery release updated from 1 January 2026 to 11 October 2026, read by release date for January to September 2026, harvested 12 October 2026 (scripts/fetch-fts-awards.mjs, scripts/gen-fts-market.mjs and gen-fts-competition.mjs). Open Government Licence v3.0.
May a company from outside bid in the United Kingdom?
For one established in the EU, the instrument that decides it is wto agreement on government procurement, party in its own right since 2021. The WTO procurement agreement.
Tell us the markets, we send the map
Name the countries you are weighing up. You get back where public tenders are published in each one, how much of that we read every day, and what an EU company needs before it may bid there. An email, not a call.
See what the radar finds in the United Kingdom
The demo is prepared on your catalogue, with real notices from your markets, before the call.