A tender notice is the notice a buyer publishes to say it intends to award a public contract and to invite suppliers in. It is the notice to look for when you search for opportunities to bid.
Where it appears in the Act. Section 21 requires a buyer to publish a tender notice to invite tenders in an open procedure or, in a competitive flexible procedure, to invite requests to participate or, where there is no request stage, first tenders (s.21(1)(b)(ii)). The notice must set out that the buyer intends to award a contract, plus the other information set by regulations. The buyer must also provide any associated tender documents in accordance with the notice. Contracts below the main thresholds use a separate below-threshold tender notice under section 87.
Notices are published on the central digital platform, the Find a Tender service. Time limits for responding are set in section 54, so always check the closing date in the notice.
What it means for a small supplier. The notice is the summary and the tender documents are the detail. In the week to 10 Oct 2026, only 29 of 470 live notices stated insurance requirements (as of 10 Oct 2026; our data, how we count). Any requirement not in the notice will be in the tender documents, if there is one. So read the notice to decide whether to look further, then read the documents before you decide to bid.
Next: how to read a tender notice.