Defence Sourcing Portal: how MOD tenders are published

The Defence Sourcing Portal (DSP) is where the Ministry of Defence says it hosts “all of MOD’s advertised requirements”, according to its Procurement at MOD page. That page lists it among free-to-access websites, and says you can tailor notifications by category code. TenderWorthy does not ingest it.

This guide covers what the portal is, what gov.uk says about registering and alerts, and what that means for the tenders we do and don’t show you. We reviewed the MOD page on 12 October 2026.

What TenderWorthy covers

TenderWorthy is an independent service. We are not part of the Ministry of Defence or the Defence Sourcing Portal.

We take notices from two places only: Find a Tender and Contracts Finder. We do not ingest the Defence Sourcing Portal. If a requirement is advertised only there, it will not appear in our live list or in a TenderWorthy alert.

Do DSP notices also appear on Find a Tender or Contracts Finder? We cannot tell. The MOD page lists the DSP, Contracts Finder and Find a Tender as separate places to look, but it does not say whether a notice on one is copied to another. So treat anything defence-related we show you as possibly only part of what the MOD advertises. If defence is a market you want, check the portal directly. Our portals comparison shows what each UK portal holds and which ones we watch.

What the Defence Sourcing Portal is

Per the MOD’s gov.uk page, the DSP “hosts all of MOD’s advertised requirements”. The page introduces it with the line “Register at the following free-to-access websites to view live contract opportunities”, and the DSP is one of the sites it lists.

We have not described the portal’s screens, search boxes or filters, because gov.uk does not describe them and we won’t guess. Use the portal’s own help for how it behaves.

Procurement pages change. Re-read the MOD page before you rely on anything here, particularly if you are reading this long after 12 October 2026.

Registering and category-code alerts

The MOD page says you can “tailor your notifications from DSP by selecting appropriate category codes”. That is the only alert detail gov.uk gives.

It does not say how often alerts arrive, or whether the category codes are the same as CPV codes. Don’t assume they match one for one. Check the code list on the portal before you choose.

Register on Find a Tender too

The MOD page lists other ways to make your company visible to defence “in addition to being registered on the DSP and Central Digital Platform”. It lists Find a Tender, described by gov.uk as the service to “search and apply for high value contracts in the UK’s public and utilities sectors”, as a separate site to register at. So plan on two registrations, not one.

“MOD Contracts Finder”: which service is which?

If you searched for “mod contracts finder” or “defence procurement portal”, you may be looking for the DSP. It is not the same as Contracts Finder.

The MOD page names the DSP as the home of its advertised requirements. It lists Contracts Finder separately, which gov.uk describes as a way to search for information about contracts worth over £12,000 (including VAT) with the government and its agencies. Whether a given MOD opportunity is on one, the other or both, gov.uk does not say.

Contracts Finder’s role has also narrowed. PPN 019 says its rules for publishing there apply only to procurements commenced under the old Public Contracts Regulations 2015. It does not mention defence, so we can’t say how it applies to MOD notices in particular. Our guide to using Contracts Finder covers what is still listed there.

Subcontracting and other routes into defence work

You don’t have to win a prime contract to get defence work. The MOD page says “MOD’s strategic suppliers are encouraged to advertise subcontracting opportunities through the DSP”. That makes the portal worth watching even if the MOD’s own requirements are too big for a firm of your size.

The same page points to other routes. Three of them:

• MOD Acquisition Pipeline. A forward look at potential procurement activity and framework agreements.
• Hellios SME Portal. Listed on the MOD page. We have not assessed it, so check the portal’s own pages for what it offers and on what terms.
• SME Searchlight. From Dstl, to help SMEs and non-traditional suppliers work in defence research.

The Acquisition Pipeline and SME Searchlight descriptions are the MOD’s, and listing these routes here is not an endorsement. We haven’t used any of them, so read the MOD page and each service’s own terms before you sign up.

Before you bid on a defence notice

Treat a defence notice like any other. Read the notice for the deadline, the procedure and the buyer, then find what the tender pack asks for in insurance, certifications and location.

We haven’t reviewed what defence notices ask for, so this page says nothing about security clearances or accreditations. Whatever the notice lists, confirm it in the pack before you commit time to a bid. If you can’t meet one, that is a bid or no-bid decision for you to make with the pack in front of you.

Or let us check what we do cover

The Defence Sourcing Portal is a government service you can use directly, and we don’t replace it. For the Find a Tender and Contracts Finder side, 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.