How to find public sector tenders in the UK (2026)

Finding public sector tenders is not hard. You need to know three things: where notices are published, how to hear about them early, and how to filter out the ones you can’t bid for. This guide covers all three, with free options first.

It is part of our SME guide to winning public contracts, which covers the rest of the route.

Where UK public tenders are published

Find a Tender, now the Central Digital Platform

Find a Tender is the Central Digital Platform. Under the Procurement Act 2023, all contracting authorities publish procurement notices in one place on the platform (para 8).

It is free. The government’s supplier guide says it is free to search, you can set up alerts, and you should not pay to view opportunities in the public sector. You only need to register at the point you want to bid. If you used the old service, you had to re-register, and your saved searches carry over only if you register with the same email address.

The platform also carries below-threshold notices. Where a buyer advertises a contract worth at least £12,000 (central government) or £30,000 (other buyers), including VAT, it must publish a tender notice on the platform first (paras 10 to 12; s.87). So smaller contracts that a buyer advertises appear there too.

There are exceptions. Devolved Welsh central government authorities use the £30,000 figure (s.87(4)(a)(ii)). Transferred Northern Ireland authorities and schools are outside these rules (guidance paras 6 and 9), and Scottish councils are outside the Act.

Contracts Finder

Contracts Finder is the other government search service. Its gov.uk page describes it as a way to search for contracts worth over £12,000 (including VAT), look at upcoming opportunities and review past tenders. An account is optional and adds email alerts and saved searches.

Since 24 February 2025 the Procurement Act hasn’t required any notice to go on Contracts Finder: new procurements, above or below threshold, only need notices on Find a Tender. Contracts Finder still carries notices for procurements started under the old rules, such as award notices and call-offs from older frameworks (PPN 019 guidance).

We explain how the two differ, and which to watch, in the difference between Find a Tender and Contracts Finder.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own public sector procurement websites: Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales and eTendersNI.

Which rules apply depends on the buyer. Devolved Scottish authorities are outside the Procurement Act and follow Scottish procurement legislation. Welsh and Northern Irish authorities are regulated by the Act, with some differences. Whichever you are in, check the local portal as well as the platform. Our pages list live notices for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Buyers’ own e-tendering portals

The notice tells you how and by when to submit (para 85). It may point you to the buyer’s own online portal, where you register to download the tender documents and upload your response. Associated tender documents must generally be provided free of charge and electronically (para 19).

For a full list of portals, see every UK tender portal, listed.

Hear about tenders before they’re published

A tender notice is the starting gun. Several earlier notices can warn you.

Pipeline notices. A contracting authority expecting to pay more than £100 million under relevant contracts in the coming financial year must publish a pipeline notice (paras 3 and 7). It lists contracts worth more than £2 million that the authority intends to publish a tender notice or transparency notice for over an 18-month period (para 2). Transferred Northern Ireland authorities are exempt (para 3). Other authorities may publish one voluntarily (paras 20 to 22), so don’t rely on this for local work.

Planned procurement notices. A buyer may publish a notice saying it intends to publish a tender notice (s.15). If it is published at least 40 days, and no more than 12 months, before the tender notice, the minimum tendering period can drop to 10 days (para 20(d)). That is a reason to watch for these: a short window leaves no time to start from scratch.

Preliminary market engagement. Before a tender, a buyer may talk to suppliers to shape its requirements (s.16). If it does, it must publish a preliminary market engagement notice before the tender notice, or give its reasons for not doing so in the tender notice (s.17). The notice has to come before the tender notice, not before the engagement itself. Taking part can help you understand the buyer’s plans.

What to do with an early warning

An early notice gives you time, so use it. It’s worth doing four things before the tender notice lands:

• Register on the platform and complete your core supplier information (para 62), which can be done in advance.
• Ask your insurer what it would charge for higher cover, in case the pack asks for more than you hold.
• Line up a partner if you suspect you’ll be short on a requirement.
• Put the likely closing window in your diary.

None of this commits you to bidding. It just means you aren’t starting from nothing on day one of a short tendering period.

Frameworks and dynamic markets: work that is never advertised openly

Some work is awarded only to suppliers already on a list. A framework is a contract that provides for the future award of contracts (s.45(2)), so the work awarded through it goes to the firms on it.

A dynamic market (formerly a dynamic purchasing system) is more open. The buyer must accept applications at any time during the term of the market and admit suppliers that meet the membership conditions and are not excluded or excludable (s.36(6)).

Getting on one is a separate task from winning a one-off tender. We cover it in frameworks and dynamic markets.

Set up searches that actually work

A search is only as good as the words and codes behind it. Set up at least three:

1. Keywords for what you do, in the words buyers use. If you do “grounds maintenance”, also try “landscaping” and “parks”.
2. CPV codes. CPV (Common Procurement Vocabulary) codes classify notices consistently and help suppliers find opportunities. The official list was revised by Commission Regulation (EC) No 213/2008. Our CPV code finder helps you find yours, and codes catch notices that don’t use your keywords.
3. Location and value. Filter to the area you can serve and a contract size you can handle. Include the below-threshold notices, because they can be the right size for a first bid.

Save each search and switch on alerts, so you don’t need to remember to look. Run each one for a week or two, then trim any that bring back mostly irrelevant notices.

Four common search mistakes

• Searching only your job title. Buyers describe work in their own words, so search the task as well as the trade.
• Searching only above-threshold work. If you set a minimum value of £135,018 or £207,720 (the goods and services thresholds from 1 January 2026, including VAT), you’ll miss the smaller notices.
• Skipping the region. A national contract with delivery across the whole country may not suit a firm with two vans. Narrow by area, then check the notice.
• Reading the title only. A title tells you very little. The closing date, lots and conditions sit further down.

A weekly routine that fits around the day job

Here is a routine we’d suggest for a small firm. It’s our recommendation, not a requirement of the Act.

1. Each morning, five minutes. Skim the day’s alerts. Open only the notices where the title, buyer and location make sense for you.
2. Twice a week, fifteen minutes. For the notices you opened, read the closing date and the conditions of participation. Drop anything you can’t meet.
3. Weekly, twenty minutes. Look at the pipeline, planned procurement and market engagement notices for your sector. Check your framework and dynamic market memberships.
4. Monthly. Review your searches. Add a keyword or CPV code if you’ve seen a relevant notice that your alerts missed.

Most of that time goes on sorting, not finding. That’s why the next two sections matter.

Free alerts vs paid services

Free alerts can do the main job well. The official services are free to search and set alerts on, and all contracting authorities publish their procurement notices on the platform. For many small firms with a narrow trade, a few well-built saved searches and ten minutes a morning are enough.

Paid services add things on top: aggregating several sources into one feed, better filtering, and in some cases information on buyers and past awards. They don’t make notices appear that buyers haven’t published.

If you do pay for one, ask three questions. Does it link to the official notice? Does it show where the notice was first published? Does it check anything about your business, or only match keywords? Those answers tell you whether you’re buying convenience, filtering or both.

Whichever you use, the work is the same, because an alert is only a search. Our free government alerts vs a paid service page sets out the trade-offs, and tender alert services compared lists the options.

The step everyone skips: filter for what you can bid for

A keyword alert tells you what exists. It doesn’t tell you whether you qualify.

Here is why that matters. In the week to 10 Oct 2026 (as of 10 Oct 2026), we saw 470 live tenders, and only 29 (about 6%) stated insurance requirements in the notice itself, and 29 stated named certifications (how we count). For the rest, any requirements will be in the tender pack, so a notice that looks perfect can still rule you out when you open the documents.

Those pass/fail requirements are the conditions of participation, and a supplier must meet all of them to be awarded the contract (s.22). A few minutes checking them can save hours of writing.

Our tender eligibility checker is coming soon. Until then, tell us your trade and postcode to join the free weekly list of live tenders, starting soon. To check a notice yourself now, read the notice in five minutes and run the bid or no-bid checklist.

What we saw in the week to 10 Oct 2026

In the week to 10 Oct 2026 (as of 10 Oct 2026), we saw 470 live tenders. The busiest sectors were construction (119), health and social care (68) and business services (52). Browse live UK tenders by sector and region. Or 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.