Many tenders in Northern Ireland are published on eTendersNI, which we don’t cover yet. Our live list shows the NI notices that also appear on Find a Tender and Contracts Finder, and the volume is small: 8 live notices in the week to 10 Oct 2026 (as of 10 Oct 2026). Newry, Mourne and Down District Council had 7 live notices that week, the second most active buyer in our UK data (as of 10 Oct 2026). We haven’t checked how many of those 7 carry an NI delivery location. The only territorial exclusion in section 2(5) of the Procurement Act 2023 is for devolved Scottish authorities. The Act applies to NI buyers, but its below-threshold rules (Part 6) don’t apply to transferred NI authorities (section 84(2)).
Where Northern Ireland’s public buyers publish tenders
eTendersNI. eTendersNI is the Northern Ireland public procurement portal, provided by CPD (Construction and Procurement Delivery). You need to register as a supplier organisation to respond to a notice and receive notifications.
How to register. Follow the supplier organisation registration page and the user manual. The pages say you need a D-U-N-S number and that you register against CPV codes to get email alerts. The Department of Finance’s registration guidance describes the steps: you nominate your own administrator, confirm a verification email, accept the user agreement, and then receive an email saying the registration is validated. Get the D-U-N-S number first, because you can’t finish without it, and allow time for validation before a deadline.
Before you start, have three things ready: your company’s D-U-N-S number, the CPV codes that describe your work, and a named person whose inbox will receive the notifications. Keep the user manual to hand for the first few notices you respond to.
Find a Tender. Find a Tender carries UK-wide notices, and gov.uk’s supplier guide is the place to start on how the Act’s notices work. Contracts Finder is the older service. Our live list comes from these two only. For how the main portals compare, see our guide to UK tender portals.
Why our list is short. Many Northern Ireland public bodies publish on eTendersNI, so a notice that never appears on Find a Tender or Contracts Finder will never appear in our list. Treat the 8 live notices in the week to 10 Oct 2026 as a subset, not as the size of the market (as of 10 Oct 2026).
Who buys in Northern Ireland
Councils, central departments, health bodies, universities and housing associations all advertise. In our data, Newry, Mourne and Down District Council is the only Northern Ireland buyer in the week’s most-active list (as of 10 Oct 2026). With so few NI notices on Find a Tender each week, a CPV-based alert on eTendersNI is the more reliable way to see what’s coming.
Also look beyond the NI-tagged list. About a third of UK notices are tagged only “UK” or have no region (as of 10 Oct 2026), so some opportunities that Northern Ireland firms could deliver won’t carry an NI delivery location. The list of all UK tenders shows them.
Local support for small suppliers
nibusinessinfo.co.uk has a guide to the tender process in Northern Ireland. Some of that guide dates from the EU-era rules, so check any threshold or procedure against gov.uk or the notice itself. The Invest NI helpline is 0800 181 4422, Monday to Friday, 9:30am to 4:30pm (gov.uk).
Winning public contracts in Northern Ireland
Register early, and register CPV codes carefully. Registration ends with a validation email, and alerts only follow the CPV codes you pick. Choose the codes that match what you do, not the broadest ones. If you have no D-U-N-S number yet, sort that out before a notice you want appears, not after.
Don’t assume GB notice thresholds. Outside transferred NI authorities, a below-threshold contract is notifiable at £12,000 (central government) or £30,000 (others), including VAT (section 87(4)). But Part 6 doesn’t apply to procurement by a transferred NI authority, other than under a reserved or devolved Welsh procurement arrangement (section 84(2)(b)), and gov.uk’s guidance says transferred NI authorities remain exempt from the below-threshold regulation, with some exceptions. Ask the buyer how a lower-value opportunity is advertised.
Check employers’ liability separately. The Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 covers employers carrying on business in Great Britain, and section 7(2) says it “shall not extend to Northern Ireland”. Northern Ireland has its own law, the Employer’s Liability (Defective Equipment and Compulsory Insurance) (Northern Ireland) Order 1972. If you employ staff, ask your broker what a Northern Ireland buyer expects, and read our page on employers’ liability in Great Britain for the contrast.
Set up a Find a Tender record if you bid on UK-wide notices. gov.uk’s supplier guide says registration is free and only needed when you want to bid, and that it stores your core business details for reuse across bids. It is separate from eTendersNI, so expect to keep both.
Check the size of the work. Across the UK, 366 live notices stated a value in the week to 10 Oct 2026: 85 under £100,000, 157 between £100,000 and £1 million, and 124 over £1 million (as of 10 Oct 2026). That is UK-wide, not Northern Ireland-only, but a stated value helps you decide quickly whether a notice is your size.
Look in the pack for the rest. Only 29 of the 470 UK live notices in the week to 10 Oct 2026 (about 6%) stated insurance requirements in the notice itself (as of 10 Oct 2026). Check public liability and turnover tests in the pack before you commit bid time. 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.
Questions
Where are public sector tenders in Northern Ireland published?
Many Northern Ireland public bodies publish on eTendersNI, the public procurement portal provided by CPD (Construction and Procurement Delivery). New opportunities under the Procurement Act 2023 are also advertised on Find a Tender. Each notice says where to respond.
Do I need a DUNS number to register on eTendersNI?
eTendersNI's registration pages say you register as a supplier organisation and need a D-U-N-S number. The Department of Finance's guidance says you nominate your own administrator, confirm a verification email, accept the user agreement, and then receive an email saying your registration is validated. Check the live registration page for the current steps before you start.
Does the Procurement Act 2023 apply in Northern Ireland?
The only territorial exclusion in section 2(5) is for devolved Scottish authorities. The Act applies to Northern Ireland buyers, but its below-threshold rules (Part 6) don't apply to transferred Northern Ireland authorities (section 84(2)). Read gov.uk's below-threshold guidance before assuming English notice thresholds apply.
Does TenderWorthy include eTendersNI tenders?
Not yet. We list notices from Find a Tender and Contracts Finder, so our Northern Ireland list is only a subset of what is open. Keep an eTendersNI alert as well.
Where can I get free help with tendering in Northern Ireland?
nibusinessinfo.co.uk has a guide to the tender process, and the Invest NI helpline is 0800 181 4422, Monday to Friday, 9:30am to 4:30pm, according to gov.uk.