Find a Tender - UK Above-Threshold Procurement Alerts

Find a Tender Service (FTS) launched on 1 January 2021, the day the UK’s Brexit transition period ended. Before that date, all UK above-threshold procurement notices were published on TED (Tenders Electronic Daily), the EU’s central procurement journal. FTS now serves the same function but exclusively for UK contracting authorities.

The portal is operated by the Cabinet Office and publishes all categories of above-threshold notices: contract notices for live opportunities, prior information notices (PINs) for early market signals, contract award notices showing who won, and the new transparency notices required under the Procurement Act 2023. FTS also publishes framework agreements, Dynamic Purchasing Systems (DPS), and concession contracts. It is the single authoritative source for UK high-value public procurement.

Publication on Find a Tender is mandatory for contracts exceeding the UK’s regulated procurement thresholds. As of January 2026, these thresholds are: £139,688 for goods and services procured by central government, £215,720 for goods and services procured by sub-central authorities (local councils, NHS trusts, universities), and £5,372,609 for works contracts regardless of the contracting authority.

These thresholds are updated every two years to align with the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) and are published via Procurement Policy Notes (PPNs). Below-threshold contracts do not appear on Find a Tender — they are published on Contracts Finder instead. For companies targeting the full UK market, monitoring both portals is essential. The threshold update in January 2026 (PPN 023) slightly adjusted values from the previous period, reflecting currency fluctuations against the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights.

The Procurement Act 2023, which took effect in October 2024, is the most significant overhaul of UK public procurement law in decades. It replaced four separate EU-derived regulations with a single coherent framework and introduced several changes that directly affect how Find a Tender operates.

The Act introduced the competitive flexible procedure as the new default procurement method, replacing the previous open, restricted, and competitive dialogue procedures. It created new notice types on FTS including pipeline notices (giving 12-month advance visibility of planned procurements), transparency notices, and a mandatory central digital platform. A new debarment register was established to exclude suppliers convicted of certain offences. For suppliers, these changes mean more procurement data is now published on Find a Tender than ever before, improving opportunity visibility for those who monitor the portal systematically.

Find a Tender publishes several distinct notice types. Contract notices are live tenders open for bids — these are the primary opportunities and typically have response windows of 30–40 days for above-threshold procurements. Prior information notices (PINs) signal upcoming procurements and may be published 6–12 months ahead, giving suppliers time to prepare bid teams, secure partnerships, and build relationships with buying organisations.

Pipeline notices, introduced under the Procurement Act 2023, provide a rolling 12-month forecast of a contracting authority’s planned procurements. These are invaluable for business development planning. Contract award notices reveal the winning supplier, contract value, and number of bidders for completed procurements — essential competitive intelligence. Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) notices indicate open-entry procurement vehicles that accept new suppliers at any time, making them particularly accessible for market newcomers.

Despite Brexit, UK public procurement above regulatory thresholds remains fully open to international suppliers. The UK is an independent signatory to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), which guarantees reciprocal access to government contracts for companies from all 48 GPA parties — including all EU member states, the US, Canada, Japan, South Korea, and Australia.

In practice, this means an EU-based company can bid on Find a Tender contracts on exactly the same terms as a UK company. There are no nationality restrictions, no preferential treatment for domestic suppliers, and no requirements for local presence unless the specific contract demands it (which is rare outside defence and security). The GPA also prohibits discriminatory technical specifications. For international suppliers, Find a Tender represents one of the most open and transparent procurement markets globally.

Jorpex ingests Find a Tender publications continuously, applying your keyword, region, value-range, and disqualifier filters to every new notice as it appears. Matching tenders are formatted and delivered to your Slack channel or email with the title, contracting authority, estimated contract value, submission deadline, notice type, and a direct link to the full notice on FTS.

Combined with monitoring of Contracts Finder (below-threshold), Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales, and eTendersNI, Jorpex provides complete UK procurement coverage from a single notification feed. You can configure separate notification profiles for different business lines or market segments, each with its own keywords and delivery channel. This means your IT services team sees relevant digital contracts in their Slack channel while your facilities management team sees theirs — with no overlap and no noise.