The post-February 2025 landscape
The Procurement Act 2023 came into force on 24 February 2025 and changed the rules applying to many procurements by contracting authorities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It also applies to contracting authorities with reserved functions procuring in Scotland. Devolved Scottish authorities continue under Scotland’s separate procurement legislation.
Older procurements and certain frameworks or systems can continue under earlier legislation, so the date and route of the specific opportunity matter.
Find a Tender and the central digital platform
The enhanced Find a Tender service is the central digital platform. Suppliers can register, maintain commonly used organisation information and share it during procurements. It is also used to search notices across the procurement lifecycle.
Registration does not mean every tender response is completed inside Find a Tender. Official guidance states that suppliers must complete bids in the form and manner required by the contracting authority. That may involve a buyer’s eSourcing system or eSender portal.
Useful notice types to recognise
| Notice | What it can tell a supplier |
|---|---|
| UK1 Pipeline Notice | Potential future contracts and dynamic markets, helping early market planning. |
| UK2 Preliminary Market Engagement Notice | How a buyer plans to engage—or has engaged—with suppliers before tender. |
| UK3 Planned Procurement Notice | Early information about an intended competitive procurement. |
| UK4 Tender Notice | An invitation to tender or request to participate under a competitive procedure. |
| UK6 Contract Award Notice | Information after the award decision and before contract entry in relevant cases. |
| UK7 Contract Details Notice | Information about a contract after it has been entered into. |
| UK13–UK16 Dynamic Market Notices | Information about establishing, changing or ending a dynamic market. |
Do not rely on the notice title alone. Read linked documents, amendments and the full notice sequence.
Frameworks, dynamic markets and procedures
A framework sets terms for future call-off contracts. Access to a particular call-off is generally limited to suppliers appointed to that framework. Open frameworks can reopen at defined points. A dynamic market is a list of qualified suppliers that can be used for future competitive procurements and may accept new members while it operates, subject to its conditions.
Under the Act, above-threshold competitive tendering uses the open procedure or a competitive flexible procedure designed by the buyer. The stages, participation conditions and assessment method must be read carefully.
UK opportunity services
England and wider UK notices: Find a Tender is the central platform, while Contracts Finder remains a useful service for contract opportunities and awards, particularly in England. Buyer portals still matter.
Scotland: Public Contracts Scotland advertises regulated opportunities from Scottish public bodies under Scotland’s devolved regime.
Wales: Sell2Wales is a key opportunity and notice service. Welsh procurements can also involve Find a Tender and buyer portals depending on the procurement.
Northern Ireland: eTendersNI is the tendering portal for Northern Ireland central government bodies. The Procurement Act has Northern Ireland-specific exceptions, including aspects of below-threshold procurement.
What an SME should do now
- Create or update the organisation record needed for Find a Tender supplier information
- Set relevant searches and alerts across the services used by target buyers
- Read pipeline and market-engagement notices—not only live tenders
- Keep core company, accounts, connected-person and exclusion information accurate
- Build controlled evidence, case studies and operational documents before deadlines
- Follow the buyer’s submission portal, template and clarification process exactly