What is the Find a Tender service and how does it work?

The Find a Tender service is the UK government’s official procurement portal for publishing and searching high-value public sector contract opportunities. It replaced the EU’s OJEU (Official Journal of the European Union) system after the UK left the European Union, and it serves as the primary route through which contracting authorities advertise tenders above certain financial thresholds. This article unpacks how the service works, who must use it, and what both buyers and suppliers need to know to navigate it effectively.

Why did the UK replace the OJEU with Find a Tender?

The UK replaced the OJEU with Find a Tender because, following Brexit, UK contracting authorities lost access to the EU’s official procurement journal as a platform for advertising public contracts. Find a Tender launched on 1 January 2021 to fill that gap, giving the UK a sovereign, domestically controlled portal for publishing high-value tender opportunities that would previously have appeared in the OJEU’s Supplement (TED).

Prior to the UK’s departure from the EU, all public contracts above certain financial thresholds had to be advertised in the OJEU under EU procurement directives. This ensured transparency and cross-border competition. When those obligations ceased to apply in the UK, the government needed an equivalent domestic mechanism to maintain procurement transparency and uphold the principles of open competition. Find a Tender was built specifically to meet that need.

For suppliers who had previously monitored TED for UK opportunities, the transition meant shifting their attention to the new national portal. For contracting authorities, it meant a new publication route with its own rules, notice formats, and compliance requirements aligned to UK procurement law rather than EU directives.

Who is required to publish on Find a Tender?

Contracting authorities in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland are required to publish on Find a Tender when their procurement exceeds the relevant financial thresholds set by the UK government. This includes central government departments, local authorities, NHS trusts, housing associations, and other public bodies. Scotland uses its own Public Contracts Scotland portal but may also publish on Find a Tender for certain procurements.

The obligation applies broadly across the public sector. Any organisation that spends public money and falls within the definition of a contracting authority under UK procurement legislation must use Find a Tender for above-threshold contracts. This covers a wide range of entities, from large government departments procuring IT infrastructure to smaller local councils sourcing facilities management services.

Private organisations are not required to publish on Find a Tender unless they are acting as utilities operators or are otherwise caught by specific regulations. For most private sector organisations, Find a Tender is a tool for finding supply chain opportunities rather than a publication obligation.

What types of notices are published on Find a Tender?

Find a Tender hosts several types of procurement notices, each serving a distinct purpose in the procurement process. The main notice types include Prior Information Notices (PINs), Contract Notices, Contract Award Notices, and Voluntary Transparency Notices. Each notice type signals a different stage or intention in a procurement exercise.

• Prior Information Notice (PIN): Published in advance of a formal procurement to signal upcoming opportunities and, in some cases, to invite expressions of interest or reduce the standard tender timescales.
• Contract Notice: The formal advertisement of a live procurement opportunity, inviting suppliers to participate. This is the notice most suppliers actively monitor.
• Contract Award Notice: Published after a contract has been awarded, confirming the winning supplier and the contract value. These notices are important for market intelligence and benchmarking.
• Voluntary Transparency Notice: Used when a contracting authority wishes to publicise an award decision before signing the contract, creating a standstill period even where one would not otherwise be required.

Under the Procurement Act 2023, the range of notice types has been expanded and refined further, with new notice formats designed to improve transparency at each stage of the procurement lifecycle. Understanding which notice type to monitor is important for suppliers who want to engage at the right point in the process.

How does the Find a Tender search function work?

Find a Tender allows users to search for public sector tender opportunities using a combination of keyword searches, filters, and classification codes. Users can filter results by notice type, contracting authority, publication date, and CPV (Common Procurement Vocabulary) codes, which are standardised codes used across the UK and EU to classify the type of goods, services, or works being procured.

To use the search effectively, suppliers should identify the CPV codes most relevant to their offer and use them consistently when searching. Relying on keyword searches alone can result in missed opportunities, as contracting authorities may describe similar requirements using different terminology. CPV codes provide a more reliable classification system.

Users can also set up email alerts on the portal to receive notifications when new notices matching their search criteria are published. This is particularly useful for suppliers who want to monitor the market continuously without manually checking the portal each day. Registering on the platform and saving search preferences make ongoing monitoring significantly more efficient.

It is worth noting that Find a Tender only covers above-threshold procurements. Below-threshold opportunities are often published on Contracts Finder, the separate government portal for lower-value contracts, or directly on contracting authority websites. A comprehensive approach to public sector tenders requires monitoring both platforms.

How does Find a Tender fit into the Procurement Act 2023?

Find a Tender remains the primary UK portal for above-threshold public procurement notices under the Procurement Act 2023, which came into force in February 2025. The Act introduced significant reforms to UK procurement law, replacing the previous regulations that had been carried over from EU directives, and it brought with it new notice requirements and transparency obligations that are published through the Find a Tender service.

One of the most significant changes under the Act is the introduction of a new central digital platform, which the government has been developing to sit alongside and eventually integrate with Find a Tender. This platform is designed to centralise procurement data, improve supplier registration, and make it easier for contracting authorities to manage the full procurement lifecycle in a single environment.

The Act also introduced new notice types and mandatory publication requirements at additional stages of the procurement process, including notices at the pre-market engagement stage and enhanced award transparency. For contracting authorities, compliance with these new requirements means understanding which notices must be published on Find a Tender and when. For suppliers, it means more information is available earlier in the process, creating better opportunities to prepare competitive bids.

The broader intent behind the Procurement Act 2023 is to make UK public procurement more transparent, more accessible to smaller organisations, and better aligned with national priorities such as social value and innovation. Find a Tender is the visible front end of that ambition, serving as the public-facing window into how government organisations spend public money.

What should suppliers do after finding a relevant tender?

After identifying a relevant opportunity on Find a Tender, suppliers should act promptly and systematically. The first step is to read the full contract notice and any associated procurement documents carefully to confirm the opportunity is a genuine fit before investing time in a response. Many suppliers underestimate how important this qualification stage is.

Key actions to take after finding a relevant tender include:

1. Register your interest: Most contracting authorities require suppliers to formally register interest through a procurement portal (such as Jaggaer, Proactis, or the authority’s own system) to receive updates and access full tender documents.
2. Review the specification thoroughly: Understand exactly what is being asked for, including any mandatory requirements, evaluation criteria, and weightings. These determine how responses will be scored.
3. Assess your eligibility: Check that your organisation meets any minimum standards, such as financial thresholds, insurance levels, or accreditations, before committing resources to a bid.
4. Plan your response timeline: Work backwards from the submission deadline to allocate sufficient time for drafting, reviewing, and compiling all required documents.
5. Engage with clarification questions: Most procurement processes include a clarification period. Use this to resolve any ambiguities in the specification before submitting your response.
6. Request a debrief if unsuccessful: Under the Procurement Act 2023, suppliers have stronger rights to feedback. A debrief after an unsuccessful bid provides valuable intelligence for future tenders.

Suppliers who are new to public sector procurement, or who are bidding for above-threshold contracts for the first time, often benefit from specialist support to ensure their responses are compliant, competitive, and well-structured. The standards expected in formal tender responses are considerably higher than those in commercial sales processes.

How eXceeding helps with public sector procurement

eXceeding supports organisations on both sides of the procurement process, helping contracting authorities run compliant, effective tenders and helping supplier-side organisations understand how to navigate the public sector market. For contracting authorities specifically, eXceeding provides end-to-end support across the full procurement lifecycle, including:

• Designing and running compliant procurement processes aligned to the Procurement Act 2023
• Publishing and managing notices on Find a Tender and related platforms
• Developing evaluation frameworks and scoring criteria that deliver best value
• Managing supplier engagement, clarifications, and award communications
• Providing interim procurement resource where internal capacity is limited

Whether your organisation needs short-term project support or longer-term procurement transformation, eXceeding’s team of experienced consultants can help you get it right. Get in touch with eXceeding to discuss how we can support your next procurement exercise.

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