How to bid for UK government contracts.

The Procurement Act in one paragraph

The Procurement Act 2023 replaced the UK’s EU-era procurement rules on 24 February 2025. It applies in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and to UK-wide bodies. Devolved Scottish authorities follow Scotland’s own rules. The Act brought one notice platform, one supplier register, more flexible procedures, a “most advantageous tender” test, and much more transparency once a contract is signed.

Where UK contracts are published

Many buyers run the tender itself on their own e-tendering portal, linked from the Find a Tender notice. Here is what’s open across the UK today:

Register once on the Central Digital Platform

Before you bid, register as a supplier on the Central Digital Platform, part of Find a Tender. It’s free, and you do it once:

1. Create a GOV.UK One Login account.
2. Register your organisation as a supplier. Enter your Companies House number or its overseas equivalent. If you have none, the platform gives you an ID. Non-UK addresses are fine.
3. Complete your core supplier information:
   • basic details — name, address, registration and VAT numbers, qualifications, SME or voluntary-sector status
   • your most recent financial accounts
   • your connected persons, such as people with significant control
   • declarations against the mandatory and discretionary exclusion grounds
4. Declare it accurate and share it. You generate a share code and give it to each buyer the way they ask — usually in their e-tendering portal.

If you registered on Find a Tender before February 2025, you need to register again. And since 1 April 2026, winners of even small contracts in England and Northern Ireland need a platform ID, so register before you bid at any value.

Thresholds from 1 January 2026

Above these values (including VAT), the Act’s full rules apply:

Below them, contracts that are advertised at all must go on Find a Tender from £12,000 for central government and £30,000 for other public bodies. For these smaller contracts, buyers can’t run a separate pre-qualification stage, except for larger works.

How contracts are procured

• Open procedure — a single stage: everyone can tender.
• Competitive flexible procedure — the buyer designs the process, and can include negotiation, multiple rounds or a limit on numbers.
• Direct award — only in limited circumstances, and only after a transparency notice.
• Frameworks — up to 4 years (8 for defence and utilities). Open frameworks run up to 8 years and reopen to new suppliers.
• Dynamic markets — replacing the old dynamic purchasing systems. Suppliers that meet the conditions can join at any time.

The notices to watch

Minimum time to tender: 25 days when tenders are electronic and all documents are available at the start, 30 or 35 days otherwise, and as little as 10 days after a planned procurement notice or in urgent cases. In practice, half of open UK tenders give 32 days from publication to deadline.

How bids are assessed

Contracts go to the most advantageous tender, judged against award criteria that relate to the contract, with their weightings published in advance. The Act also limits what buyers can ask for:

• Conditions of participation can only cover legal and financial capacity and technical ability, and must be proportionate.
• Buyers can’t demand audited accounts from suppliers that aren’t legally required to have them.
• Buyers can’t require insurance to be in place before award, and must accept equivalent qualifications.

Two policy requirements often carry weight:

• Social value — central-government contracts must give social value at least 10% of the total score.
• Carbon Reduction Plans — for central-government contracts over £5 million a year, bidders need a published plan committing to net zero by 2050, with emissions reporting and five-year targets.

Exclusions and debarment

Buyers must exclude suppliers that fall under the mandatory exclusion grounds and may exclude those under the discretionary grounds — both looking back five years, and both extending to connected persons and key subcontractors. A government minister can also put a supplier on the central debarment list, which every buyer must check.

Payment and transparency once you win

• 30-day payment is implied into every public contract, and into every public sub-contract down the chain.
• For central-government contracts over £5 million a year, bidders must show they pay their own invoices in an average of 45 days or less.
• Since 2026, buyers publish their payment performance, contract KPIs, and payments over £30,000 — so you can check how a buyer pays before you bid.

Bidding from overseas — including from India

You don’t need a UK establishment to bid. The UK protects treaty state suppliers — firms from countries it has procurement agreements with, such as members of the WTO Government Procurement Agreement — from discrimination on contracts those agreements cover.

India joined that list in 2026. The UK–India Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement entered into force on 15 July 2026, and the UK added it to the Procurement Act’s list of international agreements. For procurements the agreement covers, Indian companies now count as treaty state suppliers.

Three limits remain:

1. Buyers may disregard tenders from non-treaty suppliers, or for contracts no agreement covers.
2. Defence and security contracts aren’t treaty-covered.
3. Below-threshold contracts can be reserved for UK or local suppliers.

Going the other way? The same agreement opened Indian central-government procurement to UK companies — see how UK companies can bid for Indian government tenders.

United Kingdom tenders closing soon

Open now, closing soonest first.

See every open tender in United Kingdom

Questions

Sources

• Procurement Act 2023 — guidance documents (Cabinet Office)
• Find a Tender and the Central Digital Platform — factsheet
• Supplier registration — short guide (January 2026)
• PPN 023/2026: threshold amounts from 1 January 2026
• Guidance: time periods under the Procurement Act 2023
• Guidance: conditions of participation
• Guidance: treaty state suppliers
• New legislative requirements under the Procurement Act 2023 (2026)
• PPN 019: requirements to publish on Contracts Finder
• PPN 002: taking account of social value in central government contracts
• PPN 006: carbon reduction plans in major government contracts
• PPN 018: a supplier’s approach to payment in major contracts
• The UK–India trade deal is in effect — UK Government (Business Growth Service)
• Draft Procurement Act 2023 (Specified International Agreements) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 — Hansard
• Government Commercial Agency: what you need to know

This guide explains the rules in plain English; it isn’t legal advice. Procurement rules change, and each tender document sets its own conditions — it always prevails.