Guide
Where to find UK public sector tenders
Almost every advertised UK public contract is published on one of four free national portals. Finding them is not the hard part. The hard part is that the bidding happens on hundreds of other systems, small contracts are often never advertised at all, and the alerts are noisy. This guide covers all three.
Last checked: 6 October 2026
The four national portals
| Portal | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Find a Tender | The whole UK. Every notice under the Procurement Act 2023, including smaller contracts when they are advertised: from £12,000 for central government and £30,000 for other public bodies, including VAT. |
| Contracts Finder | England. Procurements started under the older Public Contracts Regulations 2015, and their awards. No new procurement has used those rules since 24 February 2025. |
| Public Contracts Scotland | Scottish public bodies, including smaller contracts: regulated procurements from £50,000 for goods and services and £2,000,000 for works, excluding VAT. |
| Sell2Wales | Welsh public bodies. |
All four are free to search and none needs an account to read a notice. You can search all of them at once, free, with the Tender Radar tender finder.
Where the bidding actually happens
A notice tells you a tender exists. To read the full documents, ask questions and submit a bid you usually have to register on the buyer's own eSourcing system, and there are dozens: ProContract, In-Tend, Delta, Jaggaer, Atamis and more, many of them shared by groups of councils. The guide to UK tender portals explains which buyers use which, so you register once on the shared systems instead of once per council.
Before your first bid
Register your business on Find a Tender, the government's Central Digital Platform, and complete your supplier information. Tenders under the Procurement Act ask for the share code it gives you, and leaving it until the deadline is a common way to miss one.
Small contracts that are never advertised
Below the national thresholds a buyer can often ask a few suppliers for quotes instead of advertising, so a lot of small work never reaches a portal. To be asked:
- Read the “selling to the council” or procurement page of each council you want to work for, and register on the system it names.
- Ask to be added to quotation lists for your kind of work, and keep your details current.
- In Scotland, create a Supplier Finder profile on Public Contracts Scotland: buyers use it to choose whom to invite to Quick Quotes.
- Look at the dynamic purchasing systems your buyers use. They stay open to new suppliers, unlike most frameworks.
Frameworks and dynamic purchasing systems
Some buyers do much of their buying through frameworks and dynamic purchasing systems, where only the suppliers on them can bid. They are worth joining when your target buyers use them, and not otherwise: much low-value work is not on a framework at all. The framework guide explains how to judge one.
Alerts: free or paid
Find a Tender, Contracts Finder and Public Contracts Scotland all offer saved searches with email alerts, free. Their weakness is noise: they match on CPV codes and keywords, and buyers apply CPV codes inconsistently, so a precise search misses things and a broad one floods you. Use the CPV codes finder to choose the codes buyers actually use for your work.
A paid service saves time rather than unlocking anything secret: it searches every portal at once, removes what does not fit, and adds context such as who holds the contract now. The comparison of tender alert services sets out what each one does and costs, including the case for staying with the free portals.
The earliest signal: contracts that are ending
The best time to hear about a contract is before it is advertised. Award notices publish end dates, so most re-tenders are visible months ahead. Contracts ending soon lists them by month with the incumbent named, and finding contracts before they are re-tendered explains how to use that time.
Get the tenders that fit you, every weekday morning
Tender Radar reads every new UK public sector notice, scores it against what you do and emails you the ones worth reading, with a reason for each. 30 days free, no card needed.
Common questions
Finding tenders
Where are UK public sector tenders published?
On the national portals: Find a Tender for the UK (all notices under the Procurement Act 2023), Contracts Finder for procurements started under the older 2015 rules in England, Public Contracts Scotland and Sell2Wales. All four are free to search.
Can I find tenders without paying for a tender service?
Yes. The national portals are free and most offer saved searches with email alerts. A paid service saves time rather than unlocking anything hidden: it searches every portal at once, filters out what does not fit and adds intelligence such as who holds the contract now.
Why do I not see small council contracts?
Below the national thresholds a buyer can often get quotes directly instead of advertising, so small contracts may never appear on a portal. Register with the councils you want to work for, get onto their quotation lists, and in Scotland create a Supplier Finder profile on Public Contracts Scotland.
Why are my tender alerts full of irrelevant results?
Most portal alerts match on CPV codes or keywords, and buyers apply CPV codes inconsistently. Choose a few precise codes, add the words buyers actually use in titles, and accept that some filtering by hand is unavoidable unless a service scores each notice against your business.