How to find out who won a public contract

Where awards are published

When a public body awards a contract it publishes a notice saying who won. Under the Procurement Act 2023, in force since 24 February 2025, that means a contract award notice and then a contract details notice on Find a Tender. Procurements started before then published their awards on Contracts Finder, and Scottish buyers publish on Public Contracts Scotland.

A notice names the buyer, the supplier, the value the buyer published and, in most cases, when the contract ends. That end date is what turns an award notice from history into a lead.

What is a contract award notice?

Under the Procurement Act 2023 the award is published in two steps, each a numbered notice on Find a Tender:

Before the contract award notice goes out, every supplier whose tender was assessed receives an assessment summary explaining its scores and the winner's (section 50), and the standstill that follows is the window to question the decision (section 51). Getting feedback when you lose covers both. Later notices on the same contract record changes (UK10) and its end (UK11), so the history of a contract can be followed from one notice to the next.

Who supplies a buyer, and what a supplier has won

Searching notices one portal at a time is slow, and the same supplier often appears under several spellings. Tender Radar's public pages put the award notices together and match the spellings:

• Buyer pages show who a council, trust or department buys from, its contracts coming up for renewal, and the published values.
• Supplier pages show what a company has won, from whom, and when each contract ends.
• Category pages show who wins a kind of work, such as cleaning or IT services, across every buyer.
• Contracts ending soon list the renewals by month, with the incumbent named.

Reading a value correctly

Take the published value as the buyer's figure, not money paid. Two things catch people out. A framework names several suppliers and its value is a ceiling on what every buyer could spend through it, so the same large number appears against each supplier. And a value is often the whole term, so a five-year contract shown at £500,000 is nearer £100,000 a year.

Becoming a subcontractor

Plenty of small firms make their public sector income without ever winning a contract directly: they supply the companies that do. Award notices tell you exactly who those companies are.

1. Find the winners. Look up the buyers and categories you work in and list the suppliers that keep winning the larger contracts.
2. Note their end dates. A main contractor deciding whom to name in its next bid is the best customer you will find.
3. Approach them like any customer. Most large suppliers run their own supplier registration or supply chain team. Have your insurance, accreditations and two or three relevant examples ready.
4. Offer what helps their bid. Local presence, a specialist skill, or social value they cannot deliver themselves all strengthen the main contractor's tender, and say so.

Using it before you bid yourself

The same notices answer the questions that decide whether to bid at all: is there an incumbent, how long have they held the work, what did the buyer pay last time, and what size of firm usually wins? The guide to deciding whether to bid uses them, and finding contracts before they are re-tendered explains how to get in early.