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UK Government Tenders
Every central government department and UK local council publishes contract opportunities daily. WinAContract aggregates all of them — Cabinet Office, Crown Commercial Service, MoD, DWP, HMRC, 400+ local councils — so suppliers find matching tenders without checking a dozen portals.
Closing this fortnight
In UK procurement, "government" covers four tiers:
Publication is mandatory above the thresholds in the Procurement Act 2023. The five main portals:
Crown Commercial Service (CCS) is a central buying agency that runs framework agreements covering common goods and services — IT, professional services, energy, travel, vehicles. If you want to sell to central government at scale, CCS frameworks are the route.
Being on a CCS framework means public bodies can buy from you without running a new tender each time. Application windows open periodically. See our G-Cloud framework guide for the biggest digital framework.
By volume and value, the highest-activity UK government procurement categories are:
Government buying policy explicitly targets 33% spend through SMEs. The practical path for a small supplier:
1. Start small. Bid for contracts at your current delivery capacity. A £30k catering contract with a single council is more winnable than a £10M CCS framework.
2. Register on buyer portals. Each buyer operates their own e-procurement system (ProContract, Bravo, In-Tend, Delta). One-time registration gets you on their tender distribution list.
3. Build accreditations. ISO 9001, Cyber Essentials, GDPR compliance. These aren't optional for most tenders above £100k.
4. Collect evidence. 2-3 recent contract examples with quantified outcomes are the spine of a selection questionnaire.
5. Use frameworks where you can. Being on a framework removes the full tender process for every buyer on it.
The Procurement Act 2023 introduced Most Advantageous Tender (MAT) evaluation, replacing MEAT. Buyers now have more flexibility to weight non-price factors. Typical scoring weights:
Start at WinAContract — free cross-portal search across every UK government buyer. Filter by sector, region, and contract value. Set up a keyword alert so new tenders matching your profile arrive in your inbox daily. For official sources, Contracts Finder covers £12k+ central / £30k+ other; Find a Tender Service covers above-threshold contracts.
Yes. Government buying policy explicitly targets 33% of spend through SMEs. Smaller contracts (under £100k) typically have lighter qualification requirements. Some tenders are SME-reserved under the Procurement Act 2023.
Contracts Finder must list central government contracts above £12,000 and other public-sector contracts above £30,000. Some buyers voluntarily publish below-threshold contracts too. For the highest-value contracts (above statutory thresholds ~£139k services), Find a Tender Service is the mandatory channel.
Typical timeline from notice publication to contract award: 6-12 weeks for standard open procedures. Larger contracts with multi-stage competitions (Selection Questionnaire → Invitation to Tender → clarifications → submission → evaluation → standstill → award) take 3-6 months. Framework call-offs can be as quick as 2-4 weeks.
For contracts involving handling of government data, yes — Cyber Essentials Basic is the minimum, Cyber Essentials Plus is often required. For contracts not touching data you may not need it, but it's frequently preferred and costs only a few hundred pounds to certify.
The Selection Questionnaire (SQ, formerly PQQ) is a pre-qualification document used by UK public buyers to filter suppliers before the main tender. It covers financial standing, insurance, accreditations, modern slavery, GDPR compliance, references, and sometimes technical capability. The standard template is governed by Cabinet Office guidance.
Open procedure: anyone can submit a full tender — no SQ filter, but you must do the full response up front. Restricted procedure: SQ first, top N shortlisted suppliers invited to tender. Restricted is more common for higher-value contracts; open is frequent for smaller contracts where the buyer wants maximum competition.
CCS runs framework competitions periodically. When a new framework opens, CCS publishes an Invitation to Tender on FTS. You respond with a full tender response; if you meet the criteria you're awarded a place on the framework. Application windows are typically advertised 3-6 months in advance. See our [CCS frameworks explainer](/blog/crown-commercial-service-frameworks-explained) for the full process.
Free search across every UK public-sector portal. Daily keyword alerts. No credit card required.