The new version of the UK Government’s Find a Tender digital platform for public sector procurements has gone live.
It came into effect yesterday, providing a channel for suppliers to register and access procurement opportunities and with a requirement for them to register to tender for contracts.
The Procurement Act 2023 made provision for its development.
Public sector organisations will need to register as buyers and sign in to publish procurement notices and contract awards.
The new Find a Tender has been described as an enhancement of the previous version, aimed at making it easier for suppliers to participate and to reduce duplication and errors.
Earlier announcements
Plans were revealed by the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) in January of last year – albeit without stating it would retain the Find a Tender name – and flagged up by a Cabinet Office minister, Georgia Gould, in October. CCS emphasised its potential to help smaller companies win more public sector contracts.
All procurement notices above and below the threshold values for different types of products, services and works – which range from £138,760 for central government to £5.34 million for defence and security bodies – will be published on the platform, except those below the threshold from Scotland. All notices outside Scotland now cover the full lifecycle of contracts from pipeline to termination.
The Government Commercial Function has published a fact sheet on the new platform. This indicates that it captures procurement data and will eventually be used to create dashboards on which it can be analysed.
