Guidance

Public-sector procurement

Information for public authorities, businesses and other organisations on public procurement policy.

• From: Cabinet Office
• Published: 7 January 2021
• Last updated: 4 June 2024 — See all updates

The e-notification service Find a Tender (FTS) is used to post and view public sector procurement notices.

Advice for Contracting Authorities

Cabinet Office has published Procurement Policy Note 08/20 - Introduction of Find a Tender, setting out the changes to procurement which came into effect at the end of the Transition Period.

This PPN informs contracting authorities of the steps they need to take to ensure their legal obligations under the Regulations to publish certain notices in relation to public procurements continue to be met. This includes the circumstances where FTS or the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU)/TED must be used, how to access FTS and an associated FAQ.

The key messages are:

1. Find a Tender is in use.

2. Procurements on OJEU/TED that were commenced prior to the end of the Transition Period must be concluded on OJEU/TED.

3. New procurements commenced after the end of the Transition Period must be advertised on Find a Tender.

4. Requirements to advertise on Contracts Finder, MOD Defence Contracts Online, Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales and eTendersNI remain unchanged.

5. Any contracting authority that publishes directly to TED should follow the instructions for direct registration on FTS set out in PPN 08/20.

Some eSenders have advised that they are not able to support parallel publication to both FTS and OJEU/TED. In these circumstances they have switched publication over to FTS by default. You may need to register on TED in order to post notices related to ongoing procurements manually. Your eSender can advise you if this is the case.

Advice for Business

Information on public sector contract opportunities in the UK is published on the Find a Tender Service (FTS):

• FTS is free to use and replaces the role of Tenders Electronic Daily, the Official Journal of the EU (OJEU/TED) for procurements in the UK.
• FTS works alongside existing procurement portals such as Contracts Finder, MOD Defence Contracts Online, Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales and eTendersNI which can be used to access a wide range of opportunities to supply the public sector.

If you wish to access public sector contract opportunities in the EU, you may continue to do so via OJEU/TED. Information about procurements launched by UK contracting authorities before 23:00 on 31 December 2020 will be available via OJEU/TED or the existing portals mentioned above.

Enquires can be directed to info@crowncommercial.gov.uk.

Published 7 January 2021
Last updated 4 June 2024 + show all updates

1. 4 June 2024

   Updated point 5 as it was out of date

2. 7 January 2021

   First published.