Introduction 

On the 24th February 2025, the rules that shape how public bodies buy goods and services will change. In this guide, we will give you an overview of the central digital platform including what can be found there, how to look at the notices, notifications and the use of data.

Additional video guidance is available detailing these steps.

For more detailed walkthrough videos on how to register for the Central Digital Platform, please check out the GCF Youtube site.

Why is there a central digital platform?

The central digital platform is an online resource which will make it easier for suppliers to find and bid for contract opportunities. It is the place where all the regulated public procurement notices are published.

These notices are important for transparency as they set out the details about:

• What goods, services or works the public sector is going to buy,
• Opportunities for suppliers to tender for contracts, 
• Information about the process by which a decision to enter into a public contract is made, and 
• Information about the awarded contract throughout its life.

The notices are issued throughout the process of the procurement, into contract management, and are designed to allow interested parties to look at them free of charge.

There are 17 notices across all the parts of the procurement and contract management cycle.  Not all the notices are used in every procurement as some relate to special activities.

In this guide, we will look in depth at 3 key notices to watch out for:

• The Pipeline Notice (UK1)
• The Tender Notice (UK4)
• The Contract Award Notice (UK6)

Pipeline Notice (UK1) 

The pipeline notice lets suppliers know what procurements are expected.

This is a mandatory notice for any contracting authority that spends more than £100 million, under relevant contracts, in any financial year, must publish this notice for any intended requirement over £2 million. 

For more information on the pipeline notice, please read the Procurement Act 2023 Section 93 and the Procurement Regulations 2024 Regulation 15. Supplementary guidance is available on Gov.UK.

Tender Notice (UK4)

The tender notice lets suppliers know that there is an opportunity to tender for.

For more information on the tender notice, please read the Procurement Act 2023 Section 21 and the Procurement Regulations 2024 Regulation 18-24. Supplementary guidance is available on Gov.UK.

Contract Award Notice (UK6)

Once tenders have been assessed, the contract award notice is published to let suppliers know that the contracting authority intends to enter into a public contract. This includes details of the awarded supplier and the estimated value of the contract.

For more information on the contract award notice, please read the Procurement Act 2023 Section 50 and the Procurement Regulations 2024 Regulation 27-41. Supplementary guidance is available on Gov.UK.

Searching for opportunities and setting up notifications

There will be lots of notices published over time. To help in locating specific notices, there are search tools and notifications available.

To demonstrate the functionality, this guide will walkthrough an example of a small supplier looking for a suitable contract in the East of England.

To begin looking for notices, you should select ‘Search’ on the homepage of Find a Tender.

You will then be presented with all of the notices on the platform. On the left-hand side of the screen, there is a menu of filters to help you narrow down the options.

You can select which notices you would like to see under the ‘notice type’ filter. By selecting Tender Notice you will be able to see all of the available tender notices.

Next, using the ‘Suitability’ filter, select ‘Small and medium-sized enterprises’ to see those opportunities that have been marked as particularly suitable for Small and Medium Enterprises.

You also have the option to filter opportunities by delivery location. You will be able to select regions from the ‘Contract location’ filter.

By clicking ‘Select regions’, it will open a ‘region selector’ pop-up. From here, you can select one, or many, regions for the contract delivery, then click ‘Add regions to filter’.

Once you have added all the filters necessary for your search, click ‘Update results’ to search for notices that are within your filters.

To make this easier, you can also set up alerts on the system using ‘saved searches’. This means you will get an email to tell you when someone has posted a notice that meets your criteria. 

Once you have selected the filters you would like to search for, you can select ‘save search’ which will open a pop up. You will be able to name the search and select how frequently you would like a notification emailed to you.

Use of the Central Digital Platform Data

All the published notices contain data that is structured and searchable in the Open Contracting Data Standard and is available for re-use under the open government licence 3.0, directly from the central digital platform.