Module 2: Transparency

Question 1

2.1  Changes and Benefits

Accepted Answer

The Procurement Act 2023 aims to create a more open and transparent procurement regime, aimed at delivering “transparency by default” across the full commercial lifecycle.

Change: The publication of notices at additional stages of the procurement lifecycle, and to provide information on procurement and contracting activities.

Benefit: Allows visibility and for data to be captured about procurement and contracting activities across the full procurement lifecycle. It provides up-to-date information on procurements and contracts, which should reduce ad hoc supplier enquiries.

Change: Introducing a central digital platform, which consists of an enhanced version of Find a Tender (FTS) and new Supplier Information System.

Benefit: The platform will improve the quality and accessibility of commercial data for contracting authorities. It will give suppliers a single place to find tender opportunities, and functionality that will allow them to register and submit the basic business information needed when submitting a tender, reducing time, duplication and administrative costs. Summary Document 6 – Supplier Selection.

Change: The introduction, over time, of commercial tools and registers on the central digital platform.

Benefit: These will enable contracting authorities, their suppliers and other interested parties to access and analyse a range of commercial information based on the notices published to the central digital platform.

An overview of these changes is provided within this Summary Document, with the other Summary Document providing detailed information about how the changes work in practice across the procurement lifecycle.

Question 2

2.2  Why is Transparency Important?

Accepted Answer

Improved transparency measures are essential for securing value for money, building public confidence, acting in a fair and open manner with our suppliers, and reducing the potential for fraud and corruption. We expect this to be delivered through the new procurement regime. The new measures have been designed to deliver a number of benefits and improvements:

For procurement and contracting authorities:

Providing access to data and information that better informs procurement decisions.
Reducing scope for fraud and corruption.
Finding opportunities for collaboration (with other contracting authorities, and with suppliers).
Identifying and tackling poor contract performance.
Enabling earlier awareness and management of commercial risk.
Encouraging better forward planning with their procurement processes.

For suppliers:

Making business opportunities more accessible.
Providing a level playing field for competition.
Driving openness and accountability in decision making.
Allowing a seamless, consistent data flow between contracting authorities and suppliers.

For the public sector and wider society:

Improved visibility of public sector contracting.
Driving accountability in the way decisions are made and services delivered
Delivering more effective competition to maximise Value for Money for the taxpayer
Upholding the integrity of public procurement.
Building public trust.

3. Notices

Under the previous regulations^{[footnote 1]}, contracting authorities were required to publish a series of notices throughout the procurement lifecycle, to notify the market of new procurement opportunities, contract awards and changes to contracts. Notices are a means of communicating – with suppliers, other contracting authorities and the wider public – information about procurement activities and intentions. This communication is a cornerstone of transparency.

Under the Procurement Act 2023, notices must still be published throughout the procurement lifecycle. However, there are some key changes:

The introduction of new notices that cover all stages of the procurement lifecycle, including the contract management phase.
An obligation to publish these notices in one place, the central digital platform (which may be done through a contracting authority’s existing eSender (electronic procurement portal)).
Requirements to publish commercial data (as part of these new notices) that will provide additional commercial intelligence to support the design and delivery of procurement strategies.

Understanding the new notice publication requirements and preparing to share this information from the outset of a new procurement will ensure that processes can continue to be undertaken in a timely manner.

3.1 Transparency Notices Summary

A summary of the notices publication requirements that apply under the Procurement Act 2023 are as follows. Requirements will apply to most contracting authorities and covered procurements establishing a public contract.

Ref.	Transparency Notices	Requirement
UK1	Pipeline notice	Mandatory (for organisations where spend is £100m+ PA). 18-month forward-look at planned procurements £2m+ value.
UK2	Preliminary market engagement notice	Mandatory where engagement is anticipated or has taken place (or, explain in tender notice why it hasn’t been published).
UK3	Planned procurement notice	Optional and Best Practice Advises the market of an upcoming procurement. A qualifying planned procurement notice can reduce tender timescales.
UK4	Tender notice Including to establish a framework and below-threshold notices	Mandatory (for a competitive procedure) Publish when undertaking an open or competitive flexible procedure (including to establish a framework contract and procuring using a dynamic market(1)) or procuring a regulated below-threshold contract.
UK5	Transparency notice	Mandatory (for a direct award) Publish prior to award when undertaking a direct award.
UK6	Contract award notice	Mandatory Publish to communicate the outcome of the procurement and to commence the standstill period prior to awarding a contract under the open or competitive flexible procedure (and voluntary standstill periods for direct awards).
UK7	Contract details notice	Mandatory Publish details of the awarded contract (including the contract, for public contracts £5m+), inc. regulated below-threshold contracts above a certain value and those procured by direct award.
UK8	Contract payment notice(1)	Mandatory Publish details of payments over £30,000 made under a public contract (quarterly).
UK9	Contract performance notice	Mandatory Publish KPI scores for public contracts £5m+ (at least annually). Publish within 30 days of supplier poor performance / breach of contract.
UK10	Contract change notice	Mandatory Publish prior to a qualifying modification taking place, inc., for contracts £5m+, publication of modification.
UK11	Contract termination notice	Mandatory Publish when a public contract is terminated / comes to an end
UK12	Procurement termination notice	Mandatory Publish where, after publishing a tender or transparency notice, the process is terminated without awarding a contract.
UK13-16	Dynamic market notices	Mandatory Publish and update when advertising, establishing, changing or terminating a dynamic market (inc. utilities dynamic markets and qualifying utilities dynamic markets).
UK17	Payments compliance notice	Mandatory Publish details of performance against 30-day payment terms (twice annually).

1) Exemptions apply
2) Not currently in legislation, will come into effect at a later date

Where requirements are marked as “mandatory” there are some exemptions that will apply to certain organisations and categories of procurement: these are summarised in the Fact Sheets.

Some notices are listed in the legislation as covering multiple different procurement procedures. For example, an open, competitive, flexible and below-threshold “version” of the tender notice (amongst others) are detailed separately. However, these are not different notices; they are the same tender notice as outlined in the Procurement Act 2023. In practice, what this means for contracting authorities is that they complete different fields in the tender notice, and / or submit different information alongside it, depending on the nature of the procurement.

Works Contracts and the £5m Threshold

There are various additional publication requirements that apply to contracts above the £5m threshold, throughout the procurement lifecycle.

The threshold above which a contract for works becomes a public contract – subject to the full Procurement Act 2023 – is £5,372,609 , as set out in Summary document 1

Where a works contract is below threshold and not classified as a public contract (or covered procurement), the £5m publication requirements do not apply. For example, a works contract that is £5.2m in value would not require the publication of redacted contract documents or KPIs.

The definition of a “works” contract can be found in Summary Document 1

All thresholds relating to the publication of notices and other information are correct at the time of publishing, but may be subject to change under future legislation. These thresholds include VAT and are revised at least every two years. See Summary document 1 for more details.

Framework Contracts

Frameworks contracts (that are public contracts) will be established using the above notices, however reporting on KPIs using the contract performance notice, contract payment and payments compliance notices are not required. When awarding a contract using a framework, the above notices should be followed with the exception of a tender notice, which is not required.

Dynamic Markets

A different set of publication requirements apply for the establishment and operation of a dynamic market, which take the form of dynamic market notices that are published when a new dynamic market is first advertised, established, modified and terminated. When awarding a contract using a dynamic market, the standard noticing regime should be followed, including publication of a tender notice. A separate procedure applies when establishing a utilities or qualifying utilities dynamic market, which is established using a different version of the dynamic market notice. When awarding a contract under a qualifying utilities dynamic market, a different version of the tender notice is used, and does not need to be published.

For more information on publication requirements relating to frameworks and dynamic markets, see Summary Document 5 – Frameworks and Dynamic Markets. For more information on utilities dynamic markets and qualifying utilities dynamic markets, see Summary Document – Utilities.

Regulated Below-Threshold Procurements

A reduced set of publication requirements apply for regulated below-threshold procurements (contracts procured under Part 6 of the Procurement Act 2023 (Sections 84 to 88)) which are notifiable due to their value. When a below-threshold contract is advertised, a tender notice must be published to the central digital platform before being published locally (e.g. on a local website or eSender portal homepage). A contract details notice must be published once a notifiable contract has been entered into. No other noticing is required during the procurement lifecycle, however contracting authorities are able to publish other notices for their below-threshold contracts.

3.2 Key Changes and Benefits

While comparisons may be made between some of the notices required under PCR 2015 and the other existing regimes and those required under the Procurement Act 2023 (as identified in the table above) there are key differences to highlight, including:

A planned procurement notice may not be used as a call for competition in the way that was permitted for sub-central authorities using a prior information notice.
Unlike VEAT notices, a transparency notice must be published (in almost all cases) before awarding a contract using the direct award procedure.
A new procurement termination notice must be published whenever a contracting authority decides not to proceed with a procurement at any stage prior to contract award, having previously published a tender or transparency notice.
The content and purpose of a contract award notice has changed. It is now published before contract award, to notify the market of the intention to award a contract, and (following the issue of assessment summaries) is used to start the 8 working days standstill period (where applicable).
A new contract details notice must now be published after any applicable standstill period has concluded and the contract has been awarded. Where the total value of the contract is over £5m, contracting authorities must also publish the contract documents, with redactions where appropriate. (see Summary Document 7: Assessment and Award).
A contract change notice must be published prior to making a contract modification. Where a contract over £5m is modified, then copies of the contract or the modification must be published (see Summary Document 9: Contract Governance for more information).
There are three new notices that will be required for publication during the contract management phase of the procurement lifecycle.

Contract performance notice: used to report supplier performance against KPIs (where the total value of the contract is over £5m) and to report poor supplier performance and breach of contract (applicable to most contracts).

Contract payment notice: used by most contracting authorities to report details of individual payments exceeding £30,000 under a public contract.

Payments compliance notice: setting out the contracting authority’s performance against 30-day invoice payment terms.

Some key benefits of the new notices include:

Pipeline notice	Improves forward planning, for contracting authorities and suppliers.
Preliminary market engagement notice	Encourages contracting authorities to undertake pre-market engagement, and ensures the process is transparent.
Transparency Notice	Enhances visibility of contracts to be awarded using the direct award procedure.
Procurement termination notice	Provides clarity to suppliers when a procurement is terminated prior to award.
Contract change notice	Increases openness about the modifications made to a contract throughout its lifetime.
Contract termination notice	Enables contracting authorities, suppliers and the public to see when a contract has ended.
Contract performance notice	Records contract and supplier performance data, and makes it visible to all interested parties.

3.3 Notice Development and Phases

Requirements to publish contract performance, contract payments and payments compliance notices will not come into effect when the new regime commences. These requirements will be introduced in separate, later phases. The pipeline notice will also be introduced at a later phase.

4. Central Digital Platform and Notice Publication

4.1 What is the Central Digital Platform?

The Procurement Act 2023 sets out that an “online system” will be established and operated for the publication of notices, documents and other information (95_(4)). This is the Central Digital Platform.

The objectives of the Central Digital Platform include:

Publishing information about new procurement opportunities in one place, improving access for suppliers.
Simplifying a fragmented landscape of commercial data available through multiple (sometimes closed-access) systems and in different formats.
Providing a registration service for all UK buyers and suppliers who participate in public procurement.
Enabling suppliers to submit their basic business information in one place, reducing duplication and making it easier to participate in procurements.

The central digital platform consists of an enhanced version of Find a Tender (FTS) (the site currently used to publish notices for all public contracts) with a new Supplier Information System.

Contracting authorities will use FTS to publish all notices, documents and other information required during a procurement process and throughout the lifetime of a contract (to note, FTS will continue to be a noticing system only: procurements will continue to take place using a contracting authority’s eSender, or other electronic means. Suppliers will be required to register on the central Digital Platform and use the Supplier Information System to submit their basic business information. When they identify an opportunity on FTS, they then share this information when they participate in a procurement.

For more information on the Supplier Information System see Summary Document 6. Suppliers and contracting authorities are not required to use this functionality for below-threshold procurements, however the system will not prevent them from using it for these purposes.

4.2 Central Digital Platform Development

The developments to FTS functionality will be delivered in phases.

Essential notices that contracting authorities need to be able to run a procurement will be available when the new regime commences.
Pipeline notices, Contract performance and payments compliance notices will follow soon afterwards.
Contract payment notices, data analysis tools and other functionalities will follow at a later date.

The Cabinet Office will provide more information and guidance on these notices and requirements prior to their commencement.

The Act allows for various changes, over time, to what information may be required for publication or disclosure by contracting authorities (section 95). This may mean changes to:

The form and content of notices, documents or other information.
The information contracting authorities are required to include in or with a notice.
The provision of information in different formats (for example, notice field requirements).

4.3 Notice Publication

Contracting authorities remain responsible for publishing the correct notices within the required timescales, and containing all required information, for all procurements and contracts (as detailed within the Procurement Act 2023, the Regulations and guidance).

Notice Fields

The Regulations set out the information (“notice fields”) that must be completed before a notice is published. Some fields will be mandatory, others discretionary. Where a notice may be used for more than one type of procurement (e.g. the tender notice), contracting authorities may need to complete different notice fields and provide different or additional information.

Contracts Finder

FTS replaces Contracts Finder as the place of publication for below-threshold procurements.

Contracts Finder is no longer used for the publication of any notices under the new regime, but will remain available during the transition period for procurements commenced under the previous regimes.

Using an eSender

Under the previous regimes, approximately 90% of notices were submitted by contracting authorities using an eSender, whilst the rest were created directly on FTS. Where a contracting authority uses an eSender, they can continue to do so without any change. However, they should check with their eSender that the system is fully compliant with the new regime as early as possible before commencing a new procurement. Where contracting authorities currently publish notices directly to FTS, this may also continue without change.

Process for Publication

To be compliant with the Procurement Act 2023 and Regulations, contracting authorities must publish notices to the central digital platform before publishing them elsewhere. The obligation to publish on FTS is considered to be satisfied when a contracting authority:

Receives confirmation from the platform (e.g. via email), or
Has checked that the notice has appeared and can be viewed publicly on FTS.

Once published on FTS, contracting authorities can publish the notice elsewhere as required, e.g. on their organisation’s website or an “alternative system” (an online system for publishing and providing information, e.g. their eSender’s procurement portal). When using an eSender to manage publication to FTS, it is important to remember that the notice must first be publicly visible on FTS prior to being publicly visible on an eSender’s system.

Publication to an Alternative System

In the unlikely event that it is not possible to publish a notice and / or associated information on FTS (e.g. due to unplanned maintenance or unexpected breaks in service), and contracting authorities are unable to pause publication until the platform is restored (e.g. due to the requirement being urgent), then they can publish to an alternative system, as described above, without first publishing on FTS.

This is providing that:

At least 48 hours have passed since the notice or information was submitted to FTS
At least 4 hours has passed in the case of direct awards under Section 42 direct award to protect life, etc, and Schedule 5 paragraphs 13 and 14 Urgency.
The contracting authority has not received notification from FTS or the Cabinet Office that their submission has successfully been published and it is not accessible via FTS.
The contracting authority cooperates with the Cabinet Office to ensure that the notice and / or documents in question are retrospectively published to the public on FTS at the earliest opportunity.
The alternative system used for publication is free of charge, readily accessible to suppliers and accessible to people with disabilities.

Notices published to alternative systems must contain all of the required information as set out in the Procurement Act 2023 and Regulations.

As with the previous regulations, failure to publish a notice when it is required – including compliance with required timescales and providing correct and complete information – could leave contracting authorities at risk of a legal challenge. See Summary Document 8 for details.

4.4 Electronic Communications

As far as is reasonably practicable, contracting authorities carrying out covered procurements must communicate – and ensure that participating suppliers communicate – using electronic means, as part of a procurement.

To carry out a covered procurement, contracting authorities may only use an electronic communications system that is:

free of charge and readily accessible to suppliers
generally available, or interoperable with other generally available systems, and
accessible to people with disabilities.

4.5 Exemptions and Confidentiality

Section 94 of the Procurement Act 2023 outlines certain circumstances where contracting authorities may be permitted to redact information or withhold it from publication entirely.

These are:

National Security: Withholding information is necessary to safeguard national security. This may be the case where information prejudices the defence, security or armed forces operations.
Commercial Sensitivity: The information is sensitive commercial information (information that constitutes a trade secret or that would be likely to prejudice commercial interests) and there is overriding public interest in it being withheld.

These exemptions are modelled on the equivalent exemptions outlined in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and are designed to be interpreted in the same way. They needed to be detailed separately in the Procurement Act 2023 because the former relates to responding to requests for information, whereas the latter is about proactive publication.

Guidance on redaction and how to redact a contract for publication can be found in Summary Document 7 – Assessment and Award.

Where contracting authorities rely on either of the above grounds to withhold information from being published, they must (unless it would be contrary to the interests of national security) notify anyone who the information would have been provided to that this is the case, and why. This would typically be done when publishing a notice.

Other specific exemptions from publishing notices and associated information apply to certain contracts and contracting authorities: these are detailed in Modules 1-9.

Any data shared must not contravene data protection legislation, and contracting authorities should be mindful of the Data Protection Act whenever information is published or otherwise shared.

4.6 Unique Identifiers

To allow the central digital platform to meet its objectives, a unique identifier will be assigned, on FTS, to distinguish each individual contracting authority, supplier, procurement process and contract.

A summary of the identifiers that will be used on the central digital platform are as follows:

Buyer identifiers: assigned to each individual contracting authority (including agents or organisations conducting a procurement on their behalf).
Supplier identifiers: assigned to each individual supplier.
Contracting process identifiers: the same identifier is assigned to each notice published across the full lifecycle of a discrete procurement, known as an Open Contracting Identifier (OCID).
Contract identifiers: designed to identify the contract(s) awarded under a procurement process (as above); particularly useful where a procurement is split into lots.
Dynamic market notice identifiers: an OCID is assigned to each dynamic market when the first notice relating to that dynamic market is published on FTS, tracking the dynamic market through to establishment, any modification(s) and up to termination. It is also used when a contract is awarded using a dynamic market, so that the contract data may be linked back to the original dynamic market.
Framework identifiers: A framework has the same identifier as the contracting process OCID that was assigned to award the framework. This identifier will be the same in each notice published about the establishment of the framework. When establishing a framework under a scheme of open frameworks, each individual framework within the scheme will have its own identifier that relates to the contracting process used to award that framework.
Awards in accordance with frameworks: Awards made in accordance with the framework (call-offs) are considered separate contracting processes from the frameworks themselves, so each has its own identifier. Since there is no tender notice published, this would usually start with a contract award notice or contract details notice, depending on the value of the contract.

Benefits

Identifiers will link together all records related to an organisation and/or contract:

Procurement records: Identifiers will enable the creation of a structured record for every covered procurement, so that data can be viewed from publication of the first notice, up to procurement termination or contract award.
Public contracts: The awarded contract will be assigned its own identifier, linking it back to the original procurement, and to any modifications, performance, payment or other notices published about it, through to termination. This will enable better visibility of data
Contracting authorities: The use of an organisational identifier will enable better visibility of a contracting authorities’ activities across multiple procurements and contracts.
Suppliers: Any notice pertaining to a particular supplier will include their identifier. This will help contracting authorities to better identify data relating to a particular supplier, and facilitate a picture of a supplier’s procurement activities, contract awards and contract performance.

Overall, the use of identifiers will increase transparency for contracting authorities, suppliers and the general public, facilitating the collection and analysis of better quality commercial data.

Another key benefit, if eSenders can provide the associated workflow, is reduced duplication and administration: because the notices published are linked together by identifiers, this means that, during a procurement, the data that is input into each notice can subsequently be pulled through to automatically populate the following notice(s).

Buyer and Supplier Identifiers

Where a contracting authority or supplier is already assigned a unique identifier from an official register, such as Companies House, Charity Commission for England and Wales etc, this identifier should be used – and will be authenticated – when they first register on the central digital platform. Where a contracting authority or supplier is not part of an official register, the central digital platform will use their name and address (and other core business information) to generate a unique number.

The supplier’s unique identifier will be provided to the contracting authority whenever they participate in a procurement process. Contracting authorities must use a supplier’s unique identifier when publishing notices or information in relation to it during the course of a procurement or contract.

The Supplier Information System will allow suppliers to bid as a consortium, joint venture, or similar arrangement. Contracting authorities will need to consider what information they obtain from each member of the consortium, and how to best identify their members in any subsequent notices:

Where there is a lead contractor, they must be registered and have an identifier. This would then be used in any subsequent notices.
Where suppliers tender as a consortium or joint venture that is yet to be legally formalised (e.g. where it exists only for the purpose of the procurement in question), they must be registered as separate entities. The contracting authority must be able to access the basic business information for each supplier as required. Following contract award, the consortia / joint venture will need to register as such using the Platform and will be allocated a new identifier that comprises information from all suppliers involved. They should then complete the required information for the newly formed organisation on the Supplier Information System, and will be allocated a new identifier that comprises information from all suppliers involved. The new identifier and updated core information will be used in subsequent notices.
Suppliers may register as a consortium or joint venture prior to a procurement, but this legal relationship must be formalised. They may then use this information and identifier to submit a tender.

The central digital platform will allow for changes to the structure of consortia and joint ventures, and individual suppliers within them.

Contracting Process Identifiers

A unique identifier will be generated by FTS when the contracting authority submits its first notice for publication under a new procurement (e.g. a pipeline notice, preliminary market engagement notice, notice of planned procurement, tender or transparency notice or contract award notice in the case of a framework call-off or procurement from a qualifying utilities dynamic market). This identifier will then be used in subsequent notices to link them together into one procurement process.

5. Record Keeping

The publication of information on the central digital platform provides a permanent record of that procurement. Under section 98 of the Procurement Act 2023, contracting authorities are required to keep records that are sufficient to explain a “material decision” made during the award of or entry into a public contract, for a period of 3 years following contract award. Contracting authorities must also keep records of any communications with suppliers in relation to the award of a contract (prior to the contract being entered into) for the same period.

This provision replaces regulation 84 of the PCRs, which required contract authorities to provide a written report relating to the award of a public contract.

A decision is deemed to be “material” if it’s required by the Procurement Act 2023 (for example, the decision to award the contract to a particular supplier or as to the procedure to be followed) or where a contracting authority is required to publish a notice or other information as a result of the decision.

A material decision may include:

Excluding one or more suppliers subject to a mandatory or discretionary exclusion ground.
Down selecting one or more suppliers based on the conditions of participation, or at an interim stage of a competitive flexible procedure.
The assessment of tenders against the award criteria.
The decision to award the contract.

Records may therefore include (but are not limited to):

Notices and associated documents.
Tender submissions and/or requests to participate.
Assessment summaries.
Correspondence with suppliers, e.g. expressions of interest, clarifications, etc.
Internal governance documents

Where the decision is made to terminate a procurement without awarding a contract, records are only required to be kept until the day that a procurement termination notice is published.

It is worth noting that this section does not affect any other obligation under any enactment or rule of law by virtue of which a contracting authority must retain documents, or keep records, for a longer period.

6. Commercial Tools and Registers

What are Commercial Tools and Registers?

Public procurement data is often incomplete, recorded in inconsistent formats, or held on separate systems. This can make it difficult to share commercial information between organisations, restrict opportunities for collaboration, and lead to resource-intensive duplication for both contracting authorities and suppliers. Improved access to good-quality commercial data is also essential for achieving accountability in public spending.

One of the long-term goals of procurement reform is for the central digital platform to be a place where contracting authorities, suppliers and the general public can access different types of data that will provide a clearer picture on public sector contract and procurement activities. As previously mentioned, the intention is to deliver these within Phase 3 of the central digital platform development.

The ambition is that the central digital platform will host a number of commercial tools and registers that aggregate transparency information that is published to the platform, including:

Register of commercial tools: containing details of the different frameworks and dynamic markets that are available to access across the public sector. See Summary Document 5 – Frameworks and Dynamic Markets for more information.
Contract performance register: containing information about supplier performance against KPIs for in-scope public contracts, as published instances of reportable poor performance, as detailed in section 71. See Summary Document 9 – Contract Governance for more information.
Additional Information including how much is being spent under public contracts (payments over £30,000) and about prompt payment (how quickly contracting authorities pay invoices to their suppliers). See Summary Document 9 – Contract Governance for more information.
Debarment list: A list of suppliers who, following investigation, have been debarred from taking part in public procurements (due to the application of an exclusion ground). This may initially be published as a PDF file on gov.uk, rather than the central digital platform. See Summary Document 8 – Remedies, Procurement oversight and the Debarment List for more information).

The public will be able to access data (excluding any sensitive data) free of charge and without the need to register.

How will the Data be Populated?

The intention is for many tools and registers to be populated using data that contracting authorities provide as part of the notices that will be published throughout the procurement lifecycle, from pipeline to termination. Some registers may be populated and managed centrally, such as the debarment list (by the Procurement Review Unit).

If used correctly, it is envisioned that these tools and registers will help to drive efficiency, capability and best practice throughout the public sector. It is therefore important to ensure that the data and information submitted for publication is timely, accurate and fit for purpose.

What are the Benefits?

There are multiple long term benefits expected as data accumulates and new functionalities become available via the central digital platform. These include:

Providing a valuable source of meaningful, standardised data to inform commercial strategies.
Improving visibility and sharing of information between public sector organisations.
Facilitating opportunities for collaboration and a more joined-up approach to common procurement issues.
Enabling benchmarking activities to improve pricing and performance.
Driving better standards in contract delivery through enhanced accountability.
Reducing the potential for fraud and corruption.
Increased potential for aggregated procurement data, providing enhanced understanding of public procurement activities.

18. Table of transparency notices: Fact sheet

Please note the following regarding the ‘purpose / variation’ and ‘exemptions’ columns in the table.

Purpose / variation

In the regulations, some notices are listed as having separate versions, depending on the procedure you follow. For example, there is an open, competitive flexible and below-threshold “version” of the tender notice (amongst others). However, these are not different notices; in practice, what this means for you is that you must complete different fields in the tender notice, and / or submit different information alongside it, depending on the nature of your procurement.

Exemptions

Organisations and / or contracts that are exempt from publishing a particular notice and / or associated documents.

Table

Procurement lifecycle	Reference	Notice name	Requirement	Purpose / variations	Exemptions
Plan	UK1	Pipeline notice	Mandatory (for organisations where spend is £100m+ PA) 18-month forward-look at planned procurements £2m+ value	N/A	• Private utilities • Contracts awarded by transferred Northern Ireland (NI) authorities
Define	UK2	Preliminary market engagement notice	Mandatory where pre-market engagement is anticipated or has taken place (or, explain in the tender notice reason for not publishing)	N/A	Private utilities
Procure	UK3	Planned procurement notice	Optional and best practice advises the market of an upcoming procurement. A qualifying planned procurement notice can reduce tender timescales to 10 days	N/A	N/A
Procure	UK4	Tender notice	Mandatory when undertaking an open or competitive flexible procedure (including to establish a framework and award a contract under an existing dynamic market) or a regulated below-threshold procedure	• Below-threshold tender notice • Tender notice: open procedure • Tender notice: competitive flexible • Tender notice: frameworks • Tender notice: dynamic markets (for procurements awarding a contracting using an existing dynamic market or utilities dynamic market - not to establish a new dynamic market) • Tender notice: utilities dynamic markets	Qualifying utilities dynamic markets (existing members of the market may be invited directly)
Procure	UK5	Transparency notice	Mandatory when undertaking a direct award (publish prior to award)	N/A	Direct award: user choice contracts
Procure	UK6	Contract award notice	Mandatory communicates the outcome of the procurement and (commences standstill prior to awarding a contract open or competitive flexible procedure)	• Contract award notices except those published by private utilities • Contract award notices published by private utilities • Contract award notices published by private utilities: direct awards • Contract award notices published by private utilities: frameworks	• Direct award: user choice contracts • Defence and security contracts awarded under a defence and security framework
Procure	UK7	Contract details notice	Mandatory details of the awarded contract (including the redacted contract, for public contracts £5m+ and KPI information)	• Contract details notice: open or competitive flexible procedure • Contract details notice: frameworks • Contract details notice: public contracts awarded in accordance with frameworks • Contract details notice: direct award • Contract details notice: below-threshold contracts	• Private utilities • Direct award: user choice contracts • Contracts awarded by a devolved Welsh authority or transferred NI authority (unless awarded under a reserved procurement arrangement) - exempt from publishing contract documents only • Contracts awarded under a devolved Welsh or transferred NI procurement arrangement - exempt from publishing contract documents only • Framework contract - exempt from KPIs • Light touch - exempt from KPIs • Concession contracts - exempt from KPIs
Manage	UK8	Contract payment notice	Mandatory details of payments over £30,000 made under a public contract (quarterly)	N/A	• Utilities contracts awarded by a private utility • Concessions contracts • Contracts awarded by a school • Contracts awarded by a transferred NI authority / under a transferred NI procurement arrangement (unless awarded under a reserved procurement arrangement or devolved Welsh procurement arrangement)
Manage	UK9	Contract performance notice	Mandatory to report: a. annual KPI scores for public contracts valued £5m+ b. poor supplier performance / breach of contract (within 30 days of event)	• Performance against • KPIs Notification of supplier poor performance / breach of contract	• Private utilities - exempt from both • Light touch - exempt from both • Concession contracts - exempt from publishing KPIs only
Manage	UK10	Contract change notice	Mandatory prior to a qualifying modification taking place (copy of modified contract for public contracts over £5m)	Convertible contracts: contract change notice	• Defence and security contracts • Private utilities • Light touch contracts • Contracts awarded by a transferred NI authority / under a transferred NI procurement arrangement (unless awarded as part of a procurement under a reserved procurement arrangement or devolved Welsh procurement arrangement) • Contracts awarded by a devolved Welsh authority or under a devolved Welsh procurement arrangement (unless awarded as part of a procurement under a reserved procurement arrangement) - exempt from publishing modified contract only
Manage	UK11	Contract termination notice	Mandatory when a public contract ends	N/A	• Private utilities • Direct award: user choice contracts
Procure	UK12	Procurement termination notice	Mandatory where, after publishing a tender or transparency notice, the process is terminated without awarding a contract	N/A	Private utilities
Procure	UK13 to 16	Dynamic market notice	Mandatory when advertising, establishing, changing or terminating a dynamic market	• Utilities dynamic market notice • Qualifying utilities dynamic market notice	• Private utilities are not required to update the dynamic market notice when the market ceases to operate • A qualifying utilities dynamic notice must be provided to members of the market and is not required to be published
Manage	UK17	Payments compliance notice	Mandatory details of contracting authority performance against 30-day payment terms (twice annually)	N/A	• Private utilities • Concessions contracts • Contracts awarded by a transferred NI Authority • Contracts awarded by a school

19. Transparency: Thresholds and exemptions for publishing notices

Notice name	Threshold for publication	Exemptions
Preliminary market engagement notice	When intending to carry out or have already undertaken pre-market engagement for above threshold contracts (can be used voluntary for below-threshold contract).	Private utilities
Planned procurement notice	When notifying the market in advance. A qualifying planned procurement notice can be used to reduce tender timescales for above threshold contracts.	N/A
Pipeline notice	Within the first 56 days of the financial year where the total procurement spend is above £100m p/a (including below-threshold spend). Include details of contracts over £2m.	• Private utilities • Contracts awarded by transferred Northern Ireland (NI) authorities
Tender notice	When inviting a request to participate or tender. Tender notice: above threshold contracts. Below-threshold tender notice: contract above regulated below-threshold tender threshold.	Qualifying utilities dynamic markets (no requirement to publish the tender notice, just provided directly to existing members of the market)
Transparency notice	Before awarding an above threshold contract via direct award.	Direct award: user choice contracts
Contract award notice	Before awarding an above threshold contracts (can be used voluntary for below-threshold contract).	• Direct award: user choice contracts • Defence and security contracts awarded under a defence and security framework
Contract details notice	Within the 30 days following when a contract is entered into for above threshold and regulated below threshold contracts (120 days for light touch contracts). Where total value of the contract is over £5m, publish the contract documents and details of KPIs (unless exemption applies).	• Private utilities • Direct award: user choice contracts • Contracts awarded by a devolved Welsh authority or transferred NI authority (unless it is awarded as part of a procurement under a reserved procurement arrangement) • Contracts awarded under a devolved Welsh or transferred NI procurement arrangement - exempt from publishing contract documents only
Contract payment notice	Payment(s) of £30,000 or more, under an above threshold contract. Publish quarterly.	• Contracts awarded by a private utility • Concessions contracts • Contracts awarded by a school • Contracts awarded by a transferred NI authority or or under a NI procurement arrangement (unless it is awarded as part of a procurement under a reserved procurement arrangement or devolved Welsh procurement arrangement)
Contract performance notice	Contracts over £5m with KPIs set: publish KPI scores at least annually. All public contracts: in the event of poor performance/breach of contract: publish within 30 days of the event.	• Private utilities - exempt from both • Light touch - exempt from both • Concession contracts - exempt from publishing KPIs only • Framework contracts - exempt from publishing KPIs only
Contract change notice	Above threshold contracts before a qualifying modification takes place. Convertible contracts before a qualifying modification takes place. Contracts over £5m: publish copy of modified contract or contract modification.	• Defence and security contracts • Private utilities • Light touch contracts • Contracts awarded by a transferred NI authority (unless it is awarded as part of a procurement under a reserved procurement arrangement or devolved Welsh procurement arrangement) or under a transferred NI procurement arrangement • Contracts awarded by a devolved Welsh authority or a devolved Welsh procurement arrangement (unless it is awarded as part of a procurement under a reserved procurement arrangement)exempt from publishing the modified contract only
Contract termination notice	Above threshold contracts (can be used voluntary for below-threshold contract) when the contract terminates/ends.	• Private utilities • Direct award: user choice contracts
Procurement termination notice	Above threshold contracts (can be used voluntary for below-threshold contract) when required.	Private utilities
Dynamic market notice	When advertising, establishing, changing or terminating a dynamic market.	Private utilities are not required to update the dynamic market notice when the market ceases to operate
Payments compliance notice	Above threshold contracts.	• Private utilities • Concessions contracts • Contracts awarded by a transferred NI authority (unless it is awarded as part of a procurement under a reserved procurement arrangement or devolved Welsh procurement arrangement) or under a NI procurement arrangement • Contracts awarded by a school

20. Transparency notices / publication: Flowchart

This flowchart demonstrates the notices and other information that you may publish throughout the end-to-end procurement lifecycle (depending on the procurement procedure followed, the nature of the contract and / or the contracting authority). Further details about each notice can be found in the notices fact sheet.

Appendix 1: publication triggers (publication when required)

The following table sets out the publication triggers that apply to notices and other information that should be ‘publish when required’ on the central digital platform. Exemptions to publication apply, see the notices fact sheet for more details.

Notice / information	Publication trigger
Pipeline notice	Where organisational procurement spend is £100m+, publish 18-month forward of procurements £2m+
Planned procurement notice	Publish a qualifying planned procurement notice to reduce tender timescales
Preliminary market engagement notice	Publish where pre-market engagement is planned or has taken place (or explain why not, in tender notice)
Procurement termination notice	Publish if, following a tender or transparency notice, the procurement ends without a contract award
Dynamic market notice	Publish to advertise, establish, change or terminate a dynamic market
Copy of awarded contract (and KPIs)	For contracts over £5m total value, KPIs must be set and the contract (redacted as required) published
Contract performance notice	Publish annual KPI data (contracts £5m+), and/or as required to report breach of contract / poor performance
Contract payments notice	Publish where one or more contract payment of £30k+ is made under a public contract (quarterly)
Contract change notice	Publish when making a contract modification (unless exemption applies)

21. Fact sheet record keeping

What are the requirements?

The Procurement Act requires you to keep certain information that you gather during the award of an above-threshold contract. The requirement is retain:

records that are sufficient to explain a “material decision” made during the award of that contract and
records of any communications with suppliers in relation to the award of the contract (prior to the award taking place)

Both sets of records must be kept for a period of three years following contract award.

Note

Section 98(6) - this section does not affect any other obligation under any enactment or rule of law by virtue of which a contracting authority must retain documents or keep records, including for a longer period.

What is a material decision?

A decision is deemed to be “material” if it’s made in relation to the award of a contract. This may include decisions relating to:

excluding one or more suppliers based on a mandatory or discretionary exclusion ground
excluding or reducing the number of suppliers based on conditions of participation
conducting an interim assessment to reduce the number of suppliers during a competitive flexible procedure (e.g. a presentation or negotiation)
the assessment of tenders against the award criteria
the decision to award the contract (or, if applicable, to terminate the procurement without awarding a contract)

What records should be kept?

Types of records	Examples
Records containing material decisions, including: • what the decision was and when it took place • how the decision was made, who it was made by, and why • how that decision impacted on the award of the contract	Examples of records that may be kept include, but are not limited to: • notices and other associated procurement documents • tender submissions and/or requests to participate from suppliers • the assessment summary • other documents produced internally e.g. evaluation panel notes • internal governance documents, gateway reviews, minutes from senior stakeholder briefings
Supplier correspondence	• Correspondence with suppliers e.g. requests to participate clarification questions, pre-market engagement information etc • Expressions of interest (e.g. following publication of a planned procurement notice or preliminary market engagement notice) • Any preliminary market engagement undertaken • Clarifications raised by a supplier during the procurement • Any formal or informal challenges raised by a supplier during the procurement. • Notifications to a supplier of their exclusion from a procurement

Where you use an eSender for your procurements, this may hold many of these records. In addition, the data published on the central platform should hold, as a minimum, the notices (and any associated information) you’ve published in relation to the procurement.

It may help you to keep a log of records that relate to material decisions made under the contract. If so, a template can be found in Appendix 1.

Keeping a record of material decisions may help you in completing internal governance processes, and/or managing queries or challenges from suppliers post-contract award.

What if a contract is not awarded?

Where the decision is made to terminate a procurement without awarding a contract, you are only required to keep records until the point at which the procurement termination notice is published.

Annex 1: Record Keeping Template

Procurement process stage	Material decision made	Document(s) retained	Location (e.g. eSender platform)

Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR 2015), Utilities Contracts Regulations 2016 (UCR 2016), Concessions Contracts Regulations 2016 (CCR 2016) and the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011 (DSPCR 2011). ↩

Question 3

3.1  Transparency Notices Summary

Accepted Answer

A summary of the notices publication requirements that apply under the Procurement Act 2023 are as follows. Requirements will apply to most contracting authorities and covered procurements establishing a public contract.

Ref.	Transparency Notices	Requirement
UK1	Pipeline notice	Mandatory (for organisations where spend is £100m+ PA). 18-month forward-look at planned procurements £2m+ value.
UK2	Preliminary market engagement notice	Mandatory where engagement is anticipated or has taken place (or, explain in tender notice why it hasn’t been published).
UK3	Planned procurement notice	Optional and Best Practice Advises the market of an upcoming procurement. A qualifying planned procurement notice can reduce tender timescales.
UK4	Tender notice Including to establish a framework and below-threshold notices	Mandatory (for a competitive procedure) Publish when undertaking an open or competitive flexible procedure (including to establish a framework contract and procuring using a dynamic market(1)) or procuring a regulated below-threshold contract.
UK5	Transparency notice	Mandatory (for a direct award) Publish prior to award when undertaking a direct award.
UK6	Contract award notice	Mandatory Publish to communicate the outcome of the procurement and to commence the standstill period prior to awarding a contract under the open or competitive flexible procedure (and voluntary standstill periods for direct awards).
UK7	Contract details notice	Mandatory Publish details of the awarded contract (including the contract, for public contracts £5m+), inc. regulated below-threshold contracts above a certain value and those procured by direct award.
UK8	Contract payment notice(1)	Mandatory Publish details of payments over £30,000 made under a public contract (quarterly).
UK9	Contract performance notice	Mandatory Publish KPI scores for public contracts £5m+ (at least annually). Publish within 30 days of supplier poor performance / breach of contract.
UK10	Contract change notice	Mandatory Publish prior to a qualifying modification taking place, inc., for contracts £5m+, publication of modification.
UK11	Contract termination notice	Mandatory Publish when a public contract is terminated / comes to an end
UK12	Procurement termination notice	Mandatory Publish where, after publishing a tender or transparency notice, the process is terminated without awarding a contract.
UK13-16	Dynamic market notices	Mandatory Publish and update when advertising, establishing, changing or terminating a dynamic market (inc. utilities dynamic markets and qualifying utilities dynamic markets).
UK17	Payments compliance notice	Mandatory Publish details of performance against 30-day payment terms (twice annually).

1) Exemptions apply
2) Not currently in legislation, will come into effect at a later date

Where requirements are marked as “mandatory” there are some exemptions that will apply to certain organisations and categories of procurement: these are summarised in the Fact Sheets.

Some notices are listed in the legislation as covering multiple different procurement procedures. For example, an open, competitive, flexible and below-threshold “version” of the tender notice (amongst others) are detailed separately. However, these are not different notices; they are the same tender notice as outlined in the Procurement Act 2023. In practice, what this means for contracting authorities is that they complete different fields in the tender notice, and / or submit different information alongside it, depending on the nature of the procurement.

Works Contracts and the £5m Threshold

There are various additional publication requirements that apply to contracts above the £5m threshold, throughout the procurement lifecycle.

The threshold above which a contract for works becomes a public contract – subject to the full Procurement Act 2023 – is £5,372,609 , as set out in Summary document 1

Where a works contract is below threshold and not classified as a public contract (or covered procurement), the £5m publication requirements do not apply. For example, a works contract that is £5.2m in value would not require the publication of redacted contract documents or KPIs.

The definition of a “works” contract can be found in Summary Document 1

All thresholds relating to the publication of notices and other information are correct at the time of publishing, but may be subject to change under future legislation. These thresholds include VAT and are revised at least every two years. See Summary document 1 for more details.

Question 4

Framework Contracts

Accepted Answer

Frameworks contracts (that are public contracts) will be established using the above notices, however reporting on KPIs using the contract performance notice, contract payment and payments compliance notices are not required. When awarding a contract using a framework, the above notices should be followed with the exception of a tender notice, which is not required.

Question 5

Dynamic Markets

Accepted Answer

A different set of publication requirements apply for the establishment and operation of a dynamic market, which take the form of dynamic market notices that are published when a new dynamic market is first advertised, established, modified and terminated. When awarding a contract using a dynamic market, the standard noticing regime should be followed, including publication of a tender notice. A separate procedure applies when establishing a utilities or qualifying utilities dynamic market, which is established using a different version of the dynamic market notice. When awarding a contract under a qualifying utilities dynamic market, a different version of the tender notice is used, and does not need to be published.

For more information on publication requirements relating to frameworks and dynamic markets, see Summary Document 5 – Frameworks and Dynamic Markets. For more information on utilities dynamic markets and qualifying utilities dynamic markets, see Summary Document – Utilities.

Question 6

Regulated Below-Threshold Procurements

Accepted Answer

A reduced set of publication requirements apply for regulated below-threshold procurements (contracts procured under Part 6 of the Procurement Act 2023 (Sections 84 to 88)) which are notifiable due to their value. When a below-threshold contract is advertised, a tender notice must be published to the central digital platform before being published locally (e.g. on a local website or eSender portal homepage). A contract details notice must be published once a notifiable contract has been entered into. No other noticing is required during the procurement lifecycle, however contracting authorities are able to publish other notices for their below-threshold contracts.

Question 7

3.2  Key Changes and Benefits

Accepted Answer

While comparisons may be made between some of the notices required under PCR 2015 and the other existing regimes and those required under the Procurement Act 2023 (as identified in the table above) there are key differences to highlight, including:

A planned procurement notice may not be used as a call for competition in the way that was permitted for sub-central authorities using a prior information notice.
Unlike VEAT notices, a transparency notice must be published (in almost all cases) before awarding a contract using the direct award procedure.
A new procurement termination notice must be published whenever a contracting authority decides not to proceed with a procurement at any stage prior to contract award, having previously published a tender or transparency notice.
The content and purpose of a contract award notice has changed. It is now published before contract award, to notify the market of the intention to award a contract, and (following the issue of assessment summaries) is used to start the 8 working days standstill period (where applicable).
A new contract details notice must now be published after any applicable standstill period has concluded and the contract has been awarded. Where the total value of the contract is over £5m, contracting authorities must also publish the contract documents, with redactions where appropriate. (see Summary Document 7: Assessment and Award).
A contract change notice must be published prior to making a contract modification. Where a contract over £5m is modified, then copies of the contract or the modification must be published (see Summary Document 9: Contract Governance for more information).
There are three new notices that will be required for publication during the contract management phase of the procurement lifecycle.

Contract performance notice: used to report supplier performance against KPIs (where the total value of the contract is over £5m) and to report poor supplier performance and breach of contract (applicable to most contracts).

Contract payment notice: used by most contracting authorities to report details of individual payments exceeding £30,000 under a public contract.

Payments compliance notice: setting out the contracting authority’s performance against 30-day invoice payment terms.

Some key benefits of the new notices include:

Pipeline notice	Improves forward planning, for contracting authorities and suppliers.
Preliminary market engagement notice	Encourages contracting authorities to undertake pre-market engagement, and ensures the process is transparent.
Transparency Notice	Enhances visibility of contracts to be awarded using the direct award procedure.
Procurement termination notice	Provides clarity to suppliers when a procurement is terminated prior to award.
Contract change notice	Increases openness about the modifications made to a contract throughout its lifetime.
Contract termination notice	Enables contracting authorities, suppliers and the public to see when a contract has ended.
Contract performance notice	Records contract and supplier performance data, and makes it visible to all interested parties.

Question 8

3.3  Notice Development and Phases

Accepted Answer

Requirements to publish contract performance, contract payments and payments compliance notices will not come into effect when the new regime commences. These requirements will be introduced in separate, later phases. The pipeline notice will also be introduced at a later phase.

4. Central Digital Platform and Notice Publication

4.1 What is the Central Digital Platform?

The Procurement Act 2023 sets out that an “online system” will be established and operated for the publication of notices, documents and other information (95_(4)). This is the Central Digital Platform.

The objectives of the Central Digital Platform include:

Publishing information about new procurement opportunities in one place, improving access for suppliers.
Simplifying a fragmented landscape of commercial data available through multiple (sometimes closed-access) systems and in different formats.
Providing a registration service for all UK buyers and suppliers who participate in public procurement.
Enabling suppliers to submit their basic business information in one place, reducing duplication and making it easier to participate in procurements.

The central digital platform consists of an enhanced version of Find a Tender (FTS) (the site currently used to publish notices for all public contracts) with a new Supplier Information System.

Contracting authorities will use FTS to publish all notices, documents and other information required during a procurement process and throughout the lifetime of a contract (to note, FTS will continue to be a noticing system only: procurements will continue to take place using a contracting authority’s eSender, or other electronic means. Suppliers will be required to register on the central Digital Platform and use the Supplier Information System to submit their basic business information. When they identify an opportunity on FTS, they then share this information when they participate in a procurement.

For more information on the Supplier Information System see Summary Document 6. Suppliers and contracting authorities are not required to use this functionality for below-threshold procurements, however the system will not prevent them from using it for these purposes.

4.2 Central Digital Platform Development

The developments to FTS functionality will be delivered in phases.

Essential notices that contracting authorities need to be able to run a procurement will be available when the new regime commences.
Pipeline notices, Contract performance and payments compliance notices will follow soon afterwards.
Contract payment notices, data analysis tools and other functionalities will follow at a later date.

The Cabinet Office will provide more information and guidance on these notices and requirements prior to their commencement.

The Act allows for various changes, over time, to what information may be required for publication or disclosure by contracting authorities (section 95). This may mean changes to:

The form and content of notices, documents or other information.
The information contracting authorities are required to include in or with a notice.
The provision of information in different formats (for example, notice field requirements).

4.3 Notice Publication

Contracting authorities remain responsible for publishing the correct notices within the required timescales, and containing all required information, for all procurements and contracts (as detailed within the Procurement Act 2023, the Regulations and guidance).

Notice Fields

The Regulations set out the information (“notice fields”) that must be completed before a notice is published. Some fields will be mandatory, others discretionary. Where a notice may be used for more than one type of procurement (e.g. the tender notice), contracting authorities may need to complete different notice fields and provide different or additional information.

Contracts Finder

FTS replaces Contracts Finder as the place of publication for below-threshold procurements.

Contracts Finder is no longer used for the publication of any notices under the new regime, but will remain available during the transition period for procurements commenced under the previous regimes.

Using an eSender

Under the previous regimes, approximately 90% of notices were submitted by contracting authorities using an eSender, whilst the rest were created directly on FTS. Where a contracting authority uses an eSender, they can continue to do so without any change. However, they should check with their eSender that the system is fully compliant with the new regime as early as possible before commencing a new procurement. Where contracting authorities currently publish notices directly to FTS, this may also continue without change.

Process for Publication

To be compliant with the Procurement Act 2023 and Regulations, contracting authorities must publish notices to the central digital platform before publishing them elsewhere. The obligation to publish on FTS is considered to be satisfied when a contracting authority:

Receives confirmation from the platform (e.g. via email), or
Has checked that the notice has appeared and can be viewed publicly on FTS.

Once published on FTS, contracting authorities can publish the notice elsewhere as required, e.g. on their organisation’s website or an “alternative system” (an online system for publishing and providing information, e.g. their eSender’s procurement portal). When using an eSender to manage publication to FTS, it is important to remember that the notice must first be publicly visible on FTS prior to being publicly visible on an eSender’s system.

Publication to an Alternative System

In the unlikely event that it is not possible to publish a notice and / or associated information on FTS (e.g. due to unplanned maintenance or unexpected breaks in service), and contracting authorities are unable to pause publication until the platform is restored (e.g. due to the requirement being urgent), then they can publish to an alternative system, as described above, without first publishing on FTS.

This is providing that:

At least 48 hours have passed since the notice or information was submitted to FTS
At least 4 hours has passed in the case of direct awards under Section 42 direct award to protect life, etc, and Schedule 5 paragraphs 13 and 14 Urgency.
The contracting authority has not received notification from FTS or the Cabinet Office that their submission has successfully been published and it is not accessible via FTS.
The contracting authority cooperates with the Cabinet Office to ensure that the notice and / or documents in question are retrospectively published to the public on FTS at the earliest opportunity.
The alternative system used for publication is free of charge, readily accessible to suppliers and accessible to people with disabilities.

Notices published to alternative systems must contain all of the required information as set out in the Procurement Act 2023 and Regulations.

As with the previous regulations, failure to publish a notice when it is required – including compliance with required timescales and providing correct and complete information – could leave contracting authorities at risk of a legal challenge. See Summary Document 8 for details.

4.4 Electronic Communications

As far as is reasonably practicable, contracting authorities carrying out covered procurements must communicate – and ensure that participating suppliers communicate – using electronic means, as part of a procurement.

To carry out a covered procurement, contracting authorities may only use an electronic communications system that is:

free of charge and readily accessible to suppliers
generally available, or interoperable with other generally available systems, and
accessible to people with disabilities.

4.5 Exemptions and Confidentiality

Section 94 of the Procurement Act 2023 outlines certain circumstances where contracting authorities may be permitted to redact information or withhold it from publication entirely.

These are:

National Security: Withholding information is necessary to safeguard national security. This may be the case where information prejudices the defence, security or armed forces operations.
Commercial Sensitivity: The information is sensitive commercial information (information that constitutes a trade secret or that would be likely to prejudice commercial interests) and there is overriding public interest in it being withheld.

These exemptions are modelled on the equivalent exemptions outlined in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and are designed to be interpreted in the same way. They needed to be detailed separately in the Procurement Act 2023 because the former relates to responding to requests for information, whereas the latter is about proactive publication.

Guidance on redaction and how to redact a contract for publication can be found in Summary Document 7 – Assessment and Award.

Where contracting authorities rely on either of the above grounds to withhold information from being published, they must (unless it would be contrary to the interests of national security) notify anyone who the information would have been provided to that this is the case, and why. This would typically be done when publishing a notice.

Other specific exemptions from publishing notices and associated information apply to certain contracts and contracting authorities: these are detailed in Modules 1-9.

Any data shared must not contravene data protection legislation, and contracting authorities should be mindful of the Data Protection Act whenever information is published or otherwise shared.

4.6 Unique Identifiers

To allow the central digital platform to meet its objectives, a unique identifier will be assigned, on FTS, to distinguish each individual contracting authority, supplier, procurement process and contract.

A summary of the identifiers that will be used on the central digital platform are as follows:

Buyer identifiers: assigned to each individual contracting authority (including agents or organisations conducting a procurement on their behalf).
Supplier identifiers: assigned to each individual supplier.
Contracting process identifiers: the same identifier is assigned to each notice published across the full lifecycle of a discrete procurement, known as an Open Contracting Identifier (OCID).
Contract identifiers: designed to identify the contract(s) awarded under a procurement process (as above); particularly useful where a procurement is split into lots.
Dynamic market notice identifiers: an OCID is assigned to each dynamic market when the first notice relating to that dynamic market is published on FTS, tracking the dynamic market through to establishment, any modification(s) and up to termination. It is also used when a contract is awarded using a dynamic market, so that the contract data may be linked back to the original dynamic market.
Framework identifiers: A framework has the same identifier as the contracting process OCID that was assigned to award the framework. This identifier will be the same in each notice published about the establishment of the framework. When establishing a framework under a scheme of open frameworks, each individual framework within the scheme will have its own identifier that relates to the contracting process used to award that framework.
Awards in accordance with frameworks: Awards made in accordance with the framework (call-offs) are considered separate contracting processes from the frameworks themselves, so each has its own identifier. Since there is no tender notice published, this would usually start with a contract award notice or contract details notice, depending on the value of the contract.

Benefits

Identifiers will link together all records related to an organisation and/or contract:

Procurement records: Identifiers will enable the creation of a structured record for every covered procurement, so that data can be viewed from publication of the first notice, up to procurement termination or contract award.
Public contracts: The awarded contract will be assigned its own identifier, linking it back to the original procurement, and to any modifications, performance, payment or other notices published about it, through to termination. This will enable better visibility of data
Contracting authorities: The use of an organisational identifier will enable better visibility of a contracting authorities’ activities across multiple procurements and contracts.
Suppliers: Any notice pertaining to a particular supplier will include their identifier. This will help contracting authorities to better identify data relating to a particular supplier, and facilitate a picture of a supplier’s procurement activities, contract awards and contract performance.

Overall, the use of identifiers will increase transparency for contracting authorities, suppliers and the general public, facilitating the collection and analysis of better quality commercial data.

Another key benefit, if eSenders can provide the associated workflow, is reduced duplication and administration: because the notices published are linked together by identifiers, this means that, during a procurement, the data that is input into each notice can subsequently be pulled through to automatically populate the following notice(s).

Buyer and Supplier Identifiers

Where a contracting authority or supplier is already assigned a unique identifier from an official register, such as Companies House, Charity Commission for England and Wales etc, this identifier should be used – and will be authenticated – when they first register on the central digital platform. Where a contracting authority or supplier is not part of an official register, the central digital platform will use their name and address (and other core business information) to generate a unique number.

The supplier’s unique identifier will be provided to the contracting authority whenever they participate in a procurement process. Contracting authorities must use a supplier’s unique identifier when publishing notices or information in relation to it during the course of a procurement or contract.

The Supplier Information System will allow suppliers to bid as a consortium, joint venture, or similar arrangement. Contracting authorities will need to consider what information they obtain from each member of the consortium, and how to best identify their members in any subsequent notices:

Where there is a lead contractor, they must be registered and have an identifier. This would then be used in any subsequent notices.
Where suppliers tender as a consortium or joint venture that is yet to be legally formalised (e.g. where it exists only for the purpose of the procurement in question), they must be registered as separate entities. The contracting authority must be able to access the basic business information for each supplier as required. Following contract award, the consortia / joint venture will need to register as such using the Platform and will be allocated a new identifier that comprises information from all suppliers involved. They should then complete the required information for the newly formed organisation on the Supplier Information System, and will be allocated a new identifier that comprises information from all suppliers involved. The new identifier and updated core information will be used in subsequent notices.
Suppliers may register as a consortium or joint venture prior to a procurement, but this legal relationship must be formalised. They may then use this information and identifier to submit a tender.

The central digital platform will allow for changes to the structure of consortia and joint ventures, and individual suppliers within them.

Contracting Process Identifiers

A unique identifier will be generated by FTS when the contracting authority submits its first notice for publication under a new procurement (e.g. a pipeline notice, preliminary market engagement notice, notice of planned procurement, tender or transparency notice or contract award notice in the case of a framework call-off or procurement from a qualifying utilities dynamic market). This identifier will then be used in subsequent notices to link them together into one procurement process.

5. Record Keeping

The publication of information on the central digital platform provides a permanent record of that procurement. Under section 98 of the Procurement Act 2023, contracting authorities are required to keep records that are sufficient to explain a “material decision” made during the award of or entry into a public contract, for a period of 3 years following contract award. Contracting authorities must also keep records of any communications with suppliers in relation to the award of a contract (prior to the contract being entered into) for the same period.

This provision replaces regulation 84 of the PCRs, which required contract authorities to provide a written report relating to the award of a public contract.

A decision is deemed to be “material” if it’s required by the Procurement Act 2023 (for example, the decision to award the contract to a particular supplier or as to the procedure to be followed) or where a contracting authority is required to publish a notice or other information as a result of the decision.

A material decision may include:

Excluding one or more suppliers subject to a mandatory or discretionary exclusion ground.
Down selecting one or more suppliers based on the conditions of participation, or at an interim stage of a competitive flexible procedure.
The assessment of tenders against the award criteria.
The decision to award the contract.

Records may therefore include (but are not limited to):

Notices and associated documents.
Tender submissions and/or requests to participate.
Assessment summaries.
Correspondence with suppliers, e.g. expressions of interest, clarifications, etc.
Internal governance documents

Where the decision is made to terminate a procurement without awarding a contract, records are only required to be kept until the day that a procurement termination notice is published.

It is worth noting that this section does not affect any other obligation under any enactment or rule of law by virtue of which a contracting authority must retain documents, or keep records, for a longer period.

6. Commercial Tools and Registers

What are Commercial Tools and Registers?

Public procurement data is often incomplete, recorded in inconsistent formats, or held on separate systems. This can make it difficult to share commercial information between organisations, restrict opportunities for collaboration, and lead to resource-intensive duplication for both contracting authorities and suppliers. Improved access to good-quality commercial data is also essential for achieving accountability in public spending.

One of the long-term goals of procurement reform is for the central digital platform to be a place where contracting authorities, suppliers and the general public can access different types of data that will provide a clearer picture on public sector contract and procurement activities. As previously mentioned, the intention is to deliver these within Phase 3 of the central digital platform development.

The ambition is that the central digital platform will host a number of commercial tools and registers that aggregate transparency information that is published to the platform, including:

Register of commercial tools: containing details of the different frameworks and dynamic markets that are available to access across the public sector. See Summary Document 5 – Frameworks and Dynamic Markets for more information.
Contract performance register: containing information about supplier performance against KPIs for in-scope public contracts, as published instances of reportable poor performance, as detailed in section 71. See Summary Document 9 – Contract Governance for more information.
Additional Information including how much is being spent under public contracts (payments over £30,000) and about prompt payment (how quickly contracting authorities pay invoices to their suppliers). See Summary Document 9 – Contract Governance for more information.
Debarment list: A list of suppliers who, following investigation, have been debarred from taking part in public procurements (due to the application of an exclusion ground). This may initially be published as a PDF file on gov.uk, rather than the central digital platform. See Summary Document 8 – Remedies, Procurement oversight and the Debarment List for more information).

The public will be able to access data (excluding any sensitive data) free of charge and without the need to register.

How will the Data be Populated?

The intention is for many tools and registers to be populated using data that contracting authorities provide as part of the notices that will be published throughout the procurement lifecycle, from pipeline to termination. Some registers may be populated and managed centrally, such as the debarment list (by the Procurement Review Unit).

If used correctly, it is envisioned that these tools and registers will help to drive efficiency, capability and best practice throughout the public sector. It is therefore important to ensure that the data and information submitted for publication is timely, accurate and fit for purpose.

What are the Benefits?

There are multiple long term benefits expected as data accumulates and new functionalities become available via the central digital platform. These include:

Providing a valuable source of meaningful, standardised data to inform commercial strategies.
Improving visibility and sharing of information between public sector organisations.
Facilitating opportunities for collaboration and a more joined-up approach to common procurement issues.
Enabling benchmarking activities to improve pricing and performance.
Driving better standards in contract delivery through enhanced accountability.
Reducing the potential for fraud and corruption.
Increased potential for aggregated procurement data, providing enhanced understanding of public procurement activities.

18. Table of transparency notices: Fact sheet

Please note the following regarding the ‘purpose / variation’ and ‘exemptions’ columns in the table.

Purpose / variation

In the regulations, some notices are listed as having separate versions, depending on the procedure you follow. For example, there is an open, competitive flexible and below-threshold “version” of the tender notice (amongst others). However, these are not different notices; in practice, what this means for you is that you must complete different fields in the tender notice, and / or submit different information alongside it, depending on the nature of your procurement.

Exemptions

Organisations and / or contracts that are exempt from publishing a particular notice and / or associated documents.

Table

Procurement lifecycle	Reference	Notice name	Requirement	Purpose / variations	Exemptions
Plan	UK1	Pipeline notice	Mandatory (for organisations where spend is £100m+ PA) 18-month forward-look at planned procurements £2m+ value	N/A	• Private utilities • Contracts awarded by transferred Northern Ireland (NI) authorities
Define	UK2	Preliminary market engagement notice	Mandatory where pre-market engagement is anticipated or has taken place (or, explain in the tender notice reason for not publishing)	N/A	Private utilities
Procure	UK3	Planned procurement notice	Optional and best practice advises the market of an upcoming procurement. A qualifying planned procurement notice can reduce tender timescales to 10 days	N/A	N/A
Procure	UK4	Tender notice	Mandatory when undertaking an open or competitive flexible procedure (including to establish a framework and award a contract under an existing dynamic market) or a regulated below-threshold procedure	• Below-threshold tender notice • Tender notice: open procedure • Tender notice: competitive flexible • Tender notice: frameworks • Tender notice: dynamic markets (for procurements awarding a contracting using an existing dynamic market or utilities dynamic market - not to establish a new dynamic market) • Tender notice: utilities dynamic markets	Qualifying utilities dynamic markets (existing members of the market may be invited directly)
Procure	UK5	Transparency notice	Mandatory when undertaking a direct award (publish prior to award)	N/A	Direct award: user choice contracts
Procure	UK6	Contract award notice	Mandatory communicates the outcome of the procurement and (commences standstill prior to awarding a contract open or competitive flexible procedure)	• Contract award notices except those published by private utilities • Contract award notices published by private utilities • Contract award notices published by private utilities: direct awards • Contract award notices published by private utilities: frameworks	• Direct award: user choice contracts • Defence and security contracts awarded under a defence and security framework
Procure	UK7	Contract details notice	Mandatory details of the awarded contract (including the redacted contract, for public contracts £5m+ and KPI information)	• Contract details notice: open or competitive flexible procedure • Contract details notice: frameworks • Contract details notice: public contracts awarded in accordance with frameworks • Contract details notice: direct award • Contract details notice: below-threshold contracts	• Private utilities • Direct award: user choice contracts • Contracts awarded by a devolved Welsh authority or transferred NI authority (unless awarded under a reserved procurement arrangement) - exempt from publishing contract documents only • Contracts awarded under a devolved Welsh or transferred NI procurement arrangement - exempt from publishing contract documents only • Framework contract - exempt from KPIs • Light touch - exempt from KPIs • Concession contracts - exempt from KPIs
Manage	UK8	Contract payment notice	Mandatory details of payments over £30,000 made under a public contract (quarterly)	N/A	• Utilities contracts awarded by a private utility • Concessions contracts • Contracts awarded by a school • Contracts awarded by a transferred NI authority / under a transferred NI procurement arrangement (unless awarded under a reserved procurement arrangement or devolved Welsh procurement arrangement)
Manage	UK9	Contract performance notice	Mandatory to report: a. annual KPI scores for public contracts valued £5m+ b. poor supplier performance / breach of contract (within 30 days of event)	• Performance against • KPIs Notification of supplier poor performance / breach of contract	• Private utilities - exempt from both • Light touch - exempt from both • Concession contracts - exempt from publishing KPIs only
Manage	UK10	Contract change notice	Mandatory prior to a qualifying modification taking place (copy of modified contract for public contracts over £5m)	Convertible contracts: contract change notice	• Defence and security contracts • Private utilities • Light touch contracts • Contracts awarded by a transferred NI authority / under a transferred NI procurement arrangement (unless awarded as part of a procurement under a reserved procurement arrangement or devolved Welsh procurement arrangement) • Contracts awarded by a devolved Welsh authority or under a devolved Welsh procurement arrangement (unless awarded as part of a procurement under a reserved procurement arrangement) - exempt from publishing modified contract only
Manage	UK11	Contract termination notice	Mandatory when a public contract ends	N/A	• Private utilities • Direct award: user choice contracts
Procure	UK12	Procurement termination notice	Mandatory where, after publishing a tender or transparency notice, the process is terminated without awarding a contract	N/A	Private utilities
Procure	UK13 to 16	Dynamic market notice	Mandatory when advertising, establishing, changing or terminating a dynamic market	• Utilities dynamic market notice • Qualifying utilities dynamic market notice	• Private utilities are not required to update the dynamic market notice when the market ceases to operate • A qualifying utilities dynamic notice must be provided to members of the market and is not required to be published
Manage	UK17	Payments compliance notice	Mandatory details of contracting authority performance against 30-day payment terms (twice annually)	N/A	• Private utilities • Concessions contracts • Contracts awarded by a transferred NI Authority • Contracts awarded by a school

19. Transparency: Thresholds and exemptions for publishing notices

Notice name	Threshold for publication	Exemptions
Preliminary market engagement notice	When intending to carry out or have already undertaken pre-market engagement for above threshold contracts (can be used voluntary for below-threshold contract).	Private utilities
Planned procurement notice	When notifying the market in advance. A qualifying planned procurement notice can be used to reduce tender timescales for above threshold contracts.	N/A
Pipeline notice	Within the first 56 days of the financial year where the total procurement spend is above £100m p/a (including below-threshold spend). Include details of contracts over £2m.	• Private utilities • Contracts awarded by transferred Northern Ireland (NI) authorities
Tender notice	When inviting a request to participate or tender. Tender notice: above threshold contracts. Below-threshold tender notice: contract above regulated below-threshold tender threshold.	Qualifying utilities dynamic markets (no requirement to publish the tender notice, just provided directly to existing members of the market)
Transparency notice	Before awarding an above threshold contract via direct award.	Direct award: user choice contracts
Contract award notice	Before awarding an above threshold contracts (can be used voluntary for below-threshold contract).	• Direct award: user choice contracts • Defence and security contracts awarded under a defence and security framework
Contract details notice	Within the 30 days following when a contract is entered into for above threshold and regulated below threshold contracts (120 days for light touch contracts). Where total value of the contract is over £5m, publish the contract documents and details of KPIs (unless exemption applies).	• Private utilities • Direct award: user choice contracts • Contracts awarded by a devolved Welsh authority or transferred NI authority (unless it is awarded as part of a procurement under a reserved procurement arrangement) • Contracts awarded under a devolved Welsh or transferred NI procurement arrangement - exempt from publishing contract documents only
Contract payment notice	Payment(s) of £30,000 or more, under an above threshold contract. Publish quarterly.	• Contracts awarded by a private utility • Concessions contracts • Contracts awarded by a school • Contracts awarded by a transferred NI authority or or under a NI procurement arrangement (unless it is awarded as part of a procurement under a reserved procurement arrangement or devolved Welsh procurement arrangement)
Contract performance notice	Contracts over £5m with KPIs set: publish KPI scores at least annually. All public contracts: in the event of poor performance/breach of contract: publish within 30 days of the event.	• Private utilities - exempt from both • Light touch - exempt from both • Concession contracts - exempt from publishing KPIs only • Framework contracts - exempt from publishing KPIs only
Contract change notice	Above threshold contracts before a qualifying modification takes place. Convertible contracts before a qualifying modification takes place. Contracts over £5m: publish copy of modified contract or contract modification.	• Defence and security contracts • Private utilities • Light touch contracts • Contracts awarded by a transferred NI authority (unless it is awarded as part of a procurement under a reserved procurement arrangement or devolved Welsh procurement arrangement) or under a transferred NI procurement arrangement • Contracts awarded by a devolved Welsh authority or a devolved Welsh procurement arrangement (unless it is awarded as part of a procurement under a reserved procurement arrangement)exempt from publishing the modified contract only
Contract termination notice	Above threshold contracts (can be used voluntary for below-threshold contract) when the contract terminates/ends.	• Private utilities • Direct award: user choice contracts
Procurement termination notice	Above threshold contracts (can be used voluntary for below-threshold contract) when required.	Private utilities
Dynamic market notice	When advertising, establishing, changing or terminating a dynamic market.	Private utilities are not required to update the dynamic market notice when the market ceases to operate
Payments compliance notice	Above threshold contracts.	• Private utilities • Concessions contracts • Contracts awarded by a transferred NI authority (unless it is awarded as part of a procurement under a reserved procurement arrangement or devolved Welsh procurement arrangement) or under a NI procurement arrangement • Contracts awarded by a school

20. Transparency notices / publication: Flowchart

This flowchart demonstrates the notices and other information that you may publish throughout the end-to-end procurement lifecycle (depending on the procurement procedure followed, the nature of the contract and / or the contracting authority). Further details about each notice can be found in the notices fact sheet.

Appendix 1: publication triggers (publication when required)

The following table sets out the publication triggers that apply to notices and other information that should be ‘publish when required’ on the central digital platform. Exemptions to publication apply, see the notices fact sheet for more details.

Notice / information	Publication trigger
Pipeline notice	Where organisational procurement spend is £100m+, publish 18-month forward of procurements £2m+
Planned procurement notice	Publish a qualifying planned procurement notice to reduce tender timescales
Preliminary market engagement notice	Publish where pre-market engagement is planned or has taken place (or explain why not, in tender notice)
Procurement termination notice	Publish if, following a tender or transparency notice, the procurement ends without a contract award
Dynamic market notice	Publish to advertise, establish, change or terminate a dynamic market
Copy of awarded contract (and KPIs)	For contracts over £5m total value, KPIs must be set and the contract (redacted as required) published
Contract performance notice	Publish annual KPI data (contracts £5m+), and/or as required to report breach of contract / poor performance
Contract payments notice	Publish where one or more contract payment of £30k+ is made under a public contract (quarterly)
Contract change notice	Publish when making a contract modification (unless exemption applies)

21. Fact sheet record keeping

What are the requirements?

The Procurement Act requires you to keep certain information that you gather during the award of an above-threshold contract. The requirement is retain:

records that are sufficient to explain a “material decision” made during the award of that contract and
records of any communications with suppliers in relation to the award of the contract (prior to the award taking place)

Both sets of records must be kept for a period of three years following contract award.

Note

Section 98(6) - this section does not affect any other obligation under any enactment or rule of law by virtue of which a contracting authority must retain documents or keep records, including for a longer period.

What is a material decision?

A decision is deemed to be “material” if it’s made in relation to the award of a contract. This may include decisions relating to:

excluding one or more suppliers based on a mandatory or discretionary exclusion ground
excluding or reducing the number of suppliers based on conditions of participation
conducting an interim assessment to reduce the number of suppliers during a competitive flexible procedure (e.g. a presentation or negotiation)
the assessment of tenders against the award criteria
the decision to award the contract (or, if applicable, to terminate the procurement without awarding a contract)

What records should be kept?

Types of records	Examples
Records containing material decisions, including: • what the decision was and when it took place • how the decision was made, who it was made by, and why • how that decision impacted on the award of the contract	Examples of records that may be kept include, but are not limited to: • notices and other associated procurement documents • tender submissions and/or requests to participate from suppliers • the assessment summary • other documents produced internally e.g. evaluation panel notes • internal governance documents, gateway reviews, minutes from senior stakeholder briefings
Supplier correspondence	• Correspondence with suppliers e.g. requests to participate clarification questions, pre-market engagement information etc • Expressions of interest (e.g. following publication of a planned procurement notice or preliminary market engagement notice) • Any preliminary market engagement undertaken • Clarifications raised by a supplier during the procurement • Any formal or informal challenges raised by a supplier during the procurement. • Notifications to a supplier of their exclusion from a procurement

Where you use an eSender for your procurements, this may hold many of these records. In addition, the data published on the central platform should hold, as a minimum, the notices (and any associated information) you’ve published in relation to the procurement.

It may help you to keep a log of records that relate to material decisions made under the contract. If so, a template can be found in Appendix 1.

Keeping a record of material decisions may help you in completing internal governance processes, and/or managing queries or challenges from suppliers post-contract award.

What if a contract is not awarded?

Where the decision is made to terminate a procurement without awarding a contract, you are only required to keep records until the point at which the procurement termination notice is published.

Annex 1: Record Keeping Template

Procurement process stage	Material decision made	Document(s) retained	Location (e.g. eSender platform)

Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR 2015), Utilities Contracts Regulations 2016 (UCR 2016), Concessions Contracts Regulations 2016 (CCR 2016) and the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011 (DSPCR 2011). ↩

Question 9

4.1  What is the Central Digital Platform?

Accepted Answer

The Procurement Act 2023 sets out that an “online system” will be established and operated for the publication of notices, documents and other information (95_(4)). This is the Central Digital Platform.

The objectives of the Central Digital Platform include:

Publishing information about new procurement opportunities in one place, improving access for suppliers.
Simplifying a fragmented landscape of commercial data available through multiple (sometimes closed-access) systems and in different formats.
Providing a registration service for all UK buyers and suppliers who participate in public procurement.
Enabling suppliers to submit their basic business information in one place, reducing duplication and making it easier to participate in procurements.

The central digital platform consists of an enhanced version of Find a Tender (FTS) (the site currently used to publish notices for all public contracts) with a new Supplier Information System.

Contracting authorities will use FTS to publish all notices, documents and other information required during a procurement process and throughout the lifetime of a contract (to note, FTS will continue to be a noticing system only: procurements will continue to take place using a contracting authority’s eSender, or other electronic means. Suppliers will be required to register on the central Digital Platform and use the Supplier Information System to submit their basic business information. When they identify an opportunity on FTS, they then share this information when they participate in a procurement.

For more information on the Supplier Information System see Summary Document 6. Suppliers and contracting authorities are not required to use this functionality for below-threshold procurements, however the system will not prevent them from using it for these purposes.

Question 10

4.2  Central Digital Platform Development

Accepted Answer

The developments to FTS functionality will be delivered in phases.

Essential notices that contracting authorities need to be able to run a procurement will be available when the new regime commences.
Pipeline notices, Contract performance and payments compliance notices will follow soon afterwards.
Contract payment notices, data analysis tools and other functionalities will follow at a later date.

The Cabinet Office will provide more information and guidance on these notices and requirements prior to their commencement.

The Act allows for various changes, over time, to what information may be required for publication or disclosure by contracting authorities (section 95). This may mean changes to:

The form and content of notices, documents or other information.
The information contracting authorities are required to include in or with a notice.
The provision of information in different formats (for example, notice field requirements).

Question 11

4.3  Notice Publication

Accepted Answer

Contracting authorities remain responsible for publishing the correct notices within the required timescales, and containing all required information, for all procurements and contracts (as detailed within the Procurement Act 2023, the Regulations and guidance).

Notice Fields

The Regulations set out the information (“notice fields”) that must be completed before a notice is published. Some fields will be mandatory, others discretionary. Where a notice may be used for more than one type of procurement (e.g. the tender notice), contracting authorities may need to complete different notice fields and provide different or additional information.

Contracts Finder

FTS replaces Contracts Finder as the place of publication for below-threshold procurements.

Contracts Finder is no longer used for the publication of any notices under the new regime, but will remain available during the transition period for procurements commenced under the previous regimes.

Using an eSender

Under the previous regimes, approximately 90% of notices were submitted by contracting authorities using an eSender, whilst the rest were created directly on FTS. Where a contracting authority uses an eSender, they can continue to do so without any change. However, they should check with their eSender that the system is fully compliant with the new regime as early as possible before commencing a new procurement. Where contracting authorities currently publish notices directly to FTS, this may also continue without change.

Process for Publication

To be compliant with the Procurement Act 2023 and Regulations, contracting authorities must publish notices to the central digital platform before publishing them elsewhere. The obligation to publish on FTS is considered to be satisfied when a contracting authority:

Receives confirmation from the platform (e.g. via email), or
Has checked that the notice has appeared and can be viewed publicly on FTS.

Once published on FTS, contracting authorities can publish the notice elsewhere as required, e.g. on their organisation’s website or an “alternative system” (an online system for publishing and providing information, e.g. their eSender’s procurement portal). When using an eSender to manage publication to FTS, it is important to remember that the notice must first be publicly visible on FTS prior to being publicly visible on an eSender’s system.

Publication to an Alternative System

In the unlikely event that it is not possible to publish a notice and / or associated information on FTS (e.g. due to unplanned maintenance or unexpected breaks in service), and contracting authorities are unable to pause publication until the platform is restored (e.g. due to the requirement being urgent), then they can publish to an alternative system, as described above, without first publishing on FTS.

This is providing that:

At least 48 hours have passed since the notice or information was submitted to FTS
At least 4 hours has passed in the case of direct awards under Section 42 direct award to protect life, etc, and Schedule 5 paragraphs 13 and 14 Urgency.
The contracting authority has not received notification from FTS or the Cabinet Office that their submission has successfully been published and it is not accessible via FTS.
The contracting authority cooperates with the Cabinet Office to ensure that the notice and / or documents in question are retrospectively published to the public on FTS at the earliest opportunity.
The alternative system used for publication is free of charge, readily accessible to suppliers and accessible to people with disabilities.

Notices published to alternative systems must contain all of the required information as set out in the Procurement Act 2023 and Regulations.

As with the previous regulations, failure to publish a notice when it is required – including compliance with required timescales and providing correct and complete information – could leave contracting authorities at risk of a legal challenge. See Summary Document 8 for details.

Question 12

4.4  Electronic Communications

Accepted Answer

As far as is reasonably practicable, contracting authorities carrying out covered procurements must communicate – and ensure that participating suppliers communicate – using electronic means, as part of a procurement.

To carry out a covered procurement, contracting authorities may only use an electronic communications system that is:

free of charge and readily accessible to suppliers
generally available, or interoperable with other generally available systems, and
accessible to people with disabilities.

Question 13

4.5  Exemptions and Confidentiality

Accepted Answer

Section 94 of the Procurement Act 2023 outlines certain circumstances where contracting authorities may be permitted to redact information or withhold it from publication entirely.

These are:

National Security: Withholding information is necessary to safeguard national security. This may be the case where information prejudices the defence, security or armed forces operations.
Commercial Sensitivity: The information is sensitive commercial information (information that constitutes a trade secret or that would be likely to prejudice commercial interests) and there is overriding public interest in it being withheld.

These exemptions are modelled on the equivalent exemptions outlined in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and are designed to be interpreted in the same way. They needed to be detailed separately in the Procurement Act 2023 because the former relates to responding to requests for information, whereas the latter is about proactive publication.

Guidance on redaction and how to redact a contract for publication can be found in Summary Document 7 – Assessment and Award.

Where contracting authorities rely on either of the above grounds to withhold information from being published, they must (unless it would be contrary to the interests of national security) notify anyone who the information would have been provided to that this is the case, and why. This would typically be done when publishing a notice.

Other specific exemptions from publishing notices and associated information apply to certain contracts and contracting authorities: these are detailed in Modules 1-9.

Any data shared must not contravene data protection legislation, and contracting authorities should be mindful of the Data Protection Act whenever information is published or otherwise shared.

Question 14

4.6  Unique Identifiers

Accepted Answer

To allow the central digital platform to meet its objectives, a unique identifier will be assigned, on FTS, to distinguish each individual contracting authority, supplier, procurement process and contract.

A summary of the identifiers that will be used on the central digital platform are as follows:

Buyer identifiers: assigned to each individual contracting authority (including agents or organisations conducting a procurement on their behalf).
Supplier identifiers: assigned to each individual supplier.
Contracting process identifiers: the same identifier is assigned to each notice published across the full lifecycle of a discrete procurement, known as an Open Contracting Identifier (OCID).
Contract identifiers: designed to identify the contract(s) awarded under a procurement process (as above); particularly useful where a procurement is split into lots.
Dynamic market notice identifiers: an OCID is assigned to each dynamic market when the first notice relating to that dynamic market is published on FTS, tracking the dynamic market through to establishment, any modification(s) and up to termination. It is also used when a contract is awarded using a dynamic market, so that the contract data may be linked back to the original dynamic market.
Framework identifiers: A framework has the same identifier as the contracting process OCID that was assigned to award the framework. This identifier will be the same in each notice published about the establishment of the framework. When establishing a framework under a scheme of open frameworks, each individual framework within the scheme will have its own identifier that relates to the contracting process used to award that framework.
Awards in accordance with frameworks: Awards made in accordance with the framework (call-offs) are considered separate contracting processes from the frameworks themselves, so each has its own identifier. Since there is no tender notice published, this would usually start with a contract award notice or contract details notice, depending on the value of the contract.

Question 15

Benefits

Accepted Answer

Identifiers will link together all records related to an organisation and/or contract:

Procurement records: Identifiers will enable the creation of a structured record for every covered procurement, so that data can be viewed from publication of the first notice, up to procurement termination or contract award.
Public contracts: The awarded contract will be assigned its own identifier, linking it back to the original procurement, and to any modifications, performance, payment or other notices published about it, through to termination. This will enable better visibility of data
Contracting authorities: The use of an organisational identifier will enable better visibility of a contracting authorities’ activities across multiple procurements and contracts.
Suppliers: Any notice pertaining to a particular supplier will include their identifier. This will help contracting authorities to better identify data relating to a particular supplier, and facilitate a picture of a supplier’s procurement activities, contract awards and contract performance.

Overall, the use of identifiers will increase transparency for contracting authorities, suppliers and the general public, facilitating the collection and analysis of better quality commercial data.

Another key benefit, if eSenders can provide the associated workflow, is reduced duplication and administration: because the notices published are linked together by identifiers, this means that, during a procurement, the data that is input into each notice can subsequently be pulled through to automatically populate the following notice(s).

Question 16

Buyer and Supplier Identifiers

Accepted Answer

Where a contracting authority or supplier is already assigned a unique identifier from an official register, such as Companies House, Charity Commission for England and Wales etc, this identifier should be used – and will be authenticated – when they first register on the central digital platform. Where a contracting authority or supplier is not part of an official register, the central digital platform will use their name and address (and other core business information) to generate a unique number.

The supplier’s unique identifier will be provided to the contracting authority whenever they participate in a procurement process. Contracting authorities must use a supplier’s unique identifier when publishing notices or information in relation to it during the course of a procurement or contract.

The Supplier Information System will allow suppliers to bid as a consortium, joint venture, or similar arrangement. Contracting authorities will need to consider what information they obtain from each member of the consortium, and how to best identify their members in any subsequent notices:

Where there is a lead contractor, they must be registered and have an identifier. This would then be used in any subsequent notices.
Where suppliers tender as a consortium or joint venture that is yet to be legally formalised (e.g. where it exists only for the purpose of the procurement in question), they must be registered as separate entities. The contracting authority must be able to access the basic business information for each supplier as required. Following contract award, the consortia / joint venture will need to register as such using the Platform and will be allocated a new identifier that comprises information from all suppliers involved. They should then complete the required information for the newly formed organisation on the Supplier Information System, and will be allocated a new identifier that comprises information from all suppliers involved. The new identifier and updated core information will be used in subsequent notices.
Suppliers may register as a consortium or joint venture prior to a procurement, but this legal relationship must be formalised. They may then use this information and identifier to submit a tender.

The central digital platform will allow for changes to the structure of consortia and joint ventures, and individual suppliers within them.

Question 17

Contracting Process Identifiers

Accepted Answer

A unique identifier will be generated by FTS when the contracting authority submits its first notice for publication under a new procurement (e.g. a pipeline notice, preliminary market engagement notice, notice of planned procurement, tender or transparency notice or contract award notice in the case of a framework call-off or procurement from a qualifying utilities dynamic market). This identifier will then be used in subsequent notices to link them together into one procurement process.

5. Record Keeping

The publication of information on the central digital platform provides a permanent record of that procurement. Under section 98 of the Procurement Act 2023, contracting authorities are required to keep records that are sufficient to explain a “material decision” made during the award of or entry into a public contract, for a period of 3 years following contract award. Contracting authorities must also keep records of any communications with suppliers in relation to the award of a contract (prior to the contract being entered into) for the same period.

This provision replaces regulation 84 of the PCRs, which required contract authorities to provide a written report relating to the award of a public contract.

A decision is deemed to be “material” if it’s required by the Procurement Act 2023 (for example, the decision to award the contract to a particular supplier or as to the procedure to be followed) or where a contracting authority is required to publish a notice or other information as a result of the decision.

A material decision may include:

Excluding one or more suppliers subject to a mandatory or discretionary exclusion ground.
Down selecting one or more suppliers based on the conditions of participation, or at an interim stage of a competitive flexible procedure.
The assessment of tenders against the award criteria.
The decision to award the contract.

Records may therefore include (but are not limited to):

Notices and associated documents.
Tender submissions and/or requests to participate.
Assessment summaries.
Correspondence with suppliers, e.g. expressions of interest, clarifications, etc.
Internal governance documents

Where the decision is made to terminate a procurement without awarding a contract, records are only required to be kept until the day that a procurement termination notice is published.

It is worth noting that this section does not affect any other obligation under any enactment or rule of law by virtue of which a contracting authority must retain documents, or keep records, for a longer period.

6. Commercial Tools and Registers

What are Commercial Tools and Registers?

Public procurement data is often incomplete, recorded in inconsistent formats, or held on separate systems. This can make it difficult to share commercial information between organisations, restrict opportunities for collaboration, and lead to resource-intensive duplication for both contracting authorities and suppliers. Improved access to good-quality commercial data is also essential for achieving accountability in public spending.

One of the long-term goals of procurement reform is for the central digital platform to be a place where contracting authorities, suppliers and the general public can access different types of data that will provide a clearer picture on public sector contract and procurement activities. As previously mentioned, the intention is to deliver these within Phase 3 of the central digital platform development.

The ambition is that the central digital platform will host a number of commercial tools and registers that aggregate transparency information that is published to the platform, including:

Register of commercial tools: containing details of the different frameworks and dynamic markets that are available to access across the public sector. See Summary Document 5 – Frameworks and Dynamic Markets for more information.
Contract performance register: containing information about supplier performance against KPIs for in-scope public contracts, as published instances of reportable poor performance, as detailed in section 71. See Summary Document 9 – Contract Governance for more information.
Additional Information including how much is being spent under public contracts (payments over £30,000) and about prompt payment (how quickly contracting authorities pay invoices to their suppliers). See Summary Document 9 – Contract Governance for more information.
Debarment list: A list of suppliers who, following investigation, have been debarred from taking part in public procurements (due to the application of an exclusion ground). This may initially be published as a PDF file on gov.uk, rather than the central digital platform. See Summary Document 8 – Remedies, Procurement oversight and the Debarment List for more information).

The public will be able to access data (excluding any sensitive data) free of charge and without the need to register.

How will the Data be Populated?

The intention is for many tools and registers to be populated using data that contracting authorities provide as part of the notices that will be published throughout the procurement lifecycle, from pipeline to termination. Some registers may be populated and managed centrally, such as the debarment list (by the Procurement Review Unit).

If used correctly, it is envisioned that these tools and registers will help to drive efficiency, capability and best practice throughout the public sector. It is therefore important to ensure that the data and information submitted for publication is timely, accurate and fit for purpose.

What are the Benefits?

There are multiple long term benefits expected as data accumulates and new functionalities become available via the central digital platform. These include:

Providing a valuable source of meaningful, standardised data to inform commercial strategies.
Improving visibility and sharing of information between public sector organisations.
Facilitating opportunities for collaboration and a more joined-up approach to common procurement issues.
Enabling benchmarking activities to improve pricing and performance.
Driving better standards in contract delivery through enhanced accountability.
Reducing the potential for fraud and corruption.
Increased potential for aggregated procurement data, providing enhanced understanding of public procurement activities.

18. Table of transparency notices: Fact sheet

Please note the following regarding the ‘purpose / variation’ and ‘exemptions’ columns in the table.

Purpose / variation

In the regulations, some notices are listed as having separate versions, depending on the procedure you follow. For example, there is an open, competitive flexible and below-threshold “version” of the tender notice (amongst others). However, these are not different notices; in practice, what this means for you is that you must complete different fields in the tender notice, and / or submit different information alongside it, depending on the nature of your procurement.

Exemptions

Organisations and / or contracts that are exempt from publishing a particular notice and / or associated documents.

Table

Procurement lifecycle	Reference	Notice name	Requirement	Purpose / variations	Exemptions
Plan	UK1	Pipeline notice	Mandatory (for organisations where spend is £100m+ PA) 18-month forward-look at planned procurements £2m+ value	N/A	• Private utilities • Contracts awarded by transferred Northern Ireland (NI) authorities
Define	UK2	Preliminary market engagement notice	Mandatory where pre-market engagement is anticipated or has taken place (or, explain in the tender notice reason for not publishing)	N/A	Private utilities
Procure	UK3	Planned procurement notice	Optional and best practice advises the market of an upcoming procurement. A qualifying planned procurement notice can reduce tender timescales to 10 days	N/A	N/A
Procure	UK4	Tender notice	Mandatory when undertaking an open or competitive flexible procedure (including to establish a framework and award a contract under an existing dynamic market) or a regulated below-threshold procedure	• Below-threshold tender notice • Tender notice: open procedure • Tender notice: competitive flexible • Tender notice: frameworks • Tender notice: dynamic markets (for procurements awarding a contracting using an existing dynamic market or utilities dynamic market - not to establish a new dynamic market) • Tender notice: utilities dynamic markets	Qualifying utilities dynamic markets (existing members of the market may be invited directly)
Procure	UK5	Transparency notice	Mandatory when undertaking a direct award (publish prior to award)	N/A	Direct award: user choice contracts
Procure	UK6	Contract award notice	Mandatory communicates the outcome of the procurement and (commences standstill prior to awarding a contract open or competitive flexible procedure)	• Contract award notices except those published by private utilities • Contract award notices published by private utilities • Contract award notices published by private utilities: direct awards • Contract award notices published by private utilities: frameworks	• Direct award: user choice contracts • Defence and security contracts awarded under a defence and security framework
Procure	UK7	Contract details notice	Mandatory details of the awarded contract (including the redacted contract, for public contracts £5m+ and KPI information)	• Contract details notice: open or competitive flexible procedure • Contract details notice: frameworks • Contract details notice: public contracts awarded in accordance with frameworks • Contract details notice: direct award • Contract details notice: below-threshold contracts	• Private utilities • Direct award: user choice contracts • Contracts awarded by a devolved Welsh authority or transferred NI authority (unless awarded under a reserved procurement arrangement) - exempt from publishing contract documents only • Contracts awarded under a devolved Welsh or transferred NI procurement arrangement - exempt from publishing contract documents only • Framework contract - exempt from KPIs • Light touch - exempt from KPIs • Concession contracts - exempt from KPIs
Manage	UK8	Contract payment notice	Mandatory details of payments over £30,000 made under a public contract (quarterly)	N/A	• Utilities contracts awarded by a private utility • Concessions contracts • Contracts awarded by a school • Contracts awarded by a transferred NI authority / under a transferred NI procurement arrangement (unless awarded under a reserved procurement arrangement or devolved Welsh procurement arrangement)
Manage	UK9	Contract performance notice	Mandatory to report: a. annual KPI scores for public contracts valued £5m+ b. poor supplier performance / breach of contract (within 30 days of event)	• Performance against • KPIs Notification of supplier poor performance / breach of contract	• Private utilities - exempt from both • Light touch - exempt from both • Concession contracts - exempt from publishing KPIs only
Manage	UK10	Contract change notice	Mandatory prior to a qualifying modification taking place (copy of modified contract for public contracts over £5m)	Convertible contracts: contract change notice	• Defence and security contracts • Private utilities • Light touch contracts • Contracts awarded by a transferred NI authority / under a transferred NI procurement arrangement (unless awarded as part of a procurement under a reserved procurement arrangement or devolved Welsh procurement arrangement) • Contracts awarded by a devolved Welsh authority or under a devolved Welsh procurement arrangement (unless awarded as part of a procurement under a reserved procurement arrangement) - exempt from publishing modified contract only
Manage	UK11	Contract termination notice	Mandatory when a public contract ends	N/A	• Private utilities • Direct award: user choice contracts
Procure	UK12	Procurement termination notice	Mandatory where, after publishing a tender or transparency notice, the process is terminated without awarding a contract	N/A	Private utilities
Procure	UK13 to 16	Dynamic market notice	Mandatory when advertising, establishing, changing or terminating a dynamic market	• Utilities dynamic market notice • Qualifying utilities dynamic market notice	• Private utilities are not required to update the dynamic market notice when the market ceases to operate • A qualifying utilities dynamic notice must be provided to members of the market and is not required to be published
Manage	UK17	Payments compliance notice	Mandatory details of contracting authority performance against 30-day payment terms (twice annually)	N/A	• Private utilities • Concessions contracts • Contracts awarded by a transferred NI Authority • Contracts awarded by a school

19. Transparency: Thresholds and exemptions for publishing notices

Notice name	Threshold for publication	Exemptions
Preliminary market engagement notice	When intending to carry out or have already undertaken pre-market engagement for above threshold contracts (can be used voluntary for below-threshold contract).	Private utilities
Planned procurement notice	When notifying the market in advance. A qualifying planned procurement notice can be used to reduce tender timescales for above threshold contracts.	N/A
Pipeline notice	Within the first 56 days of the financial year where the total procurement spend is above £100m p/a (including below-threshold spend). Include details of contracts over £2m.	• Private utilities • Contracts awarded by transferred Northern Ireland (NI) authorities
Tender notice	When inviting a request to participate or tender. Tender notice: above threshold contracts. Below-threshold tender notice: contract above regulated below-threshold tender threshold.	Qualifying utilities dynamic markets (no requirement to publish the tender notice, just provided directly to existing members of the market)
Transparency notice	Before awarding an above threshold contract via direct award.	Direct award: user choice contracts
Contract award notice	Before awarding an above threshold contracts (can be used voluntary for below-threshold contract).	• Direct award: user choice contracts • Defence and security contracts awarded under a defence and security framework
Contract details notice	Within the 30 days following when a contract is entered into for above threshold and regulated below threshold contracts (120 days for light touch contracts). Where total value of the contract is over £5m, publish the contract documents and details of KPIs (unless exemption applies).	• Private utilities • Direct award: user choice contracts • Contracts awarded by a devolved Welsh authority or transferred NI authority (unless it is awarded as part of a procurement under a reserved procurement arrangement) • Contracts awarded under a devolved Welsh or transferred NI procurement arrangement - exempt from publishing contract documents only
Contract payment notice	Payment(s) of £30,000 or more, under an above threshold contract. Publish quarterly.	• Contracts awarded by a private utility • Concessions contracts • Contracts awarded by a school • Contracts awarded by a transferred NI authority or or under a NI procurement arrangement (unless it is awarded as part of a procurement under a reserved procurement arrangement or devolved Welsh procurement arrangement)
Contract performance notice	Contracts over £5m with KPIs set: publish KPI scores at least annually. All public contracts: in the event of poor performance/breach of contract: publish within 30 days of the event.	• Private utilities - exempt from both • Light touch - exempt from both • Concession contracts - exempt from publishing KPIs only • Framework contracts - exempt from publishing KPIs only
Contract change notice	Above threshold contracts before a qualifying modification takes place. Convertible contracts before a qualifying modification takes place. Contracts over £5m: publish copy of modified contract or contract modification.	• Defence and security contracts • Private utilities • Light touch contracts • Contracts awarded by a transferred NI authority (unless it is awarded as part of a procurement under a reserved procurement arrangement or devolved Welsh procurement arrangement) or under a transferred NI procurement arrangement • Contracts awarded by a devolved Welsh authority or a devolved Welsh procurement arrangement (unless it is awarded as part of a procurement under a reserved procurement arrangement)exempt from publishing the modified contract only
Contract termination notice	Above threshold contracts (can be used voluntary for below-threshold contract) when the contract terminates/ends.	• Private utilities • Direct award: user choice contracts
Procurement termination notice	Above threshold contracts (can be used voluntary for below-threshold contract) when required.	Private utilities
Dynamic market notice	When advertising, establishing, changing or terminating a dynamic market.	Private utilities are not required to update the dynamic market notice when the market ceases to operate
Payments compliance notice	Above threshold contracts.	• Private utilities • Concessions contracts • Contracts awarded by a transferred NI authority (unless it is awarded as part of a procurement under a reserved procurement arrangement or devolved Welsh procurement arrangement) or under a NI procurement arrangement • Contracts awarded by a school

20. Transparency notices / publication: Flowchart

This flowchart demonstrates the notices and other information that you may publish throughout the end-to-end procurement lifecycle (depending on the procurement procedure followed, the nature of the contract and / or the contracting authority). Further details about each notice can be found in the notices fact sheet.

Appendix 1: publication triggers (publication when required)

The following table sets out the publication triggers that apply to notices and other information that should be ‘publish when required’ on the central digital platform. Exemptions to publication apply, see the notices fact sheet for more details.

Notice / information	Publication trigger
Pipeline notice	Where organisational procurement spend is £100m+, publish 18-month forward of procurements £2m+
Planned procurement notice	Publish a qualifying planned procurement notice to reduce tender timescales
Preliminary market engagement notice	Publish where pre-market engagement is planned or has taken place (or explain why not, in tender notice)
Procurement termination notice	Publish if, following a tender or transparency notice, the procurement ends without a contract award
Dynamic market notice	Publish to advertise, establish, change or terminate a dynamic market
Copy of awarded contract (and KPIs)	For contracts over £5m total value, KPIs must be set and the contract (redacted as required) published
Contract performance notice	Publish annual KPI data (contracts £5m+), and/or as required to report breach of contract / poor performance
Contract payments notice	Publish where one or more contract payment of £30k+ is made under a public contract (quarterly)
Contract change notice	Publish when making a contract modification (unless exemption applies)

21. Fact sheet record keeping

What are the requirements?

The Procurement Act requires you to keep certain information that you gather during the award of an above-threshold contract. The requirement is retain:

records that are sufficient to explain a “material decision” made during the award of that contract and
records of any communications with suppliers in relation to the award of the contract (prior to the award taking place)

Both sets of records must be kept for a period of three years following contract award.

Note

Section 98(6) - this section does not affect any other obligation under any enactment or rule of law by virtue of which a contracting authority must retain documents or keep records, including for a longer period.

What is a material decision?

A decision is deemed to be “material” if it’s made in relation to the award of a contract. This may include decisions relating to:

excluding one or more suppliers based on a mandatory or discretionary exclusion ground
excluding or reducing the number of suppliers based on conditions of participation
conducting an interim assessment to reduce the number of suppliers during a competitive flexible procedure (e.g. a presentation or negotiation)
the assessment of tenders against the award criteria
the decision to award the contract (or, if applicable, to terminate the procurement without awarding a contract)

What records should be kept?

Types of records	Examples
Records containing material decisions, including: • what the decision was and when it took place • how the decision was made, who it was made by, and why • how that decision impacted on the award of the contract	Examples of records that may be kept include, but are not limited to: • notices and other associated procurement documents • tender submissions and/or requests to participate from suppliers • the assessment summary • other documents produced internally e.g. evaluation panel notes • internal governance documents, gateway reviews, minutes from senior stakeholder briefings
Supplier correspondence	• Correspondence with suppliers e.g. requests to participate clarification questions, pre-market engagement information etc • Expressions of interest (e.g. following publication of a planned procurement notice or preliminary market engagement notice) • Any preliminary market engagement undertaken • Clarifications raised by a supplier during the procurement • Any formal or informal challenges raised by a supplier during the procurement. • Notifications to a supplier of their exclusion from a procurement

Where you use an eSender for your procurements, this may hold many of these records. In addition, the data published on the central platform should hold, as a minimum, the notices (and any associated information) you’ve published in relation to the procurement.

It may help you to keep a log of records that relate to material decisions made under the contract. If so, a template can be found in Appendix 1.

Keeping a record of material decisions may help you in completing internal governance processes, and/or managing queries or challenges from suppliers post-contract award.

What if a contract is not awarded?

Where the decision is made to terminate a procurement without awarding a contract, you are only required to keep records until the point at which the procurement termination notice is published.

Annex 1: Record Keeping Template

Procurement process stage	Material decision made	Document(s) retained	Location (e.g. eSender platform)

Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR 2015), Utilities Contracts Regulations 2016 (UCR 2016), Concessions Contracts Regulations 2016 (CCR 2016) and the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011 (DSPCR 2011). ↩

Question 18

What are Commercial Tools and Registers?

Accepted Answer

Public procurement data is often incomplete, recorded in inconsistent formats, or held on separate systems. This can make it difficult to share commercial information between organisations, restrict opportunities for collaboration, and lead to resource-intensive duplication for both contracting authorities and suppliers. Improved access to good-quality commercial data is also essential for achieving accountability in public spending.

One of the long-term goals of procurement reform is for the central digital platform to be a place where contracting authorities, suppliers and the general public can access different types of data that will provide a clearer picture on public sector contract and procurement activities. As previously mentioned, the intention is to deliver these within Phase 3 of the central digital platform development.

The ambition is that the central digital platform will host a number of commercial tools and registers that aggregate transparency information that is published to the platform, including:

Register of commercial tools: containing details of the different frameworks and dynamic markets that are available to access across the public sector. See Summary Document 5 – Frameworks and Dynamic Markets for more information.
Contract performance register: containing information about supplier performance against KPIs for in-scope public contracts, as published instances of reportable poor performance, as detailed in section 71. See Summary Document 9 – Contract Governance for more information.
Additional Information including how much is being spent under public contracts (payments over £30,000) and about prompt payment (how quickly contracting authorities pay invoices to their suppliers). See Summary Document 9 – Contract Governance for more information.
Debarment list: A list of suppliers who, following investigation, have been debarred from taking part in public procurements (due to the application of an exclusion ground). This may initially be published as a PDF file on gov.uk, rather than the central digital platform. See Summary Document 8 – Remedies, Procurement oversight and the Debarment List for more information).

The public will be able to access data (excluding any sensitive data) free of charge and without the need to register.

Question 19

How will the Data be Populated?

Accepted Answer

The intention is for many tools and registers to be populated using data that contracting authorities provide as part of the notices that will be published throughout the procurement lifecycle, from pipeline to termination. Some registers may be populated and managed centrally, such as the debarment list (by the Procurement Review Unit).

If used correctly, it is envisioned that these tools and registers will help to drive efficiency, capability and best practice throughout the public sector. It is therefore important to ensure that the data and information submitted for publication is timely, accurate and fit for purpose.

Question 20

What are the Benefits?

Accepted Answer

There are multiple long term benefits expected as data accumulates and new functionalities become available via the central digital platform. These include:

Providing a valuable source of meaningful, standardised data to inform commercial strategies.
Improving visibility and sharing of information between public sector organisations.
Facilitating opportunities for collaboration and a more joined-up approach to common procurement issues.
Enabling benchmarking activities to improve pricing and performance.
Driving better standards in contract delivery through enhanced accountability.
Reducing the potential for fraud and corruption.
Increased potential for aggregated procurement data, providing enhanced understanding of public procurement activities.

Question 21

18.  Table of transparency notices: Fact sheet

Accepted Answer

Please note the following regarding the ‘purpose / variation’ and ‘exemptions’ columns in the table.

Question 22

Purpose / variation

Accepted Answer

In the regulations, some notices are listed as having separate versions, depending on the procedure you follow. For example, there is an open, competitive flexible and below-threshold “version” of the tender notice (amongst others). However, these are not different notices; in practice, what this means for you is that you must complete different fields in the tender notice, and / or submit different information alongside it, depending on the nature of your procurement.

Question 23

Exemptions

Accepted Answer

Organisations and / or contracts that are exempt from publishing a particular notice and / or associated documents.

Question 24

Table

Accepted Answer

Procurement lifecycle	Reference	Notice name	Requirement	Purpose / variations	Exemptions
Plan	UK1	Pipeline notice	Mandatory (for organisations where spend is £100m+ PA) 18-month forward-look at planned procurements £2m+ value	N/A	• Private utilities • Contracts awarded by transferred Northern Ireland (NI) authorities
Define	UK2	Preliminary market engagement notice	Mandatory where pre-market engagement is anticipated or has taken place (or, explain in the tender notice reason for not publishing)	N/A	Private utilities
Procure	UK3	Planned procurement notice	Optional and best practice advises the market of an upcoming procurement. A qualifying planned procurement notice can reduce tender timescales to 10 days	N/A	N/A
Procure	UK4	Tender notice	Mandatory when undertaking an open or competitive flexible procedure (including to establish a framework and award a contract under an existing dynamic market) or a regulated below-threshold procedure	• Below-threshold tender notice • Tender notice: open procedure • Tender notice: competitive flexible • Tender notice: frameworks • Tender notice: dynamic markets (for procurements awarding a contracting using an existing dynamic market or utilities dynamic market - not to establish a new dynamic market) • Tender notice: utilities dynamic markets	Qualifying utilities dynamic markets (existing members of the market may be invited directly)
Procure	UK5	Transparency notice	Mandatory when undertaking a direct award (publish prior to award)	N/A	Direct award: user choice contracts
Procure	UK6	Contract award notice	Mandatory communicates the outcome of the procurement and (commences standstill prior to awarding a contract open or competitive flexible procedure)	• Contract award notices except those published by private utilities • Contract award notices published by private utilities • Contract award notices published by private utilities: direct awards • Contract award notices published by private utilities: frameworks	• Direct award: user choice contracts • Defence and security contracts awarded under a defence and security framework
Procure	UK7	Contract details notice	Mandatory details of the awarded contract (including the redacted contract, for public contracts £5m+ and KPI information)	• Contract details notice: open or competitive flexible procedure • Contract details notice: frameworks • Contract details notice: public contracts awarded in accordance with frameworks • Contract details notice: direct award • Contract details notice: below-threshold contracts	• Private utilities • Direct award: user choice contracts • Contracts awarded by a devolved Welsh authority or transferred NI authority (unless awarded under a reserved procurement arrangement) - exempt from publishing contract documents only • Contracts awarded under a devolved Welsh or transferred NI procurement arrangement - exempt from publishing contract documents only • Framework contract - exempt from KPIs • Light touch - exempt from KPIs • Concession contracts - exempt from KPIs
Manage	UK8	Contract payment notice	Mandatory details of payments over £30,000 made under a public contract (quarterly)	N/A	• Utilities contracts awarded by a private utility • Concessions contracts • Contracts awarded by a school • Contracts awarded by a transferred NI authority / under a transferred NI procurement arrangement (unless awarded under a reserved procurement arrangement or devolved Welsh procurement arrangement)
Manage	UK9	Contract performance notice	Mandatory to report: a. annual KPI scores for public contracts valued £5m+ b. poor supplier performance / breach of contract (within 30 days of event)	• Performance against • KPIs Notification of supplier poor performance / breach of contract	• Private utilities - exempt from both • Light touch - exempt from both • Concession contracts - exempt from publishing KPIs only
Manage	UK10	Contract change notice	Mandatory prior to a qualifying modification taking place (copy of modified contract for public contracts over £5m)	Convertible contracts: contract change notice	• Defence and security contracts • Private utilities • Light touch contracts • Contracts awarded by a transferred NI authority / under a transferred NI procurement arrangement (unless awarded as part of a procurement under a reserved procurement arrangement or devolved Welsh procurement arrangement) • Contracts awarded by a devolved Welsh authority or under a devolved Welsh procurement arrangement (unless awarded as part of a procurement under a reserved procurement arrangement) - exempt from publishing modified contract only
Manage	UK11	Contract termination notice	Mandatory when a public contract ends	N/A	• Private utilities • Direct award: user choice contracts
Procure	UK12	Procurement termination notice	Mandatory where, after publishing a tender or transparency notice, the process is terminated without awarding a contract	N/A	Private utilities
Procure	UK13 to 16	Dynamic market notice	Mandatory when advertising, establishing, changing or terminating a dynamic market	• Utilities dynamic market notice • Qualifying utilities dynamic market notice	• Private utilities are not required to update the dynamic market notice when the market ceases to operate • A qualifying utilities dynamic notice must be provided to members of the market and is not required to be published
Manage	UK17	Payments compliance notice	Mandatory details of contracting authority performance against 30-day payment terms (twice annually)	N/A	• Private utilities • Concessions contracts • Contracts awarded by a transferred NI Authority • Contracts awarded by a school

Question 25

19.  Transparency: Thresholds and exemptions for publishing notices

Accepted Answer

Procurement lifecycle	Reference	Notice name	Requirement	Purpose / variations	Exemptions
Plan	UK1	Pipeline notice	Mandatory (for organisations where spend is £100m+ PA) 18-month forward-look at planned procurements £2m+ value	N/A	• Private utilities • Contracts awarded by transferred Northern Ireland (NI) authorities
Define	UK2	Preliminary market engagement notice	Mandatory where pre-market engagement is anticipated or has taken place (or, explain in the tender notice reason for not publishing)	N/A	Private utilities
Procure	UK3	Planned procurement notice	Optional and best practice advises the market of an upcoming procurement. A qualifying planned procurement notice can reduce tender timescales to 10 days	N/A	N/A
Procure	UK4	Tender notice	Mandatory when undertaking an open or competitive flexible procedure (including to establish a framework and award a contract under an existing dynamic market) or a regulated below-threshold procedure	• Below-threshold tender notice • Tender notice: open procedure • Tender notice: competitive flexible • Tender notice: frameworks • Tender notice: dynamic markets (for procurements awarding a contracting using an existing dynamic market or utilities dynamic market - not to establish a new dynamic market) • Tender notice: utilities dynamic markets	Qualifying utilities dynamic markets (existing members of the market may be invited directly)
Procure	UK5	Transparency notice	Mandatory when undertaking a direct award (publish prior to award)	N/A	Direct award: user choice contracts
Procure	UK6	Contract award notice	Mandatory communicates the outcome of the procurement and (commences standstill prior to awarding a contract open or competitive flexible procedure)	• Contract award notices except those published by private utilities • Contract award notices published by private utilities • Contract award notices published by private utilities: direct awards • Contract award notices published by private utilities: frameworks	• Direct award: user choice contracts • Defence and security contracts awarded under a defence and security framework
Procure	UK7	Contract details notice	Mandatory details of the awarded contract (including the redacted contract, for public contracts £5m+ and KPI information)	• Contract details notice: open or competitive flexible procedure • Contract details notice: frameworks • Contract details notice: public contracts awarded in accordance with frameworks • Contract details notice: direct award • Contract details notice: below-threshold contracts	• Private utilities • Direct award: user choice contracts • Contracts awarded by a devolved Welsh authority or transferred NI authority (unless awarded under a reserved procurement arrangement) - exempt from publishing contract documents only • Contracts awarded under a devolved Welsh or transferred NI procurement arrangement - exempt from publishing contract documents only • Framework contract - exempt from KPIs • Light touch - exempt from KPIs • Concession contracts - exempt from KPIs
Manage	UK8	Contract payment notice	Mandatory details of payments over £30,000 made under a public contract (quarterly)	N/A	• Utilities contracts awarded by a private utility • Concessions contracts • Contracts awarded by a school • Contracts awarded by a transferred NI authority / under a transferred NI procurement arrangement (unless awarded under a reserved procurement arrangement or devolved Welsh procurement arrangement)
Manage	UK9	Contract performance notice	Mandatory to report: a. annual KPI scores for public contracts valued £5m+ b. poor supplier performance / breach of contract (within 30 days of event)	• Performance against • KPIs Notification of supplier poor performance / breach of contract	• Private utilities - exempt from both • Light touch - exempt from both • Concession contracts - exempt from publishing KPIs only
Manage	UK10	Contract change notice	Mandatory prior to a qualifying modification taking place (copy of modified contract for public contracts over £5m)	Convertible contracts: contract change notice	• Defence and security contracts • Private utilities • Light touch contracts • Contracts awarded by a transferred NI authority / under a transferred NI procurement arrangement (unless awarded as part of a procurement under a reserved procurement arrangement or devolved Welsh procurement arrangement) • Contracts awarded by a devolved Welsh authority or under a devolved Welsh procurement arrangement (unless awarded as part of a procurement under a reserved procurement arrangement) - exempt from publishing modified contract only
Manage	UK11	Contract termination notice	Mandatory when a public contract ends	N/A	• Private utilities • Direct award: user choice contracts
Procure	UK12	Procurement termination notice	Mandatory where, after publishing a tender or transparency notice, the process is terminated without awarding a contract	N/A	Private utilities
Procure	UK13 to 16	Dynamic market notice	Mandatory when advertising, establishing, changing or terminating a dynamic market	• Utilities dynamic market notice • Qualifying utilities dynamic market notice	• Private utilities are not required to update the dynamic market notice when the market ceases to operate • A qualifying utilities dynamic notice must be provided to members of the market and is not required to be published
Manage	UK17	Payments compliance notice	Mandatory details of contracting authority performance against 30-day payment terms (twice annually)	N/A	• Private utilities • Concessions contracts • Contracts awarded by a transferred NI Authority • Contracts awarded by a school

Question 26

20.  Transparency notices / publication: Flowchart

Accepted Answer

This flowchart demonstrates the notices and other information that you may publish throughout the end-to-end procurement lifecycle (depending on the procurement procedure followed, the nature of the contract and / or the contracting authority). Further details about each notice can be found in the notices fact sheet.

Question 27

Appendix 1: publication triggers (publication when required)

Accepted Answer

The following table sets out the publication triggers that apply to notices and other information that should be ‘publish when required’ on the central digital platform. Exemptions to publication apply, see the notices fact sheet for more details.

Ref.	Transparency Notices	Requirement
UK1	Pipeline notice	Mandatory (for organisations where spend is £100m+ PA). 18-month forward-look at planned procurements £2m+ value.
UK2	Preliminary market engagement notice	Mandatory where engagement is anticipated or has taken place (or, explain in tender notice why it hasn’t been published).
UK3	Planned procurement notice	Optional and Best Practice Advises the market of an upcoming procurement. A qualifying planned procurement notice can reduce tender timescales.
UK4	Tender notice Including to establish a framework and below-threshold notices	Mandatory (for a competitive procedure) Publish when undertaking an open or competitive flexible procedure (including to establish a framework contract and procuring using a dynamic market(1)) or procuring a regulated below-threshold contract.
UK5	Transparency notice	Mandatory (for a direct award) Publish prior to award when undertaking a direct award.
UK6	Contract award notice	Mandatory Publish to communicate the outcome of the procurement and to commence the standstill period prior to awarding a contract under the open or competitive flexible procedure (and voluntary standstill periods for direct awards).
UK7	Contract details notice	Mandatory Publish details of the awarded contract (including the contract, for public contracts £5m+), inc. regulated below-threshold contracts above a certain value and those procured by direct award.
UK8	Contract payment notice(1)	Mandatory Publish details of payments over £30,000 made under a public contract (quarterly).
UK9	Contract performance notice	Mandatory Publish KPI scores for public contracts £5m+ (at least annually). Publish within 30 days of supplier poor performance / breach of contract.
UK10	Contract change notice	Mandatory Publish prior to a qualifying modification taking place, inc., for contracts £5m+, publication of modification.
UK11	Contract termination notice	Mandatory Publish when a public contract is terminated / comes to an end
UK12	Procurement termination notice	Mandatory Publish where, after publishing a tender or transparency notice, the process is terminated without awarding a contract.
UK13-16	Dynamic market notices	Mandatory Publish and update when advertising, establishing, changing or terminating a dynamic market (inc. utilities dynamic markets and qualifying utilities dynamic markets).
UK17	Payments compliance notice	Mandatory Publish details of performance against 30-day payment terms (twice annually).

Question 28

What are the requirements?

Accepted Answer

The Procurement Act requires you to keep certain information that you gather during the award of an above-threshold contract. The requirement is retain:

records that are sufficient to explain a “material decision” made during the award of that contract and
records of any communications with suppliers in relation to the award of the contract (prior to the award taking place)

Both sets of records must be kept for a period of three years following contract award.

Note

Section 98(6) - this section does not affect any other obligation under any enactment or rule of law by virtue of which a contracting authority must retain documents or keep records, including for a longer period.

Question 29

What is a material decision?

Accepted Answer

A decision is deemed to be “material” if it’s made in relation to the award of a contract. This may include decisions relating to:

excluding one or more suppliers based on a mandatory or discretionary exclusion ground
excluding or reducing the number of suppliers based on conditions of participation
conducting an interim assessment to reduce the number of suppliers during a competitive flexible procedure (e.g. a presentation or negotiation)
the assessment of tenders against the award criteria
the decision to award the contract (or, if applicable, to terminate the procurement without awarding a contract)

Question 30

What records should be kept?

Accepted Answer

Procurement lifecycle	Reference	Notice name	Requirement	Purpose / variations	Exemptions
Plan	UK1	Pipeline notice	Mandatory (for organisations where spend is £100m+ PA) 18-month forward-look at planned procurements £2m+ value	N/A	• Private utilities • Contracts awarded by transferred Northern Ireland (NI) authorities
Define	UK2	Preliminary market engagement notice	Mandatory where pre-market engagement is anticipated or has taken place (or, explain in the tender notice reason for not publishing)	N/A	Private utilities
Procure	UK3	Planned procurement notice	Optional and best practice advises the market of an upcoming procurement. A qualifying planned procurement notice can reduce tender timescales to 10 days	N/A	N/A
Procure	UK4	Tender notice	Mandatory when undertaking an open or competitive flexible procedure (including to establish a framework and award a contract under an existing dynamic market) or a regulated below-threshold procedure	• Below-threshold tender notice • Tender notice: open procedure • Tender notice: competitive flexible • Tender notice: frameworks • Tender notice: dynamic markets (for procurements awarding a contracting using an existing dynamic market or utilities dynamic market - not to establish a new dynamic market) • Tender notice: utilities dynamic markets	Qualifying utilities dynamic markets (existing members of the market may be invited directly)
Procure	UK5	Transparency notice	Mandatory when undertaking a direct award (publish prior to award)	N/A	Direct award: user choice contracts
Procure	UK6	Contract award notice	Mandatory communicates the outcome of the procurement and (commences standstill prior to awarding a contract open or competitive flexible procedure)	• Contract award notices except those published by private utilities • Contract award notices published by private utilities • Contract award notices published by private utilities: direct awards • Contract award notices published by private utilities: frameworks	• Direct award: user choice contracts • Defence and security contracts awarded under a defence and security framework
Procure	UK7	Contract details notice	Mandatory details of the awarded contract (including the redacted contract, for public contracts £5m+ and KPI information)	• Contract details notice: open or competitive flexible procedure • Contract details notice: frameworks • Contract details notice: public contracts awarded in accordance with frameworks • Contract details notice: direct award • Contract details notice: below-threshold contracts	• Private utilities • Direct award: user choice contracts • Contracts awarded by a devolved Welsh authority or transferred NI authority (unless awarded under a reserved procurement arrangement) - exempt from publishing contract documents only • Contracts awarded under a devolved Welsh or transferred NI procurement arrangement - exempt from publishing contract documents only • Framework contract - exempt from KPIs • Light touch - exempt from KPIs • Concession contracts - exempt from KPIs
Manage	UK8	Contract payment notice	Mandatory details of payments over £30,000 made under a public contract (quarterly)	N/A	• Utilities contracts awarded by a private utility • Concessions contracts • Contracts awarded by a school • Contracts awarded by a transferred NI authority / under a transferred NI procurement arrangement (unless awarded under a reserved procurement arrangement or devolved Welsh procurement arrangement)
Manage	UK9	Contract performance notice	Mandatory to report: a. annual KPI scores for public contracts valued £5m+ b. poor supplier performance / breach of contract (within 30 days of event)	• Performance against • KPIs Notification of supplier poor performance / breach of contract	• Private utilities - exempt from both • Light touch - exempt from both • Concession contracts - exempt from publishing KPIs only
Manage	UK10	Contract change notice	Mandatory prior to a qualifying modification taking place (copy of modified contract for public contracts over £5m)	Convertible contracts: contract change notice	• Defence and security contracts • Private utilities • Light touch contracts • Contracts awarded by a transferred NI authority / under a transferred NI procurement arrangement (unless awarded as part of a procurement under a reserved procurement arrangement or devolved Welsh procurement arrangement) • Contracts awarded by a devolved Welsh authority or under a devolved Welsh procurement arrangement (unless awarded as part of a procurement under a reserved procurement arrangement) - exempt from publishing modified contract only
Manage	UK11	Contract termination notice	Mandatory when a public contract ends	N/A	• Private utilities • Direct award: user choice contracts
Procure	UK12	Procurement termination notice	Mandatory where, after publishing a tender or transparency notice, the process is terminated without awarding a contract	N/A	Private utilities
Procure	UK13 to 16	Dynamic market notice	Mandatory when advertising, establishing, changing or terminating a dynamic market	• Utilities dynamic market notice • Qualifying utilities dynamic market notice	• Private utilities are not required to update the dynamic market notice when the market ceases to operate • A qualifying utilities dynamic notice must be provided to members of the market and is not required to be published
Manage	UK17	Payments compliance notice	Mandatory details of contracting authority performance against 30-day payment terms (twice annually)	N/A	• Private utilities • Concessions contracts • Contracts awarded by a transferred NI Authority • Contracts awarded by a school

Where you use an eSender for your procurements, this may hold many of these records. In addition, the data published on the central platform should hold, as a minimum, the notices (and any associated information) you’ve published in relation to the procurement.

It may help you to keep a log of records that relate to material decisions made under the contract. If so, a template can be found in Appendix 1.

Keeping a record of material decisions may help you in completing internal governance processes, and/or managing queries or challenges from suppliers post-contract award.

Question 31

What if a contract is not awarded?

Accepted Answer

Where the decision is made to terminate a procurement without awarding a contract, you are only required to keep records until the point at which the procurement termination notice is published.

Annex 1: Record Keeping Template

Procurement process stage	Material decision made	Document(s) retained	Location (e.g. eSender platform)

Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR 2015), Utilities Contracts Regulations 2016 (UCR 2016), Concessions Contracts Regulations 2016 (CCR 2016) and the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011 (DSPCR 2011). ↩

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1. Introduction

2. Transparency and the Procurement Act 2023 (Overview)

2.1 Changes and Benefits

2.2 Why is Transparency Important?

For procurement and contracting authorities:

For suppliers:

For the public sector and wider society:

3. Notices

3.1 Transparency Notices Summary

Works Contracts and the £5m Threshold

Framework Contracts

Dynamic Markets

Regulated Below-Threshold Procurements

3.2 Key Changes and Benefits

Some key benefits of the new notices include:

3.3 Notice Development and Phases

4. Central Digital Platform and Notice Publication

4.1 What is the Central Digital Platform?

4.2 Central Digital Platform Development

4.3 Notice Publication

Notice Fields

Contracts Finder

Using an eSender

Process for Publication

Publication to an Alternative System

4.4 Electronic Communications

4.5 Exemptions and Confidentiality

4.6 Unique Identifiers

Benefits

Buyer and Supplier Identifiers

Contracting Process Identifiers

5. Record Keeping

6. Commercial Tools and Registers

What are Commercial Tools and Registers?

How will the Data be Populated?

What are the Benefits?

18. Table of transparency notices: Fact sheet

Purpose / variation

Exemptions

Table

19. Transparency: Thresholds and exemptions for publishing notices

20. Transparency notices / publication: Flowchart

Appendix 1: publication triggers (publication when required)

21. Fact sheet record keeping

What are the requirements?

Note

What is a material decision?

What records should be kept?

What if a contract is not awarded?

Annex 1: Record Keeping Template

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