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Find a Tender vs Contracts Finder: which should UK suppliers use?

A plain-English guide to the two official UK procurement portals: what changed on 24 February 2025, where new notices are published, and when Contracts Finder still matters.

If you bid for public-sector work in the UK, you will come across two official Cabinet Office websites: Find a Tender and Contracts Finder. They are not the same service, and the rules changed on 24 February 2025 when the Procurement Act 2023 took effect.

This guide explains, from official GOV.UK and service documentation only, which site to use now.

The short answer

For new UK public procurements started on or after 24 February 2025, look on Find a Tender. It is the central digital platform named in the Procurement Regulations 2024. Contracting authorities publish the notices required under the Act there, including below-threshold opportunities (with an important exception for Scotland, covered below).

Contracts Finder remains relevant for procurements that started under the previous rules (the Public Contracts Regulations 2015). Award and other notices for those older processes still appear there, as set out in Procurement Policy Note 019 (updated 31 March 2025).

If you only watch one site, watch Find a Tender. If you also want a complete picture of older contracts still being awarded or modified, keep checking Contracts Finder as well.

What Find a Tender is

Find a Tender is the official place to read notices about UK public-sector procurements and contracts. The service itself describes the current position:

  • From 24 February 2025, both above-threshold and below-threshold notices about new UK procurements are published on Find a Tender, except below-threshold notices in Scotland.
  • Above-threshold notices outside Scotland now cover the full life cycle of a contract, from pipeline through to termination.
  • For procurements that started before that date, only above-threshold notices are published there (the service describes these as usually over £139,688 including VAT).

You can search notices, follow a procurement’s summary, save searches and set official email alerts if you sign in with a GOV.UK One Login. Official developer documentation is on the Find a Tender data and API page. The underlying data is reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Find a Tender is a noticing system. You still submit the actual bid on the buyer’s e-tendering portal, or by the method named in the notice.

What Contracts Finder is

Contracts Finder is the older official site used, under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, to advertise many opportunities and awards in England and other non-devolved territories.

Find a Tender’s own “about” text still points people to Contracts Finder for information on older, below-threshold contracts over £12,000 including VAT (central government) or £30,000 including VAT (outside central government). PPN 019 confirms that the legal requirement to publish certain award information on Contracts Finder continues for procurements commenced under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, including:

  • awards for processes advertised before 24 February 2025 and not yet awarded
  • awards under a framework set up under those earlier regulations
  • below-threshold contracts awarded under those earlier regulations

It also states that new below-threshold opportunities must be advertised on Find a Tender in accordance with the Procurement Act, and that no new procurements are conducted under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 after 24 February 2025.

Contracts Finder likewise has a public OCDS API.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

The official portals differ by nation, especially for older or below-threshold work:

New above-threshold UK notices still appear on Find a Tender. If you work in a devolved area, check the relevant national portal as well, because a local or below-threshold opportunity may only be listed there.

A practical way to search

  1. Start on the Find a Tender search. Filter by keywords, CPV code (the category code on the notice), location and notice type. Look at tender notices for live bids, pipeline and preliminary market engagement notices for work that is coming, and award or contract details notices to see who won.
  2. Create a GOV.UK One Login, register your organisation as a supplier on the central digital platform, and save official email alerts.
  3. If you also need older or transitional awards, run a similar search on Contracts Finder.
  4. Always open the official notice before you bid. A listing is not an invitation to tender by itself, and a deadline or value in a search result should be checked on the source page.

More sector-specific walk-throughs: council cleaning contracts, NHS tenders, IT and software tenders and construction and facilities tenders. There is also a guide to registering as a supplier.

If you would rather have one daily email

The official saved-search emails are free and are the right starting point. If you want one filtered daily digest from both official feeds, with your own keywords, CPV codes, regions and value range, UK Tender Alerts offers a 14-day free trial, then £15 a month. You can cancel at any time. Every item in the email links back to the official notice.

The service is a filter over public data. It does not guarantee that every notice is listed or that a listed notice is still open.