Publication volumes nearly doubled after the Procurement Act 2023 came into force

The single most striking pattern in Find-a-Tender (FTS) data since January 2021 is the sharp rise in notice volumes that coincides with the Procurement Act 2023 entering into effect. In 2025, contracting authorities (public bodies required to advertise above-threshold contracts) published 85,972 notices — more than double the 40,038 recorded in 2023 and well above any earlier year in the dataset. The 2026 figures, at 71,532 notices through the period covered, suggest the elevated pace is being sustained rather than representing a one-off catch-up.

Across the full dataset, FTS records 308,518 notices and 426,605 award notices published between 2021 and 2026.

A reported value that must be read carefully

The dataset attributes a total awarded value of approximately €330 billion across the period. That figure demands an immediate caveat: only 12.2 % of award records carried a value field. Year-by-year coverage is even more uneven — 2021 and 2022 show 0 % value coverage, 2023 and 2024 are at 1.3 % and 0.3 % respectively, while 2025 reaches 19.3 % and 2026 26.6 %. The apparent concentration of value in the most recent years is therefore largely an artefact of improving disclosure rather than evidence of spending growth. No year-on-year trend in actual expenditure can be reliably inferred from these figures.

A further structural caveat applies to framework agreements. Where a framework is awarded, its reported value is a ceiling — the maximum that could be called off — not confirmed expenditure. These ceilings are counted once per award notice and can substantially inflate aggregate totals.

Construction leads by volume; IT services by competitiveness anomaly

Using CPV (Common Procurement Vocabulary) division codes to classify sectors, construction work (CPV 45) is the largest sector by both notice count (24,469 notices; 35,318 awards) and reported value (€38.3 bn, based on 18.6 % of awards). Architectural and engineering services (CPV 71) follow at €35.6 bn reported, and IT services — consulting, software and support (CPV 72) — at €33.1 bn.

The competitiveness picture, where bid counts were disclosed (covering 76.5 % of awards overall), shows meaningful variation. Construction records an average of 18.1 bids per contract and a single-bid rate of just 2.8 %, suggesting a relatively competitive market. Health and social work services (CPV 85) present a contrasting profile: a 21.9 % single-bid rate — the highest among the top sectors — indicating that a material share of contracts in this category attracted no competition at all.

IT services (CPV 72) reports an average bid count of 1,409, and business services (CPV 79) one of 500. These figures are implausibly high for individual contract competitions and almost certainly reflect framework call-off structures, where multiple suppliers on a framework are counted as bidders for each call-off. They should not be interpreted as literal competition intensity.

Overall, the dataset's average bid count stands at 100.82 (based on 76.5 % of awards), and 13.7 % of all awards with a reported bid count received only a single tender.

What the Procurement Act 2023 changed for transparency

Prior to the Procurement Act 2023 regime, FTS published above-threshold notices only. The Act introduced new notice types and lower publication thresholds for certain categories, which accounts for much of the volume increase visible from 2025 onwards. Analysts comparing pre- and post-2025 figures should treat the two periods as structurally different rather than directly comparable.

Methodology note

All data are drawn from Find-a-Tender (UK Cabinet Office), published under the Open Government Licence v3.0, covering January 2021 to the period available in the extract. GBP values have been converted to EUR at a fixed reference rate. The dataset covers above-threshold procurement only until the Procurement Act 2023 regime broadened publication requirements. Value coverage stands at 12.2 % of award records overall; bid-count coverage at 76.5 %. Framework award values are ceiling figures, not confirmed expenditure. All figures should be treated as partial and indicative rather than comprehensive.