Contracts Finder vs Find a Tender
Since 24 February 2025, when the Procurement Act 2023 took effect, Find a Tender is where UK public bodies publish notices about new procurements, above and below threshold (except below-threshold contracts in Scotland). Contracts Finder is now used only for award notices of procurements started under the earlier regulations, including awards under framework agreements set up under them. Before that date, Find a Tender carried above-threshold notices and Contracts Finder carried lower-value opportunities and awards.
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Since 24 February 2025
Find a Tender is the central digital platform under the Procurement Act 2023. The government's guide calls it "the place where all the regulated public procurement notices are published". Its search page says: "From 24 February 2025, both above and below threshold notices about new UK procurements will be published on this service, except below threshold in Scotland."
PPN 019 (updated 31 March 2025) explains what is left for Contracts Finder: no new procurements are run under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 after 24 February 2025, new below-threshold opportunities "must be advertised on Find a Tender", and Contracts Finder is kept for award notices of procurements started under the old rules, including "When an award is made in accordance with a framework agreement established under the PCRs."
| Find a Tender | Contracts Finder | |
|---|---|---|
| New procurements since 24 Feb 2025 | All notices required by the Procurement Act, above and below threshold (not below-threshold in Scotland) | None |
| Older procurements | Above-threshold notices since it replaced TED in the UK on 31 December 2020 | Opportunities and awards under the earlier regulations; still used for their award notices |
| API | OCDS release packages (ocdsReleasePackages), up to 100 a request, cursor paging | OCDS notice search by publication date and stage |
| Licence | Open Government Licence (stated on its developer page) | Not stated in its API documentation |
Thresholds from 1 January 2026
Procurements at or above these values (including VAT) are "above threshold" (PPN 023):
| Contract | Threshold (including VAT) |
|---|---|
| Goods and services, central government | £135,018 |
| Goods and services, sub-central authorities | £207,720 |
| Works | £5,193,000 |
| Utilities (not works or light touch) | £415,440 |
| Light touch | £663,540 |
| Concessions | £5,193,000 |
Below threshold, the Act's notice duties start at £12,000 including VAT for central government contracts and £30,000 including VAT for other contracting authorities, and those notices go on the central digital platform too.
Searching both
- To read notices from code, both services have free OCDS APIs; see Is there an API for Find a Tender and Contracts Finder?.
- The Olympus UK Public Procurement API serves notices and awards from both services in one schema, from 1 October 2025, with each record's
source(ftsorcf). A procurement published on both appears twice; nothing is deduplicated.
Questions
Is Contracts Finder still used?
Only for award notices of procurements started under the Public Contracts Regulations before 24 February 2025, including awards under their framework agreements. New procurements are advertised on Find a Tender.
When did Find a Tender start?
Find a Tender replaced Tenders Electronic Daily (TED) in the UK on 31 December 2020.
Are below-threshold contracts on Find a Tender?
Since 24 February 2025, yes, except below-threshold contracts in Scotland, which use Public Contracts Scotland.
Sources
- Find a Tender (Cabinet Office): Search notices
- GOV.UK: How to use the central digital platform (the enhanced Find a Tender service)
- GOV.UK: PPN 019: requirements to publish on Contracts Finder (update)
- GOV.UK: PPN 023: 2026 threshold amounts
- GOV.UK: Guidance: below-threshold contracts
- Contracts Finder (Cabinet Office): Search