Government tenders worth an evening of your time
Searching for government tenders usually means you want two things at once: a trustworthy government tenders website, and a way to tell which notices a small firm can bid. The official government tenders portal is public and free. What it cannot do is read the overnight notices against the insurance and certificates you actually hold.
If you sell desk-based services to public buyers, see a live count first. Spot my contracts takes about two minutes and does not need an account.
What a government contract tender is
Government contract tenders are how public buyers invite suppliers to bid for defined work. Central departments, NHS trusts, local authorities, universities, police forces and many other bodies buy this way. The public sector tenders that suit a sole trader or a micro firm are services a buyer can commission from a desk: research and evaluation, management and policy consultancy, engagement, training and coaching, websites and software, data, marketing, design, video, events, copywriting and translation.
Building works, trades, cleaning, catering and care are a different market. This guide is not about those.
When a buyer in England, Wales or Northern Ireland advertises a contract at or above the below-threshold amounts, the Procurement Act 2023 requires a notice. Those amounts are £12,000 including VAT for central government and NHS trusts, and £30,000 including VAT for other buyers. Scotland follows its own rules, from £50,000 excluding VAT for goods and services. That is a reading of the published rules, not legal or procurement advice. Contracts a buyer does not advertise will not appear on any portal.
The government central digital platform
The government central digital platform is where notices under the Act are published, including many below-threshold ones. The government tenders website most people mean is Find a Tender, which sits on that platform.
Procurements that started under the old rules before 24 February 2025 still appear on Contracts Finder, including some call-offs from older frameworks. You do not need a login to read a notice. You will need an account on the buyer’s own e-tendering site to ask clarification questions and to submit.
A decent alert still links every card to the official notice. Bidlark is independent. It is not a government service and has no link to any buyer. It reads the public notices under the Open Government Licence.
Public sector tenders Scotland
Public sector tenders Scotland are published on Public Contracts Scotland and, where the rules require it, on Find a Tender too. These are the minimum amounts at which Scottish buyers must advertise: goods and services from £50,000 excluding VAT, and works from £2 million excluding VAT.
Notices the Act requires in Wales reach Find a Tender through Sell2Wales. Smaller Welsh opportunities published only on Sell2Wales do not. Northern Irish notices that also sit on Find a Tender appear; those only on eTendersNI do not. If you work across the border, choose UK-wide or the regions you can serve. A contract reserved for suppliers in another county is not a fit, even when the work looks right.
What to look for on a notice
Volume is the first problem. Fit is the second. Before you open the buyer’s questionnaire, check the work type, the value and lots, the deadline and any clarification deadline, the insurance and certificates named, whether the contract is reserved, the area, and how the evaluation of tenders will be scored.
| Check | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| CPV codes and description | Training bundled with a venue, or IT bought with hardware, is often a different job |
| Insurance named in the notice | £5m professional indemnity when you hold £1m is a stretch, not a small gap |
| Certificates and accreditations | A buyer may set Cyber Essentials as a pass/fail requirement, not a scorable weakness |
| Reserved for SMEs or a place | You either qualify or you do not |
| Deadline versus your diary | A Thursday noon close is not an evening’s work if clarification has already passed |
| Weightings and word limits | They tell you where an evening is worth spending |
Once questions close, you cannot fix an ambiguity in the brief. With fewer than 250 staff and either turnover of no more than £44m or a balance sheet of no more than £38m you count for reserved contracts under the Procurement Act 2023, but you still have to meet the spec. Ask for a verdict against what you hold: worth a bid, a stretch, or not this one.
Tenders for training and other desk work
Tenders for training show up often: staff and specialist training, leadership and coaching, courses and e-learning. Run the same tests. Is delivery remote or on site? Does the buyer want a named accreditation? Is the contract really training, or a mix of training, venue hire and catering you cannot provide? Research, evaluation, consultancy, web, data, comms and design follow the same pattern. If the notice matches the work you sell but asks for cover you do not have, treat it as a stretch and decide with your eyes open. Nobody can promise a buyer will choose your bid.
Choosing a government tenders portal or alert
You have four practical options.
- Search the official portals yourself. Free, complete for what they publish, and slow if you bid a few times a year.
- Free alerts that forward every new notice. You still do the reading.
- Paid tender tools built for firms with a bid team. Fine if that is you. Heavy if it is not.
- A filtered weekday list: the work you sell, the area you cover, your size, then a check against the insurance and certificates you told the service you hold.
When you compare, favour one weekday email only when something matched, reasons on the card, a list of what was left out, reminders before deadlines you track, and a note if the buyer extends or cancels. First-draft answers, if offered, should use only your facts and leave gaps in brackets. The product should say it is independent, link every card to the official notice, and let you cancel in the billing portal.
Matching should start from the CPV codes on the notice. When there is no matching code, a careful read of the title and description is the fallback, and it should say so.
Bidlark is built for that fourth option. It finds UK public contracts a small firm could win, reads each against your insurance and certificates, and on Pro drafts answers from your facts. It covers four kinds of desk-based services and reads three official UK notice feeds. You get one email, sent from 5am and usually with you before 7am, with up to 8 notices per profile, the best first. Each card carries a verdict and the reasons. It does not write, review or submit bids, and it does not give legal or procurement advice. You submit on the buyer’s portal yourself.
See the count before you subscribe
Start at Spot my contracts. You answer five short steps: the work you sell, where you work, your size, what you hold, and past work. You then see how many notices from the last 90 days would have reached you, split into worth a bid, a stretch and not this one, with three real examples.
If the count is high enough you can start a 14-day free trial with a card. If it is low, you see ways to widen the search (a neighbouring specialism, a bigger contract size, the whole UK) rather than a trial you would not use.
The detail of matching, emails and drafts is on how it works. When you are ready, the next step is the same count.
Questions people ask
Where do I look for government tenders in the UK?
Find a Tender, on the government central digital platform, is the main public site for notices under the Procurement Act 2023. Contracts Finder still lists procurements that started under the old rules. Scotland also uses Public Contracts Scotland. Any alert service should still link you to the official notice.
Are public sector tenders in Scotland on the same website?
Not only. Public sector tenders Scotland are published on Public Contracts Scotland. Scottish buyers advertise goods and services from £50,000 excluding VAT. Many of those notices also appear on Find a Tender. Smaller Welsh-only and Northern Irish-only notices may not.
What should I read before the evaluation of tenders starts?
The weightings, word limits and any pass/fail gates, plus insurance, certificates and whether the contract is reserved. Those decide if an evening is worth spending, before you write a word.
Is Bidlark a government tenders portal?
No. Bidlark is independent and is not a government service. It reads the same public notices you can search yourself and links each card to the official notice.
How do I see whether enough notices would match?
Use Spot my contracts. You see how many notices from the last 90 days would have reached you, split into worth a bid, a stretch and not this one, before any trial.