Where notices come from
Three official sources, read through the night.
Bidlark is independent: it isn't a government service. It reads the official notices, keeps the facts that matter and links to the official page every time.
The sources
Find a Tender
The Central Digital Platform, where every notice under the Procurement Act 2023 is published, including below-threshold notices that a buyer advertises. Bidlark reads its OCDS release packages every hour: new tenders, updates, cancellations and awards.
Contracts Finder
The older official site. It still carries notices and awards for procurements that started under the old rules before 24 February 2025, including call-offs from old frameworks, which matter for 'Coming round again'. Read every hour. A Contracts Finder notice that copies a Find a Tender one (same buyer and title within 14 days) is recognised and left out, so you never see it twice.
Public Contracts Scotland
Scotland's portal, whose lower-value "site notices" often appear nowhere else. Read every morning from 4am, so Scottish notices make the next morning's email.
How much there is
About 2,030 new notices a month (Bidlark's count of new notices in the last 30 days). For a micro firm, about 728 a month were plausible in the 90 days to 14 October 2026: a stated value up to £250,000, or a below-threshold notice with no value stated.
What isn't covered
- Contracts a buyer doesn't advertise: under the Procurement Act a notice is needed only when a buyer advertises a contract worth £12,000 or more (central government and NHS trusts) or £30,000 or more (other buyers), including VAT; Scottish buyers need to advertise only from £50,000 for goods and services or £2 million for works, excluding VAT. Below that, or when a buyer asks chosen suppliers for quotes directly, there may be no notice at all.
- Buyers' own portals, when a notice isn't also on the official sources.
- Notices published only on Sell2Wales or eTendersNI.
- Schools buying without a notice.
And outside Bidlark's four fields for now: building and maintenance works, goods other than software, architecture, surveying and engineering, health and social care, local hands-on trades (cleaning, catering, grounds, building, taxis).
What Bidlark keeps
The organisation that's buying, never the names, emails or phone numbers of its staff: contact details are removed before a notice is stored, and email addresses and phone numbers are taken out of descriptions. Award winners are named only when they are organisations; anyone else shows as "a small supplier". Notices are deleted 13 months after they close, awards after 4 years. Anyone named in a notice can ask us to hide it: email hello@bidlark.co.uk.
The licence
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Bidlark isn't endorsed by any of the sources or by any government body. The official notice always has the final word.