Portals and systems
Find a Tender(FTS)
Written by Justin Cesman, CEO of Skim. Last reviewed:
- Definition
- Find a Tender (FTS) is the UK government's central digital platform for publishing public procurement notices above the threshold, replacing the EU's Official Journal (OJEU/TED) after Brexit. Under the Procurement Act 2023, FTS carries all regulated above-threshold notices for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Key takeaways
- Find a Tender (FTS) is the statutory home of UK above-threshold procurement notices — every regulated tender, award and pipeline notice must appear there.
- FTS launched on 1 January 2021, the day the Brexit transition ended, replacing the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) and its TED platform for UK contracts.
- Since 24 February 2025 the enhanced FTS is the central digital platform under the Procurement Act 2023, publishing 17 notice types across the full procurement lifecycle.
- From 1 January 2026 the international threshold for goods and services is £135,018 (central government) or £207,720 (sub-central authorities), and £5,193,000 for works — all inclusive of VAT.
- FTS notices are higher value and more strategically significant than the below-threshold contracts that appear on Contracts Finder alone.
How it works
Find a Tender launched on 1 January 2021, the day the UK's Brexit transition period ended, replacing the requirement to publish UK contract notices in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) via its Tenders Electronic Daily platform. Any UK public sector procurement above the international thresholds must be advertised on FTS, which covers contracting authorities across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Since 24 February 2025, an enhanced FTS has been the central digital platform mandated by the Procurement Act 2023 — the single online resource where regulated procurement notices are published, alongside a Supplier Information Service that lets suppliers register core details once and reuse them. It carries 17 notice types across the full lifecycle, from the pipeline notice and preliminary market engagement notice through the tender notice and contract award notice. Notices are published in the Open Contracting Data Standard under the Open Government Licence, so they can be downloaded and analysed in bulk.
From 1 January 2026, the thresholds that trigger FTS publication and full regulated procedures are £135,018 for central government goods and services, £207,720 for sub-central authority goods and services, £663,540 for light touch contracts, and £5,193,000 for works — all calculated inclusive of VAT and across the contract's full lifetime, including extensions. These figures are revised every two years to reflect the UK's obligations under the World Trade Organisation's Government Procurement Agreement, and they replaced the higher 2024 figures (£214,904 for sub-central goods and services, £5,372,609 for works).
Compared with Contracts Finder, FTS offers more granular search — including filtering by CPV codes — and is the legally required home for the highest-value opportunities. Above-threshold notices generally appear on both platforms, but FTS is where compliance obligations attach: missing it means missing the regulated competitions that account for the majority of public sector spend by value.
Find a Tender vs Contracts Finder
| Feature | Find a Tender (FTS) | Contracts Finder |
|---|---|---|
| Primary purpose | Above-threshold (high-value) regulated notices | Lower-value and below-threshold opportunities |
| Replaced | OJEU / TED for UK contracts (from 1 Jan 2021) | Nothing — launched in 2011 |
| Mandatory publication trigger | Contracts at or above the international thresholds | Above £12,000 (central government) or £30,000 (sub-central) |
| Role under the Procurement Act 2023 | The central digital platform for regulated notices | Retained for below-threshold notices |
| Search and filtering | Granular, including CPV code filtering | Basic search; manual buyer-entered data |
Under the Procurement Act 2023
Reviewed
Find a Tender survives the reform, but its role depends on when the procurement started. Procurements commenced before 24 February 2025 ran under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR 2015), with FTS used in its original 2021 form. Procurements commenced on or after 24 February 2025 fall under the Procurement Act 2023, which makes the enhanced FTS the central digital platform for all regulated notices — both above and below threshold for UK procurements, except below-threshold notices in Scotland, which remain on Public Contracts Scotland. Separately, the thresholds changed again on 1 January 2026: the international threshold for sub-central goods and services fell from £214,904 to £207,720 and the works threshold fell from £5,372,609 to £5,193,000, so more procurements are now caught by the full regime.
Sources: GOV.UK — How to use the Central Digital Platform, the enhanced Find a Tender service · GOV.UK — PPN 023: 2026 Threshold Amounts · Procurement Act 2023 (legislation.gov.uk)
Why it matters for bidders
FTS carries the highest-value UK procurement opportunities. If you are pursuing contracts above the international thresholds — which represent the majority of public sector spend by value — FTS is where they are legally required to appear, so it is the one platform a serious bidder cannot afford to monitor inconsistently. The deeper signal sits in the award notices FTS publishes: because the data is open and structured, you can see who won past contracts at this value, what they were worth, and how often a buyer returns to market — intelligence that tells you whether an opportunity is genuinely contestable before you commit bid resource. Reading that award history the way teams who have won £3bn+ in UK and EU public contracts do is what turns a notice feed into a pipeline.
How Skim helps
Skim's Opportunity Discovery agent monitors FTS continuously, matching new above-threshold notices against your capability profile and alerting you the moment they publish — while its Competitor Analysis agent mines the award notices FTS carries so you can judge who you are up against, and at what value, before committing to the bid.
Frequently asked questions
- What is Find a Tender?
- Find a Tender (FTS) is the UK government's online service for publishing public procurement notices above the international thresholds. It launched on 1 January 2021, replacing the EU's Official Journal, and is now the central digital platform for regulated notices under the Procurement Act 2023.
- What is the difference between Find a Tender and Contracts Finder?
- Find a Tender publishes higher-value, above-threshold regulated notices and is mandatory at the international thresholds. Contracts Finder publishes lower-value and below-threshold opportunities, from £12,000 for central government. Above-threshold notices appear on both, but below-threshold contracts appear only on Contracts Finder.
- What are the Find a Tender thresholds for 2026?
- From 1 January 2026 the thresholds triggering Find a Tender publication are £135,018 for central government goods and services, £207,720 for sub-central authority goods and services, £663,540 for light touch contracts, and £5,193,000 for works — all inclusive of VAT.
- Did Find a Tender replace OJEU and TED?
- Yes. Find a Tender replaced the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) and its Tenders Electronic Daily (TED) platform for UK above-threshold contracts on 1 January 2021, when the Brexit transition period ended. TED still publishes notices for procurements in EU member states.
- Is Find a Tender free to use?
- Yes. Find a Tender is a free government service. Any supplier can search published notices without charge, and registering for the Supplier Information Service to bid is also free. Notices are published in the Open Contracting Data Standard under the Open Government Licence.
- Does Find a Tender cover Scotland?
- Yes, for above-threshold procurements across the whole UK. Since 24 February 2025 both above and below-threshold UK notices publish on Find a Tender, the one exception being below-threshold notices in Scotland, which continue on Public Contracts Scotland under the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014.
Sources
Related terms
Contracts Finder
Contracts Finder is the UK government's free, Cabinet Office-run portal where public buyers publish lower-value contract opportunities and award notices. It covers contracts above £12,000 including VAT for central government and £30,000 including VAT for sub-central bodies such as councils, NHS trusts, and universities.
Tenders Electronic Daily(TED)
Tenders Electronic Daily (TED) is the European Union's official platform for public procurement notices, publishing the Supplement to the Official Journal of the EU. It carries around 800,000 above-threshold notices a year, worth more than €815 billion, across all EU and EEA countries.
Procurement thresholds
Procurement thresholds are the financial values, set in Schedule 1 of the Procurement Act 2023 and revised every two years, that decide which rules a UK public contract follows. A contract estimated at or above the threshold (including VAT) triggers full regulated procurement; below it, lighter rules apply.
Contract notice
A contract notice is the formal advertisement a public sector buyer publishes to start a competitive procurement and invite tenders or requests to participate. It names the requirement, the procedure, the response deadline, and where to access the tender documents. Under the Procurement Act 2023 it is renamed the tender notice.
Award notice
An award notice is a public notice confirming the outcome of a procurement — naming the winning supplier, the contract value, and the number of tenders received. Under the Procurement Act 2023 the term splits into two notices: a contract award notice published before the contract is signed, and a contract details notice published after.
Competitor analysis in procurement
Competitor analysis in procurement is the systematic study of the suppliers bidding for the same public contracts — using published award notices, framework positions, and market intelligence to learn who wins, where, at what value, and against how many bidders, so each bid is targeted rather than generic.