Procurement glossary · Notices and finding work
Contract award notice
The notice a contracting authority publishes when it has decided who will receive a contract. Under the Procurement Act 2023 its publication starts the eight working day mandatory standstill period, and it is published on the Find a Tender service where anyone can read it.
Also called CAN.
What it means in practice
The contract award notice does two jobs. Legally it triggers standstill. Commercially it is a free, public record of who won, and often at what value.
Most suppliers read award notices only for procurements they bid. Reading them systematically across your sector is one of the cheapest forms of market intelligence available. It tells you who is winning, at roughly what price level, on what contract lengths, and for which buyers, and all of it is published.
It also gives you dates. A four year contract awarded this month is a procurement that will run again in roughly three and a half years, and the supplier incumbency you would have to displace is now a known quantity rather than a guess. That is the basis of a pipeline built on published fact rather than on a tender alert service.
Where suppliers get caught
Reading award notices only when you lost. The notices for contracts you did not bid are where the useful information is, because they map a market you have not entered yet and they cost nothing to read.
Common questions
Where are UK contract award notices published?
On the Find a Tender service for procurements above threshold, and on Contracts Finder for a range of below-threshold and other public sector awards. Both are free and searchable.
Does a contract award notice mean the contract is signed?
No. It means the award decision has been made. Under the Procurement Act 2023 the mandatory standstill of eight working days runs from the day it is published, and the contract cannot normally be entered into before that ends.
Related terms
If a tender in front of you turns on this, send us the documents and the deadline and we will tell you honestly whether it is worth bidding. Call 020 3668 5488, or read the rest of the UK procurement glossary.