What Is a Tender? Public Procurement in Plain English
A tender is a formal, priced written proposal a supplier submits in response to a buyer advertising work they want done. In UK public procurement the buyer publishes a notice, sets out a specification and publishes in advance how bids will be scored, suppliers submit by a fixed deadline through a procurement portal, and evaluators award marks against those published criteria alone. The deadline is absolute: a submission one minute late cannot be accepted.
Key facts at a glance
- What a tender is
- A formal priced written proposal submitted in response to a buyer advertising work, scored against criteria published before the deadline
- Where UK opportunities appear
- Find a Tender for higher value public contracts, Contracts Finder for many below-threshold ones, plus framework operator and buyer portals
- The governing law
- The Procurement Act 2023, in force 24 February 2025, replacing the previous regulations. Healthcare clinical services follow the separate Provider Selection Regime
- How winners are chosen
- Published weightings between price and quality, with quality split across scored questions. Evaluators cannot award marks outside the published criteria
- The deadline
- Absolute. Public buyers have effectively no discretion to accept a late submission, because doing so would be open to challenge by other bidders
- What losing entitles you to
- Feedback on your scores, and a standstill period before the contract is signed in which concerns can be raised
Every word in the documents, translated
Tender. The proposal you submit. Also used as a verb, and as a name for the whole process.
ITT, Invitation to Tender. The main document pack: what the buyer wants, how they will score it, and what you must submit.
RFQ, Request for Quotation. A lighter version, usually for lower value or simpler purchases, often mostly about price.
SQ or PQQ, Selection Questionnaire or Pre Qualification Questionnaire. The first filter. Factual questions about turnover, insurance, accreditations and past contracts. Largely pass or fail, and it decides who is invited to bid.
Scored quality questions, also called method statements. The written answers that are marked and that decide who wins.
Award criteria and weightings. The published split of marks between price and quality, and between individual questions. Read this before the specification.
Social value. A separately scored section on wider benefit: local employment, training, carbon reduction, community work. Commonly 10 to 20 percent of the total marks.
Clarification questions. Your opportunity to ask the buyer what something means. There is a deadline for asking, earlier than the submission deadline, and answers usually go to every bidder.
Framework agreement. A pre approved list of suppliers. Being on it does not give you work; it gives you the right to compete for work released under it, typically for four years.
DPS, Dynamic Purchasing System. Similar to a framework, but suppliers can join at any point during its life rather than only at the opening.
Call off. An individual contract awarded under a framework or DPS.
Lot. A subdivision of a tender, by service type, geography or value. You can usually bid for some lots and not others.
Standstill. A short pause between the buyer announcing the intended winner and signing the contract, during which unsuccessful bidders can challenge.
BAFO, Best and Final Offer. A final round asking shortlisted bidders to submit their best terms.
Contracting authority. The buyer: a council, NHS body, government department, university, housing association or similar.
How a UK public tender actually runs
The buyer publishes a notice describing what they want and where the documents are. Higher value contracts must appear on Find a Tender; many others appear on Contracts Finder.
You register on the named portal and access the pack. Common UK portals include Atamis, Jaggaer, Proactis, In-Tend, ProContract and Public Contracts Scotland. Registration and verification take time and are the most common procedural trap.
If there is a selection stage, you complete a questionnaire about your company. Turnover thresholds, insurance levels, accreditations and reference contracts are assessed here, mostly on a pass or fail basis.
You submit a price and written answers to the scored questions by the deadline. Word limits are enforced and exceeding them can cost you the marks for that answer.
Evaluators score independently against the published criteria, then moderate. Price is scored by formula; quality is scored by judgement against defined bands.
The buyer announces the intended award, observes standstill, then signs. You are entitled to feedback on your scores whether you won or lost, and requesting it is the single most useful thing an unsuccessful bidder can do.
What changed under the Procurement Act 2023
The Procurement Act 2023 came into force on 24 February 2025, replacing the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 for new procurements. The mechanics a bidder experiences are broadly familiar, but several things changed.
Greater transparency. More notices are published across the contract lifecycle, including planned procurement and contract performance, which means more visibility of what is coming before it is advertised.
A central debarment list for suppliers excluded on specified grounds.
The most advantageous tender replaces the most economically advantageous tender as the award test, giving buyers slightly broader scope to weigh factors beyond price.
A light touch regime for certain social, health and education services, with more flexibility for the buyer.
Healthcare clinical services sit outside this framework entirely, under the Provider Selection Regime, which has its own routes and criteria.
Who can bid, and the usual misconception
Any business can bid for public contracts. There is no approved list you must join first and no minimum size.
What does gate you is meeting the requirements of the specific opportunity: minimum annual turnover, insurance at stated levels, accreditations such as ISO 9001 or Cyber Essentials, financial standing, and usually two or three reference contracts of comparable scale.
Those requirements scale with the contract, which is why smaller organisations are better served starting with smaller contracts or single lots and building references, rather than beginning with the largest opportunity they can find.
UK public bodies are also under long standing policy pressure to open contracts to smaller suppliers, and many tenders are deliberately divided into lots for that reason.
The five things that most often go wrong
Leaving the portal until the end. Registration, verification and upload all take longer than expected, and portals slow down as the deadline approaches.
Answering a different question. Evaluators score against published criteria and cannot give marks for anything outside them, however impressive it is.
Assurance instead of evidence. Saying you have robust processes scores nothing. Naming the standard, the certificate, the date and the responsible person scores.
Missing a mandatory document. A missing certificate or unsigned declaration can make an otherwise strong bid non compliant, and the buyer often cannot ask you for it afterwards.
Treating social value as an afterthought when it is 10 to 20 percent of the marks and the section where competitors are weakest.
Frequently asked questions
What is a tender?
A formal, priced written proposal that a supplier submits in response to a buyer advertising work they want done. In UK public procurement the buyer publishes how bids will be scored before the deadline, and evaluators award marks against those published criteria alone.
What is the difference between a tender and a quote?
A quote is usually just a price. A tender is a structured submission where written answers about how you would deliver the work are scored alongside price, often with quality carrying more weight than cost.
What does ITT stand for?
Invitation to Tender: the main document pack setting out what the buyer wants, how they will evaluate submissions, and what you must provide. It is the stage at which the contract is awarded, as distinct from a selection questionnaire, which decides who is invited.
Where are UK public sector tenders advertised?
Find a Tender is the central service for higher value public contracts. Contracts Finder carries many lower value opportunities. Individual buyers and framework operators also advertise through portals such as Atamis, Jaggaer, Proactis, In-Tend and ProContract.
Can a small business bid for government contracts?
Yes. There is no minimum size and no approved list you must join first. What gates you is meeting the requirements of the specific opportunity, such as turnover thresholds, insurance levels, accreditations and reference contracts, and those scale with contract size.
What is a framework agreement?
A pre approved list of suppliers that buyers can purchase from without running a full procurement each time. Being appointed does not give you work. It gives you the right to compete for call off contracts released under it, usually for around four years.
How long does a tender process take?
Commonly three to six weeks from publication to submission deadline, then several more weeks to evaluation and award. Larger frameworks run considerably longer. Award decisions frequently land three to five months after the notice first appeared.
What happens if I submit late?
It cannot be accepted. Public buyers have effectively no discretion here, because accepting a late submission would be unfair to other bidders and open to legal challenge. A bid submitted one minute late scores nothing.
Do I find out why I lost?
Yes. Unsuccessful bidders are entitled to feedback explaining their scores, and there is a standstill period before the contract is signed in which concerns can be raised. Requesting and reading that feedback is the most valuable thing an unsuccessful bid produces.
Have a tender in front of you?
Send it over with the deadline and we will tell you whether it is worth bidding for, and whether you need help writing it. If you can do it yourself we will say so. Call 020 3668 5488.