How to read a UK contract notice
Last reviewed against official sources:
A contract notice is the official public record of one step in a public procurement. Since 24 February 2025, notices published under the Procurement Act 2023 carry a code from UK1 to UK17 that tells you which step it is.
To read one quickly, check six things: the notice type; the buyer; the deadline, and whether the notice has since been changed or cancelled; the value and whether it includes VAT; the lots; and whether the contract is a framework.
The notice types you will see
A procurement usually produces several notices over its life: perhaps a pipeline or engagement notice, then a tender notice, an award notice and a contract details notice. Find a Tender lists these types:
| Code | Notice | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| UK1 | Pipeline notice | Contracts the buyer expects to procure over the coming months |
| UK2 | Preliminary market engagement notice | The buyer is talking to the market before designing the procurement |
| UK3 | Planned procurement notice | Advance warning of a tender; a qualifying one can shorten the tender period |
| UK4 | Tender notice | The opportunity itself: how to take part and by when |
| UK5 | Transparency notice | The buyer intends to award directly, without competition |
| UK6 | Contract award notice | Who the buyer intends to award to; usually starts standstill |
| UK7 | Contract details notice | The contract has been signed |
| UK9 | Contract performance notice | Performance against key indicators, or a breach |
| UK10 | Contract change notice | A signed contract has been modified |
| UK11 | Contract termination notice | A contract has ended |
| UK12 | Procurement termination notice | The procurement has been cancelled |
| UK13–UK16 | Dynamic market notices | Setting up, changing or closing a dynamic market |
| UK17 | Payments compliance notice | The buyer's record on paying invoices |
Source: Find a Tender. There is no UK8 on that list. Procurements started before 24 February 2025 still use the older notice formats, and devolved Scottish public bodies publish on Public Contracts Scotland under separate rules. Our glossary defines each type in more detail.
A worked example: an MOD tender notice
Here is how to read a real tender notice: notice 058911-2026, “Repatriation Services”, published by the Ministry of Defence. The details below are the notice’s structured fields as originally published. The buyer may have changed the notice since, so always read the latest version before bidding.
| Field | As published | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer | Ministry of Defence | Who runs the procurement. Defence buyers include DE&S, Dstl, DIO and others, so check the exact name. |
| Published | 23 June 2026 | The tender notice's publication date. The tender period runs from the day after. |
| Procedure | Open procedure | A single stage: anyone can submit a full tender by the deadline. |
| Submission deadline | 22 July 2026, 10:30 (UK time) | 29 days after publication. Late tenders are normally rejected, so note the time as well as the date. |
| How to submit | Through the Defence Sourcing Portal | You need a DSP supplier account before you can bid. |
| Estimated value | £4,900,000 excluding VAT (£5,880,000 including VAT) | Find a Tender publishes both figures. Thresholds include VAT, so compare the threshold with the including-VAT figure. |
| Above threshold | Yes | The full Procurement Act rules on time periods, notices and standstill apply. |
| Lots | 1 | The whole requirement is bought as one contract. Where there are several lots, each lot has its own value and can be won separately. |
| Framework | Closed framework; maximum 1 supplier; call-offs without reopening competition | One supplier will be appointed, and later orders go to that supplier without a further competition. |
| Contract period | 1 January 2027 to 31 December 2028, extendable to 31 December 2030 | Two years with up to two more. For bid pricing, plan for the longest period. |
| Expected award | By 16 October 2026 | The buyer's planned award date, not a guarantee. |
| CPV code | 98371200 | The Common Procurement Vocabulary code buyers use to classify what they are buying. Use it to search for similar work. |
This tender did not appear out of nowhere. Find a Tender lists two earlier notices for the same procurement: a pipeline notice (UK1) published on 22 May 2025, and a preliminary market engagement notice (UK2) published on 21 May 2026, a month before the tender. Suppliers watching those notices had months of warning.
You can also open the same notice on DefenceLens, which links back to the official record.
Reading the value correctly
Notice values are the most commonly misread field. Four distinctions matter:
- Estimated value is not contract value. A tender notice gives the buyer’s estimate. The value actually agreed appears later, in the contract award and contract details notices.
- A framework value is a ceiling, not a promise. Guidance says a framework’s estimate is “the value of all contracts that could be awarded under the framework”. Spending can turn out to be far lower. Valuation guidance
- Check whether VAT is included. Under the Act, “the contract value estimation should be inclusive of VAT”, and the thresholds include VAT. Find a Tender often shows two figures, labelled as excluding and including VAT, for example “£200,000,000 excluding VAT (£240,000,000 including VAT)”. In 11,703 Find a Tender notices published between 8 May and 2 October 2026 that showed both figures, the including-VAT figure was exactly 20% higher in 83% of cases, identical in 6%, and in the rest the first figure was zero (3%) or the two differed by another proportion (8%). Compare the threshold with the including-VAT figure.
- Zero or missing values mean “not stated”, not “free”. Some notices publish £0 or leave the value blank.
Reading deadlines and checking for changes
- The submission deadline has a time. Deadlines are often mid-morning rather than midnight, so check the time as well as the date.
- Check for later notices. Buyers can extend deadlines or change requirements, and the newest version is the one that counts. A procurement termination notice (UK12) means the procurement has been cancelled.
- No submission deadline does not mean “open”. In a competitive flexible procedure with a participation stage, the first deadline may be for requests to participate. Only shortlisted suppliers are then invited to tender.
- Minimum periods. For above-threshold competitive tendering procedures under the Act, the normal minimum tendering period is 25 days for electronic submission with all documents available from the start. It can be shorter after a qualifying planned procurement notice or in urgency. Below-threshold tenders have no fixed minimum, but the time allowed must be reasonable and the same for every supplier. Time periods guidance, how long MOD tenders stay open
Reading award and contract notices
- Contract award notice (UK6). Published after the award decision and before the contract is signed. It names the supplier or suppliers the buyer intends to contract with and usually starts an eight-working-day standstill period, during which the contract cannot be entered into. There is no mandatory standstill for some awards, including call-offs under frameworks and dynamic markets and light-touch contracts. Section 51, standstill guidance
- Contract details notice (UK7). Published once the contract is signed, within 30 days of signature for above-threshold contracts.
- Not every award has a notice. Awards under a defence and security framework do not need a contract award notice, so call-offs can be invisible in public data. Section 50
- One procurement, several notices. A procurement with several lots, or one that is changed after award, produces several notices. Counting notices therefore overstates the number of contracts.
DefenceLens’s public pages do not republish who won which contract. Award and winner intelligence is part of our paid plans.
Sources
Official guidance changes. Check the source before relying on a rule for a live bid.
- Notice types and sequences (Find a Tender) — checked 2 Oct 2026
- Guidance: Valuation of contracts (GOV.UK) — updated 13 Jul 2026
- Guidance: Contract award notices and standstill (GOV.UK) — updated 17 Aug 2026
- Guidance: Time periods (GOV.UK) — updated 17 Aug 2026
- Guidance: Frameworks (GOV.UK) — updated 13 Jul 2026
- Notice 058911-2026, Repatriation Services (Find a Tender) — published 23 Jun 2026; fields taken from the Find a Tender OCDS API
- Procurement ocds-h6vhtk-051eae: notice history for the worked example (Find a Tender) — checked 2 Oct 2026
- Procurement ocds-h6vhtk-052961: example of Find a Tender's VAT labelling — checked 2 Oct 2026
- Find a Tender OCDS release API documentation
- Procurement Act 2023, sections 50 and 51 (award notices, standstill) — in force 24 Feb 2025
DefenceLens is an independent commercial service. It is not part of, or endorsed by, the Ministry of Defence or any UK government body. This guide is general information about public procurement, not legal advice.