UK defence procurement glossary

Notices under the Procurement Act 2023

The Procurement Act 2023, in force since February 2025, replaced the previous EU-derived regime for most UK public procurement and introduced a family of numbered notice types (UK1–UK16) published on the Find a Tender service. These are the ones suppliers meet most often.

Pipeline notice (UK1)

An annual forward look. Contracting authorities expecting to spend over £100m in a financial year must publish the contracts over £2m they expect to advertise in the next 18 months. The earliest public signal that a requirement is coming.

Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)

Announces that a buyer intends to talk to the market (or has done so) before publishing a tender — supplier days, requests for information, capability surveys. Engaging at this stage lets you shape the requirement rather than react to it.

Planned procurement notice (UK3)

Formal advance notice of a specific upcoming procurement, published before the tender notice. A qualifying planned procurement notice can allow the buyer to shorten later tendering timescales.

Tender notice (UK4)

The advertisement of a live competition — what most people mean by “a tender”. It sets out the requirement, the procedure, conditions of participation and the deadline for responses.

Transparency notice

Published when a buyer intends to award a contract directly without competition, explaining which direct-award ground applies. Worth monitoring: it shows where competition was set aside and why.

Contract award and contract details notices

Published once a decision is made: who won, and then the details of the contract entered into (value, dates, and for larger contracts a copy of the contract itself). This is the raw material of winner intelligence.

Contract change notice

Announces qualifying modifications to a live contract — extensions, scope or value changes. A useful early warning that an incumbent's contract is being stretched rather than re-competed.

Dynamic market

The Procurement Act's successor to dynamic purchasing systems: an open list of pre-qualified suppliers that new entrants can join at any time, from which buyers run quicker competitions. Defence-relevant dynamic markets are announced through dynamic market notices.

Defence-specific rules and bodies

DSPCR (Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011)

The separate regime under which many defence and security contracts are still procured, covering military equipment, sensitive works and services. If a notice cites DSPCR, different procedures and timescales apply than under the Procurement Act 2023.

MOD (Ministry of Defence)

The UK government department responsible for defence. The department itself buys, but most equipment spend flows through its delivery bodies below.

DE&S (Defence Equipment & Support)

The MOD's procurement and support organisation, based at Abbey Wood, Bristol. Buys and supports ships, vehicles, aircraft, weapons and logistics for the armed forces — the biggest single defence buyer by equipment spend.

Dstl (Defence Science and Technology Laboratory)

The MOD's science and technology arm. Buys research, studies and technical services, and runs framework routes for research providers.

DIO (Defence Infrastructure Organisation)

Manages the defence estate — bases, training areas, housing. The buyer for construction, facilities management and estates services in defence.

DASA (Defence and Security Accelerator)

Funds innovative proposals from industry and academia through themed and open competitions. A common first route into defence for startups and SMEs.

Defence Sourcing Portal (DSP)

The MOD's own supplier-facing portal, used for supplier registration, engagement and some opportunities alongside the statutory Find a Tender publication.

NSPA (NATO Support and Procurement Agency)

NATO's procurement and logistics agency, which runs its own competitions open to member-nation suppliers — a separate pipeline from UK domestic procurement.

Everyday procurement vocabulary

Find a Tender service (FTS)

The UK's official procurement publication platform (find-tender.service.gov.uk). Since Brexit it replaced the EU's OJEU/TED for UK notices, and under the Procurement Act 2023 it is the single legally mandated home for them. DefenceLens sources all notice data from FTS under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

CPV codes

Common Procurement Vocabulary — the numeric taxonomy buyers attach to notices to say what is being bought. The 35xxxxxx range covers security, fire-fighting, police and defence equipment; military-specific codes sit under 3560–3572. Filtering by CPV prefix is the fastest way to cut procurement noise.

OCDS and OCID

The Open Contracting Data Standard, the open-data format FTS publishes in. All releases about one procurement share an OCID, which is how a pipeline notice, tender and award for the same requirement are linked together.

Framework agreement

An umbrella agreement with one or more suppliers under which individual call-off contracts are awarded, often without further open competition. Missing the framework competition can lock you out of years of downstream work.

Competitive flexible procedure

The Procurement Act 2023's configurable multi-stage procedure, which lets buyers design their own competition stages; the alternative is the single-stage open procedure.

Pre-tender / early engagement

Collective shorthand for pipeline notices, preliminary market engagement and planned procurement notices — everything that happens before a tender goes live. Tracked in DefenceLens as “pipeline” stage notices.