Guidance

Buyers and Suppliers: How to use the Central Digital Platform, the enhanced Find a Tender service (HTML)

Updated 11 April 2025

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On the 24th February 2025, the rules that shape how public bodies buy goods and services changed. In this guide, we will give you an overview of the central digital platform including what can be found there, how to look at the notices, notifications and the use of data.

Additional video guidance is available detailing these steps.聽

For more detailed walkthrough videos on how to register for the Central Digital Platform, please check out the GCF Youtube site.

Why is there a central digital platform?

The central digital platform is an online resource which will make it easier for suppliers to find and bid for contract opportunities. It is the place where all the regulated public procurement notices are published.

These notices are important for transparency as they set out the details about:

  • What goods, services or works the public sector is going to buy,
  • Opportunities for suppliers to tender for contracts,聽
  • Information about the process by which a decision to enter into a public contract is made, and聽
  • Information about the awarded contract throughout its life.

The notices are issued throughout the process of the procurement, into contract management, and are designed to allow interested parties to look at them free of charge.

There are 17 notices across all the parts of the procurement and contract management cycle.聽 Not all the notices are used in every procurement as some relate to special activities.

In this guide, we will look in depth at 3 key notices to watch out for:

  • The Pipeline Notice (UK1)
  • The Tender Notice (UK4)
  • The Contract Award Notice (UK6)

Pipeline Notice (UK1)聽

The pipeline notice lets suppliers know what procurements are expected.

This is a mandatory notice for any contracting authority that spends more than 拢100 million, under relevant contracts, in any financial year. In-scope contracting authorities must publish this notice for any intended requirement over 拢2 million.聽

For more information on the pipeline notice, please read the and the . Supplementary guidance is available on Gov.UK.

Tender Notice (UK4)

The tender notice lets suppliers know that there is an opportunity to tender for.

For more information on the tender notice, please read the and the . Supplementary guidance is available on Gov.UK.

Contract Award Notice (UK6)

Once tenders have been assessed, the contract award notice is published to let suppliers know that the contracting authority intends to enter into a public contract. This includes details of the awarded supplier and the estimated value of the contract.

For more information on the contract award notice, please read the and the . Supplementary guidance is available on Gov.UK.

Searching for opportunities and setting up notifications

There will be lots of notices published over time. To help in locating specific notices, there are search tools and notifications available.

To demonstrate the functionality, this guide will walkthrough an example of a small supplier looking for a suitable contract in the East of England.

To begin looking for notices, you should select 鈥楽earch鈥� on the homepage of Find a Tender.

You will then be presented with all of the notices on the platform. As you can see, there are a range of filters to help you narrow down the options.

You can select which notices you would like to see under the 鈥榥otice type鈥� filter. By selecting Tender Notice you will be able to see all of the available tender notices.聽

Next, using the 鈥楽uitability鈥� filter, select 鈥楽mall and medium-sized enterprises鈥� to see those opportunities that have been marked as particularly suitable for Small and Medium Enterprises.

You also have the option to filter opportunities by delivery location. You will be able to select regions from the 鈥楥ontract location鈥� filter.

By clicking 鈥楽elect regions鈥�, it will open the below pop-up. From here, you can select one, or many, regions for the contract delivery, then click 鈥楢dd regions to filter鈥�.

Once you have added all the filters necessary for your search, click 鈥楿pdate results鈥� to search for notices that are within your filters.聽

To make this easier, you can also set up alerts on the system using 鈥榮aved searches鈥�. This means you will get an email to tell you when someone has posted a notice that meets your criteria.聽

Once you have selected the filters you would like to search for, you can select 鈥榮ave search鈥� which will open the below pop up. You will be able to name the search and select how frequently you would like a notification emailed to you.聽

Use of the Central Digital Platform Data

All the published notices contain data that is structured and searchable in the Open Contracting Data Standard and is available for re-use under the open government licence 3.0, directly from the central digital platform.