How many bids do public tenders get?
Published 30 October 2026
In Find a Tender award notices published between 1 September and 28 October 2026, the typical (median) lot with a published bid count got 3 bids, and 31% got just one. Open procedures got more, with a median of 6. A single-bid lot is often a contract awarded without being advertised first.
The honest answer is that it varies a lot, by how the contract is awarded, by sector and by buyer. But the published data gives a useful picture. We counted the bid figures UK buyers published in Find a Tender award notices between 1 September and 28 October 2026.
In short: where a buyer published a bid count, the typical (median) lot got 3 bids, and 31% got just one. Open competitions got more, with a median of 6.
Where do these figures come from?
When a buyer publishes a contract award notice on Find a Tender, it can include how many bids or tenders it received for each lot. We took every award notice published from 1 September to 28 October 2026, about 10,500 separate procurements, and read the counts buyers gave.
Please read these limits before using the numbers:
- Not every notice has a count. We found 7,406 lot-level bid counts. Many notices, and all direct awards, don't give one.
- Counts are per lot. A contract split into five lots can produce five counts.
- Two measures are mixed. Older-style notices report bids received. About half of the lots on notices under the Procurement Act 2023 report tenders received at the final stage instead, which can be lower than the number of suppliers who first showed interest.
- It's two months. Figures for other periods may differ, and we'll refresh this page.
- Sectors are based on the main contract code, and some sector samples are small.
Does how the contract is awarded change the number of bids?
Of the roughly 10,500 procurements with award notices in our window, about 31% (3,294) were direct awards, 27% (2,815) limited procedures, 24% (2,497) open procedures and 11% (1,177) selective procedures such as restricted or competitive flexible. The method wasn't stated for 7% (711).
Direct awards go to a chosen supplier without a competition, so they have no bid count. For the rest, this is what buyers reported:
| How the contract was awarded | Lots with a count | Median bids | Lots with one bid | |---|---|---|---| | Open procedure | 3,301 | 6 | 13% | | Restricted procedure | 452 | 5 | 19% | | Competitive flexible procedure | 1,039 | 5 | 9% | | Below-threshold open procedure | 528 | 4 | 12% | | Award without prior publication | 1,836 | 1 | 85% | | All lots with a published count | 7,406 | 3 | 31% |
For open procedures, the middle half of lots received between 3 and 11 bids. So if you see an open tender, expect to be one of several bidders. If a contract was awarded without being advertised first, there was usually only one bidder.
How many bids do tenders get in each sector?
Here are the median bid counts for the sectors we work in, using award notices that reported bids received. These mix all award methods, which is why some look low.
| Sector | Lots with a count | Median bids | Lots with one bid | |---|---|---|---| | Construction | 140 | 2 | 42% | | Training and education | 64 | 5 | 28% | | Passenger transport | 406 | 5 | 16% | | Care | 231 | 1 | 53% | | Cleaning | 21 | 7 | 19% | | Catering | 31 | 2 | 45% |
A low median doesn't mean an easy win. In care, almost half the lots with a count (112 of 231) came from limited procedures, where 92% had one bid. Care lots awarded through an open procedure had a median of 9 bids. Cleaning, catering and training samples are small, so treat those figures as a rough guide only.
What does other research say?
The Open Contracting Partnership looked at the first year of Procurement Act notices, from 24 February 2025 to 28 February 2026. It found:
- the share of lots with only one bid in above-threshold open and competitive flexible procedures fell from about 21% to about 16% over the year;
- procurements with a pre-market engagement or planned procurement notice averaged 4.7 bids, against 3.8 without;
- the share of bids from small and medium-sized businesses and voluntary groups rose from 54% to 67%.
The researchers describe this as a best-efforts analysis, done soon after the year end, and note that UK procurement data quality is variable and may contain errors.
What does this mean for a small business?
- A single-bid lot isn't a gap in the market. It's often a contract awarded without being advertised first. Look at why there was one bidder before treating it as a chance.
- Open tenders are competitive, but not crowded. A median of 6 bids means a well-chosen, well-evidenced bid has a real chance.
- Early notices help. Buyers who engage the market early tend to get more bids. Watch for planned procurement and pre-market notices in your trade, and talk to buyers then.
- Read award notices. They show who won, at what value, and often how many bids came in. That's the best guide to a repeat contract.
We're not lawyers, and this page isn't legal advice. Procedures are set by the Procurement Act 2023 and each buyer's tender documents.
Find the tenders worth bidding for
Tender Desk, from Your Evenings Ltd (that's us), is a one-off £149 diagnostic for small businesses. It's done for you: we find up to 5 live tenders that suit a business your size and tell you what to fix before you bid. It arrives by email within 5 working days of your form, with no call. If no live tender fits, we say so and why. Find the tenders worth bidding for in your trade
Sources
- Our counts: Find a Tender open data (OCDS), contract award notices published 1 September to 28 October 2026, bid statistics as published by buyers, counted by Your Evenings Ltd on 30 October 2026.
- Find a Tender and its data documentation
- Open Contracting Partnership, "The UK Procurement Act one year on: what does the data tell us?", 3 March 2026 (Find a Tender notices, 24 February 2025 to 28 February 2026)
- Procurement Act 2023
This page summarises the sources above. It isn't legal advice.
Written with AI assistance by Your Evenings Ltd. Last updated: 30 October 2026.