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UK public tenders by sector

Published 30 October 2026

Find a Tender published 3,065 new tender notices between 1 September and 28 October 2026, about 1,609 a month. By sector, that was about 224.5 a month in construction trades, 60 in training and education, 13.5 in passenger transport, 122 in care, 33.5 in cleaning and 31.5 in catering.

How many public sector tenders are published in the UK, and how many suit a small business? We counted the public data so you don't have to. This page shows the figures for the sectors we work in, with the dates and limits of each count.

How many public tenders are published in the UK?

Between 1 September and 28 October 2026, Find a Tender published 3,065 new tender notices, covering 3,060 separate procurements. That's about 1,609 a month: 1,610 in September and 1,455 in the first 28 days of October.

Find a Tender is the main service for UK public procurement notices since the Procurement Act 2023 came into force on 24 February 2025. It covers England, Wales and Northern Ireland, for larger and many smaller contracts. Contracts Finder still carries procurements that started under the old rules before that date. Scotland uses Public Contracts Scotland.

How many tenders are there in each sector?

The table shows, for each sector:

| Sector | Tenders a month | Under £500,000 a month | Awards to small or medium-sized suppliers | |---|---|---|---| | Construction trades | 224.5 | 91.5 | 46% (603 of 1,315) | | Training and education | 60 | 26.5 | 56% (317 of 564) | | Passenger transport | 13.5 | 3 | 20% (340 of 1,680) | | Care | 122 | 25 | 20% (42 of 215) | | Cleaning | 33.5 | 10 | 31% (14 of 45) | | Catering | 31.5 | 7 | 32% (10 of 31) |

Sectors are based on the main contract classification code each buyer chose. Some contracts cover more than one kind of work, so treat the lines between sectors as approximate. The cleaning and catering award figures come from small numbers, so they can swing a lot from one period to the next.

What do the figures tell you?

Construction trades have the most new notices of these six sectors, and about 41% of them stated a value under £500,000. Nearly half of Contracts Finder construction awards went to small or medium-sized suppliers. Our guide to finding construction tenders covers where to look and what buyers ask for.

Training and education has fewer notices but the highest share of awards to small or medium-sized suppliers of these six sectors, at 56%.

Passenger transport looks quiet on Find a Tender, but much of it still runs through Contracts Finder, where we counted about 51 new opportunities a month between July and October 2026. Buyers marked 98% of those as suitable for small or medium-sized suppliers.

Care has a high number of notices, but only about a fifth of them (25 of 122 a month) stated a value under £500,000, and 20% of Contracts Finder care awards went to small or medium-sized suppliers.

Cleaning and catering have around 30 notices a month each. A minority stated a value under £500,000: about 10 a month for cleaning and 7 for catering.

Where do I find tenders in my sector?

Registering your business on the Central Digital Platform is free. Since 1 April 2026, the winner of a notifiable below-threshold contract has to be registered and give the buyer its unique identifier before the buyer publishes the contract details.

Which contracts have to be advertised?

We're not lawyers, and this page isn't legal advice. Under section 87 of the Procurement Act 2023, a buyer inviting tenders for a notifiable below-threshold contract must publish a notice first. That applies from £12,000 including tax for central government buyers (including NHS trusts), and from £30,000 including tax for other buyers such as councils. Contracts below those amounts don't have to be advertised, so some small jobs never appear in these counts.

How did we count?

We plan to refresh these figures every quarter.

Get this week's shortlist

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. Get this week's shortlist for your sector

Sources

This page summarises the sources above. It isn't legal advice.

Written with AI assistance by Your Evenings Ltd. Last updated: 30 October 2026.

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