The notice types, and which ones you actually need to watch
Know which notice means “you can bid now”, which means “you have already missed it”, and which is the one worth setting an alert on.
3 min read · 3 government sources, read 14 Sep 2026
Since the Procurement Act came into force, every stage of a public contract has its own notice with its own number. Sixteen of them. In practice you will meet four, and the rest matter mainly because they tell you something about work you cannot bid for yet.
The four that matter
UK4: tender notice
You can bid now. This is the one. It advertises for tenders or requests to participate, and above threshold you normally get at least 25 days. Everything on this site marked as open started with one of these.
UK3: planned procurement notice
It is coming, and you have time to prepare. Early warning of a specific procurement. It is optional for the buyer, and in some circumstances publishing one lets them shorten the bidding window later, so seeing one is a reason to get your paperwork in order now rather than a reason to relax.
UK6: contract award notice
A decision has been made, but nothing is signed. Published after the award decision and before the contract is signed. If you bid and lost, this starts the clock on the standstill period, the only window in which the decision can be questioned before it becomes final.
UK7: contract details notice
It is signed. Published after signature, above and below threshold, often with the contract documents attached. For a competitor this is the most useful document in public procurement: it tells you what the winner actually promised to do and for how much.
The other twelve
| Notice | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| UK1 Pipeline notice | What a buyer expects to put out over the next 18 months. Months of warning, and the best possible time to introduce yourself. |
| UK2 Preliminary market engagement | The buyer wants to talk to the market before writing the specification. Taking part is how a specification ends up describing something you can actually deliver. |
| UK5 Transparency notice | A contract is being awarded without a competition, and this explains why. Published at least 8 days before award. If the reasoning looks thin, this is the notice to read closely. |
| UK9 Contract performance | How the incumbent is doing against their targets. Rarely flattering, and public. |
| UK10 Contract change | The value or length of a live contract is about to change. A contract being extended is work that is not coming to market when you expected it. |
| UK11 Contract termination | A contract has ended, including ending normally. Sometimes the first sign that something is about to be re-tendered. |
| UK12 Procurement termination | The competition was cancelled and nothing will be awarded. Mandatory once a tender or transparency notice has been published. |
| UK13 Dynamic market intention | A dynamic market is about to be set up and you can apply to join. See the separate guide. Joining one is usually the cheapest route into a buyer. |
| UK14 Dynamic market establishment | It exists now. You can still apply: they stay open. |
| UK15 Dynamic market modification | Its scope or terms have changed. |
| UK16 Dynamic market cessation | It has closed. Anything bought through it now goes somewhere else. |
| UK17 Payments compliance | Published every six months, showing how promptly that buyer pays. Worth reading before you price a job for them. |
What the records here actually look like
Notices do not arrive evenly. Across everything held on this site, award and contract notices outnumber open tenders by some margin: most of what is published is a record of work that has already been decided. That is the raw material behind every supplier page and every “who holds this now” question on the site, and it is why the useful move is usually to look at what a buyer has already bought rather than only at what is open today.
The current counts are on the figures page, updated as records arrive.
One thing the numbering hides
A single notice can cover several contracts at once: one notice advertising a framework with eight lots is eight separate opportunities. On this site each of those gets its own page, because you can win one and lose the other seven.