UK public tenders: the smaller the contract, the less time you get

What 1,766 live tenders and 3,719 notices published 1 July 2026 to 30 September 2026 show about time, size and who wins.

Data to 30 September 2026 · live pool as of 1 October 2026 · How we counted

The smaller the contract, the less time you get

Small contracts are where small firms bid, and they come with the shortest clocks. Of the tenders worth under £25k, 43.1% gave under three weeks to respond, with a median of 21.5 days. Over £2m, it was 2.8%, with a median of 33 days.

Share giving under 21 days to respond, by contract value

• Under £25k43.1%median 21.5 days · 58 tenders
• £25k to £100k27.5%median 25 days · 102 tenders
• £100k to £500k6.5%median 29 days · 402 tenders
• £500k to £2m4%median 31 days · 326 tenders
• Over £2m2.8%median 33 days · 289 tenders

Where you look matters too. On Contracts Finder, which carries the lower-value notices, 29.5% gave under 21 days. On Find a Tender it was 2.9%.

For small firms: set alerts rather than checking weekly. A three-week window that you find in week two leaves one week to write the bid.

Deadlines land on Fridays and Mondays

28.9% of deadlines fell on a Friday and 27.8% on a Monday. A Monday deadline usually means the last push happens over the weekend.

• Mon27.8%431
• Tue15.5%241
• Wed14.2%221
• Thu11.4%177
• Fri28.9%448
• Sat0.7%11
• Sun1.5%23

What's open now

On 1 October 2026, 1,766 tenders were open. Of the 1,388 that stated a value, 36.4% were worth more than £2m and 18.2% were under £100k.

Live tenders by value

• Under £25k4.4%61
• £25k to £100k13.8%191
• £100k to £500k26.5%368
• £500k to £2m18.9%263
• Over £2m36.4%505

Live tenders by source

• Find a Tender1,488
• Contracts Finder209
• Public Contracts Scotland69

Live tenders by buyer region (top 8)

• Scotland197
• Wales129
• South East100
• North West92
• London87
• East Midlands75
• Yorkshire75
• East of England71

Where small firms have the best chance

We read 1,461 live notices for whether a small firm could realistically deliver them. In grounds maintenance, landscaping, cleaning, almost all are within reach. IT services is the hardest, at 40.2%.

Live tenders a small firm could deliver, by trade

• Grounds maintenance100%28 tenders
• Landscaping97.3%37 tenders
• Cleaning97.1%35 tenders
• Plumbing and heating83.1%89 tenders
• Training80.7%57 tenders
• Health and care80.5%149 tenders
• Catering80%35 tenders
• Building maintenance79.4%223 tenders
• Consultancy69.3%270 tenders
• Security65.2%23 tenders
• Transport64.9%94 tenders
• Supplies and equipment63.1%187 tenders
• Waste management58.3%24 tenders
• IT services40.2%122 tenders

274 of the 1,461 live notices we read (18.8%) are frameworks or dynamic markets. A dynamic market stays open for new suppliers to join, which makes it the easiest way in for a firm without a public-sector track record.

Most suppliers win once

Across 13,922 contract awards in 2025 and 2026, we counted 7,194 different suppliers. 72.1% of them won exactly one. The busiest 1% (71 suppliers) took 14.9% of all awards.

50 buyer and supplier pairings repeated ten or more times. 22 of them are care and passenger transport, where councils call off work from an approved list. Getting onto that list is the opportunity, not each individual job.

Gaps in the published data

Notices often leave out the details a supplier needs most. Of the tender notices published 1 July 2026 to 30 September 2026:

Only 35.8% of 2025 and 2026 awards name the winner's Companies House number, which makes it hard to see how much public money reaches small firms.

How we counted

• Sources: notices and awards from Find a Tender, Contracts Finder and Public Contracts Scotland, as Tenderoo recorded them. This is the data Tenderoo holds, not a complete census of UK procurement.
• Time to respond: days from a tender notice's publication to its deadline, for 1,552 of the 3,719 tender notices published 1 July 2026 to 30 September 2026. Counted: open procedures and competitive quotations from public buyers, one per buyer and title. Left out: restricted procedures (their deadline is often a second stage), private companies advertising subcontracts, repeat postings, and windows under 0 or over 365 days.
• Value bands: the estimated value the notice states. Notices without one are left out of the value figures.
• Small-firm fit and trade: Tenderoo's own reading of each live notice (1,461 read), judging whether a firm of under ten people could deliver it. Trades with fewer than 20 live notices are not shown.
• Awards: 13,922 awards with an award year of 2025 or 2026. Supplier names are matched after lower-casing and removing punctuation and words like Limited, Ltd and PLC.
• Live pool: notices with a deadline after 1 October 2026.