Procurement at DfE
Bidding for Department for Education (DfE) contracts.
UK procurement law
We must follow UK laws that govern how we may buy goods, services and works over a specified value or ‘threshold’.
If we expect the estimated value of a contract to be over the relevant threshold, we must advertise our requirements on the Find a Tender service.
The Cabinet Office publishes the procurement thresholds.
Procurement Act 2023
The Procurement Act 2023 came into force on 24 February 2025 to improve the way we procure supplies, services and works for the public sector.
As part of these improvements, the Procurement Regulations 2024 were laid in Parliament in March 2024. The official record of the bill’s progress through Parliament, with all supporting documents, is available on the UK Parliamentary website.
Further information is available on Transforming public procurement.
Contracting opportunities
The Department for Education (DfE) does not respond to unsolicited marketing. We advertise opportunities in the following ways.
Latest contracting opportunities
We, and our executive agencies, advertise all new contracting opportunities over £12,000, where appropriate, through the UK e-notification service, Find a Tender.
We notify suppliers of these future opportunities by advertising:
Research opportunities
DfE’s research page raises awareness of our current and future research interests with a programme of external research engagement.
The Central Digital Platform
All businesses in the UK are now required to register on The Central Digital Platform through Find a Tender. They will submit and store certain core organisational information, as required by the regulations to participate in a covered procurement.
Further information is available in the Central Digital Platform - factsheet.
D-U-N-S Number
All registered businesses in the UK and Ireland have a D‑U‑N‑S Number. This number provides us with valuable information about which suppliers are bidding for our contracts. Use this form to request a D-U-N-S Number if you do not have one.
Prompt payment policy
We follow government policy and pay all correctly submitted invoices within 5 days of receiving them.
Jaggaer: the DfE etendering portal
Jaggaer is an etendering system used by DfE to run procurements and publish opportunities and notices onto Find a Tender. It is a password-protected online service.
As a potential supplier, you should register with Jaggaer so you can:
- receive tender correspondence
- submit tender responses
Terms and conditions for DfE contracts
To find out which terms and conditions apply when bidding for a particular DfE contract, use the advertisement and tender documentation in Find a Tender.
We usually use the following contracts:
The terms and conditions are regularly updated. We may augment them with a small number of DfE-specific terms and conditions.
Where buying from a framework, we use the corresponding Crown Commercial Service (CCS) framework terms and conditions.
Purchase orders
Our purchase orders (documents that ask a company to supply goods and give details of price, method and date of payment) are subject to our .
Key performance indicators (KPIs) for government’s most important contracts
A list of central government’s most important contracts is available. This shows up to 4 relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) and the performance of the vendor against those KPIs.
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
We aim to maximise opportunities for SMEs to participate in our procurement opportunities, by:
- encouraging competition
- reducing barriers to participation
We encourage SMEs to work with us directly or as part of the supply chain by:
- having a tender process that treats SMEs fairly
- supporting commercial relationships between DfE, SMEs and larger organisations
- monitoring our SME spend and reporting to Cabinet Office for publication
Opportunities for SMEs
As well as advertising new opportunities on the Find a Tender service, we run innovation days where suppliers can showcase their offer. We advertise these on LinkedIn and X.
Our SME action plan outlines how DfE procures and works with SMEs.
For queries or feedback about the DfE SME action plan, email PolicyAssurance.CommercialQueries@education.gov.uk.
Find out more about the relationship between the government and small businesses from the Small Business Crown Representative, Shirley Cooper OBE.
For queries about the work of the Cabinet Office Small Business Team, email smallbusinessteam@cabinetoffice.gov.uk.
Equality and diversity in procurement
All suppliers to DfE should demonstrate a commitment to equality and diversity.
Public Sector Equality Duty guidance for suppliers
DfE is subject to the Public Sector Equality Duty. The Equality Duty is relevant where we contract services that are:
- delivered on DfE premises
- carrying out a public function
- employee facing
- public or school facing
If organisations are delivering services under any of these categories, they will be under the same Equality Duty as the department. The has more information.
How we process your personal data
DfE’s personal information charter contains the standards you can expect from us when we ask for and hold your personal information.
Find out more in .