Progress against the open contracting commitments in the Open Government National Action Plan 2019 to 2021
Published 22 December 2021
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The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 require the publication on Contracts Finder of the majority of tenders (opportunities) over certain low value thresholds (£10,000 in central government and £25,000 in the wider public sector) even where these have been advertised elsewhere, for example on a local eSourcing portal. The objective being to provide a one stop shop for suppliers to search for public sector opportunities. There are certain exemptions to this requirement[footnote 1].
The UK has the following commitments in the Open Government National Action Plan 2019 to 2021:
| Verifiable and measurable milestones to fulfil the commitment | New or ongoing | Start date | End date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agree joint methodology with civil society for measuring tender and award publication | New | April 2019 | Complete |
| Achieve 80% of above threshold tenders and awards on Contracts Finder | Ongoing | December 2019 | October 2020 |
| Achieve 90% of above threshold tenders and awards on Contracts Finder | Ongoing | October 2020 | April 2021 |
| Report regularly on publication of contract documents, and extent of redactions. | Ongoing | January 2020 | Quarterly until April 2021 |
Progress
Ensuring effective and timely publication of opportunities is key to enabling suppliers, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to access public sector contracts. For the Q2/Q4 period, July 2020 to April 2021, the UK exceeded the target for October 2020 of 80% of eligible above (low value) threshold tenders[footnote 2] published on Contracts Finder, with 11,743 opportunity notices published (achieving 85.1% average over a period of nine months). The UK also exceeded the target of 90% by April 2021, with the highest monthly figure achieved in March 2021 of 90.1%.
| July | August | September | October | November | December | January | February | March | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total records analysed | 2,715 | 2,684 | 2,731 | 3,251 | 3,245 | 3,137 | 2,361 | 2,497 | 3,655 |
| Total in-scope for publication on Contracts Finder | 1,526 | 1,516 | 1,483 | 1,752 | 1,787 | 1,607 | 1,196 | 1,313 | 1,789 |
| Total of which have been matched to Contracts Finder | 1,231 | 1,227 | 1,270 | 1,474 | 1,506 | 1,344 | 1,053 | 1,172 | 1,611 |
| In-scope notices that have not been matched | 263 | 246 | 214 | 278 | 281 | 263 | 163 | 141 | 178 |
| Percentage coverage of in-scope tender notices published on Contracts Finder | 80.7% | 80.9% | 85.6% | 84.3% | 84.3% | 83.6% | 88.0% | 89.3% | 90.1% |
In addition, 4788 (on average 40%) tenders that are out of scope of the requirements to publish on Contracts Finder, have been published voluntarily on the site over the same reporting period, increasing the scope of opportunities to tender for UK suppliers.
Methodology
We have focused on identifying opportunities to tender, as these are frequently advertised at a local level.
In March 2020, Cabinet Office engaged an independent supplier, Spend Network, to identify public sector contract opportunity notices published on Tender Electronic Daily (TED), the Official Journal of the EU as well as a range of national and local procurement portals.
From the initial sample an algorithm was used to identify notices that appeared to match a notice on Contracts Finder. They then identified all notices that were deemed to be out of scope for publication on Contracts Finder using a combination of contracting authority name, value and industry categorisation (CPV code).
This provided a shortlist of remaining notices that were deemed to be in-scope for publication on Contracts Finder and an assessment of whether they had been matched. The list was further refined through a second stage manual matching process undertaken by the supplier.
A team in the Cabinet Office then investigated the shortlist and identified that a proportion of those flagged for investigation were either found to be a match that was not picked up by the algorithm, or found to be duplicates, where for example the same notice has appeared on both TED/FTS and a local portal. A further proportion was found to be out of scope. This is the case when, for example, a notice was an early engagement activity, grant, or where their requirement was overseas and of little interest to a UK audience.
Where a match was not found and the notice seemed to be in-scope, the contracting authority would be investigated and appropriate advice given. The figures presented above are the adjusted figures taking into account Cabinet Office’s final review.
Next steps
We worked closely with Spend Network during 2020 to develop and refine a robust and repeatable methodology for identification and matching of tenders.
In addition to this, we are also working closely with central government departments to monitor performance on the completeness of publication of award notices as well as the timeliness of publishing award notices against policy requirements.
Taking into account the exemptions for publication on Contracts Finder, the UK has exceeded the first target of 80% and the second target of 90% of in-scope tenders published by contracting authorities on Contracts Finder. Interestingly, our research also shows that around 40% of notices deemed out of scope for publication on Contracts Finder appear to match notices that have been published on the site, demonstrating a good level of voluntary publication and further increasing the scope of opportunities available to suppliers in one place.
There are a small minority of contracting authorities who are not meeting their requirements to publish and we are actively engaging them to ensure that we continue to make progress to close the gap in publication.
We are in the process of developing a workable methodology for identifying gaps in contract awards publication; our intention is to begin reporting on award data by central government Q4 2021/Q1 2022.
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The following are not required to publish on Contracts Finder: schools and academies, procurement of healthcare services and the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as well as procurements undertaken under the Defence and Utilities regulations. ↩
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The thresholds for publication are £10,000 in central government and £25,000 in the wider public sector. ↩