Glossary
The plain-English procurement glossary
The words that show up in tenders, notices and the rules behind them, explained without jargon. Buyers tender; suppliers bid. Everything else is below, in one or two sentences each, and linked from the guides.
A
- award criteria
- The published factors, and their weightings, that a buyer uses to score bids and decide who wins, such as quality, price, social value and delivery. Bidders should write directly to these criteria.
- award notice
- The formal notice, published after a decision, that records who won a contract and its value. Award notices make public spending transparent and are the raw material for much of Tender Gazette's reporting.
C
- call-off
- An individual contract awarded under a framework agreement or dynamic market. The buyer calls off the goods or services it needs on the pre-agreed terms, either by direct award or a further competition among the eligible suppliers.
- central digital platform
- The single online system introduced with the Procurement Act 2023 where suppliers register their core details once and where procurement notices are published and searched. It aims to cut repeated form-filling across bids.
- clarification question
- A formal question a supplier asks the buyer during a live procurement, for example about the specification or the scoring. Answers are usually shared with all bidders to keep the process fair.
- competitive flexible procedure
- A procurement route created by the Procurement Act 2023 that lets buyers design their own multi-stage process, including negotiation, within set rules. It replaced several of the rigid procedures inherited from the EU regime.
- consortium
- A group of suppliers that bids together to deliver a contract none could win alone, sometimes as a joint venture or with a lead supplier. Buyers assess the group's combined capacity and standing.
- contract notice
- The formal advertisement that a contract is open for bids, published on Find a Tender or Contracts Finder. It is the starting point of a competition and sets out what is wanted and how to take part. Under the Procurement Act 2023 this is called the tender notice.
- contracting authority
- A public body covered by the procurement rules, such as a government department, council, NHS trust, school or other publicly funded organisation, that buys goods, services or works. Often simply called the buyer.
- Contracts Finder
- An English government website that publishes lower-value contract opportunities and awards, typically those below the main thresholds, from central government, the wider public sector and local bodies. It is free to search and complements Find a Tender for smaller contracts.
- CPV code
- A number from the Common Procurement Vocabulary that classifies what a contract is for. Suppliers use CPV codes to filter notices and set alerts, so that only relevant opportunities reach them.
D
- debarment
- A central listing of suppliers barred from public contracts, introduced by the Procurement Act 2023 and operated by the Debarment Review Service, part of the Government Commercial Agency. Debarment applies across procurements, unlike exclusion, which a single buyer applies to one competition.
- dynamic market
- A list of pre-qualified suppliers, introduced by the Procurement Act 2023, that buyers use to run competitions. Unlike a closed framework, suppliers can apply to join at any point during its life, which helps new and smaller firms get in.
- Dynamic Purchasing System
- The predecessor to the dynamic market under the old rules, known as a DPS. Like a dynamic market it stayed open for suppliers to join, but was limited to commonly used goods and services. It is being replaced by dynamic markets under the Procurement Act 2023.
E
- exclusion
- The removal of a supplier from a procurement on defined grounds, such as certain convictions (mandatory grounds) or poor past performance (discretionary grounds). A supplier can sometimes show self-cleaning to stay eligible.
F
- Find a Tender
- The UK's central service for advertising higher-value public contracts, used across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It replaced the older EU-based route for UK notices. Suppliers can search and set alerts free of charge, and under the Procurement Act 2023 notices flow through the central digital platform.
- framework agreement
- An agreement with one or more suppliers setting the terms for future contracts over a set period, usually up to four years. Buyers award individual call-off contracts from it, by direct award or a mini-competition, without running a full procurement each time.
G
- G-Cloud
- A government framework, run by the Government Commercial Agency (formerly Crown Commercial Service), through which public bodies buy cloud hosting, software and support. It is a common first route to public sector work for technology suppliers, especially smaller ones.
I
- incumbent
- The supplier that currently holds the contract being re-tendered. Incumbents know the service, but must not be handed an unfair advantage; buyers publish the information all bidders need to compete.
- invitation to tender
- The document, the ITT, that formally invites suppliers to bid. It sets out what to submit, the specification, the conditions of contract and how bids will be scored.
L
- lot
- A division of a larger contract into smaller parts, each of which can be bid for and awarded separately. Lotting lets smaller or specialist suppliers bid for the part they can deliver rather than the whole requirement.
M
- mini-competition
- A short competition run among the suppliers already on a framework or dynamic market to award a specific call-off. It is quicker than a full procurement because the field has already been pre-qualified.
- Most Advantageous Tender
- The basis on which contracts are awarded under the Procurement Act 2023, the MAT. It replaced Most Economically Advantageous Tender, signalling that buyers may weigh wider value, not only the narrowly economic, when they set award criteria.
- Most Economically Advantageous Tender
- The award basis under the old rules, MEAT: the best combination of price and quality against the published criteria. It was renamed Most Advantageous Tender under the Procurement Act 2023.
N
- National Procurement Policy Statement
- A government statement, the NPPS, of strategic priorities for public procurement that contracting authorities must have regard to when they buy. The mechanism is set by the Procurement Act 2023, but the priorities themselves change with the government of the day.
O
- open procedure
- A single-stage procurement in which any interested supplier can submit a full bid in response to the advertisement, with suitability and bid assessed together. It suits straightforward requirements.
P
- prior information notice
- An early notice, the PIN, that flags a buyer's intention to run a future procurement. It lets suppliers prepare, and in some cases can shorten the timescales of the competition that follows.
- Procurement Act 2023
- The law that overhauled public procurement in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, in force from 24 February 2025. It replaced the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 for most new procurements and introduced the central digital platform, new notices, the competitive flexible procedure, dynamic markets and a central debarment regime.
- Procurement Policy Note
- Government guidance, known as a PPN, that tells contracting authorities how to apply procurement policy on a specific issue, such as payment terms or social value. PPNs are numbered and issued periodically by the Cabinet Office.
- Public Contracts Regulations 2015
- The previous rulebook for most UK public procurement, derived from EU directives. It applied until the Procurement Act 2023 took over for new procurements from 24 February 2025, though some contracts and arrangements begun earlier still run under it during a transition.
- Public Contracts Scotland
- Scotland's national portal for advertising public sector contract opportunities. Scotland runs its own procurement rules, separate from the Procurement Act 2023, so suppliers targeting Scottish bodies should watch this site as well as the UK-wide services.
S
- selection questionnaire
- The stage where a buyer checks a supplier's suitability, such as its financial standing, experience and grounds for exclusion, before or alongside evaluating the bid itself. Often called the SQ, and formerly the pre-qualification questionnaire or PQQ. Under the Procurement Act 2023 the equivalent is set through the conditions of participation.
- Sell2Wales
- The Welsh Government's portal advertising public sector contract opportunities in Wales, including lower-value work. It is free to register and search, and is the main place to watch for Welsh public bodies.
- social value
- The wider economic, social and environmental benefit a contract can deliver beyond the goods or service itself, such as local jobs, skills or lower carbon. Buyers often score social value as part of the award criteria.
- specification
- The part of a tender that describes what the buyer needs, whether in detailed technical terms or by the outcomes it wants. It defines the scope a bid has to address.
- standstill period
- A short pause, at least eight working days where one applies, between telling bidders who has won and signing the contract. It gives unsuccessful bidders time to seek feedback or challenge the decision.
- subcontracting
- Delivering part of a contract through another firm while the main supplier keeps overall responsibility to the buyer. Being a named subcontractor is a common route in for smaller specialists.
T
- threshold
- The contract value at which the full procurement rules apply. Above the relevant threshold a buyer must usually advertise widely and run a regulated competition; below it, lighter rules apply. Thresholds vary by contract type and are updated periodically, so check the current figures.