Dynamic markets and DPS, explained

If you sell to the public sector repeatedly, most of your work will come through standing arrangements rather than one-off open tenders. Frameworks are the best known of these. Dynamic markets are the other kind, and since the Procurement Act 2023 came into force on 24 February 2025 they have become more useful and more common. This guide explains what a dynamic market is, how it differs from both a closed framework and the older Dynamic Purchasing System, and what you actually do to get on one.

What a dynamic market is

A dynamic market is a list of suppliers that a contracting authority has checked and approved to bid for a particular type of work. To join, you meet the authority's published "conditions for membership": usually a check on your financial standing, relevant experience, insurance, and that you are not caught by any grounds for exclusion. That check is a qualification exercise, not a full tender. You are not bidding for a contract when you apply to join; you are earning the right to be invited to compete for the contracts that follow.

Once you are a member, the authority (and often other authorities entitled to use the market) runs competitions among the members whenever it has something to buy. Each of those competitions leads to a real contract with its own scope, value and duration.

Two features matter most. First, a dynamic market stays open: suppliers can apply to join throughout its life, and the authority must accept applications at any time and admit qualifying suppliers as soon as reasonably practicable. Second, a dynamic market can be set up for any kind of procurement, whether goods, services or works, from off-the-shelf products to complex professional services.

How it differs from a closed framework

The contrast with a framework is the point worth understanding, because the two look similar from the outside but behave very differently.

• A closed framework is shut once it is set up. Suppliers bid to be appointed during a single competition. If you miss that window, you are locked out for the life of the agreement, which can be up to four years for an ordinary framework. Nothing you do gets you on until it is re-tendered.
• A dynamic market never closes to new members. You can apply the week it launches or three years in. This removes the single biggest frustration with frameworks for a growing firm: watching desirable work flow through a list you could not get onto because you were not ready, or not trading, on the day the framework was advertised.

There is a second structural difference. A framework fixes its supplier line-up, its terms and often its maximum rates at the outset, for years. A dynamic market fixes only the membership conditions; commercial terms are set in each individual competition. And unlike frameworks, which carry an express statutory maximum term (four years for an ordinary framework), the Procurement Act does not set an equivalent fixed maximum term for a dynamic market, so an authority can keep one running for as long as it remains useful.

The trade-off is that framework membership sometimes allows a buyer to award you work directly, without further competition. A dynamic market does not: as explained below, work is always competed for. Membership is the ticket to the room, not a share of the spend.

From DPS to dynamic market: what changed

The dynamic market replaced the Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) that operated under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. If you have bid before, you will recognise the shape, because a DPS was also an open list you could join at any time. Three things changed with the move to dynamic markets:

• Scope broadened. A DPS was restricted to commonly used goods and services that were generally available on the market, the off-the-shelf end of buying. A dynamic market carries no such limit. Authorities can run a dynamic market for specialist services and works too, so the tool now reaches types of contract that a DPS never could.
• It became a single, unified tool. The Act folded the old DPS and separate qualification systems into one instrument, the dynamic market, with one set of rules across the public sector.
• Transparency and notices were formalised. A dynamic market runs on a defined set of notices published on Find a Tender, so its existence, changes and closure are all matters of public record.

On the transition itself, be clear about one thing: existing DPS arrangements did not vanish on 24 February 2025. A DPS that was set up under the 2015 Regulations before that date continues to run under those older rules, and contracts called off from it stay under the old regime. These legacy systems are winding down rather than switching over, and they are expected to expire by 23 February 2029 at the latest. In practice this means you will see both live dynamic markets and surviving DPS arrangements advertised side by side for a few years yet, each governed by its own rulebook. Read each notice for which regime applies before you rely on assumptions.

How buyers run competitions within a dynamic market

When a member authority wants to buy something, it runs a competition among the relevant members rather than going back out to the whole market. Under the Procurement Act 2023 this is done through the competitive flexible procedure, the Act's adaptable route that lets a buyer design its own stages and dialogue to suit the requirement. Neither a straight open procedure nor a direct award can be used to award a contract through a dynamic market, so every piece of work is genuinely competed.

For each competition the authority publishes a tender notice and invites members (or the members within the relevant part of the market) to bid. Because the qualification stage is already behind you, these competitions are lighter than a full open tender: the focus is on your solution, your quality response and your price for the specific job, not on re-proving that your company is sound. That is the practical benefit of membership, faster, more frequent bidding on work you can already see.

A note on structure: larger dynamic markets are often divided into categories or lots by type of work or geography, and a market can be organised so that you join only the parts you can serve. There is also a specific variant, the utilities dynamic market, used by utilities buyers, where the tender notice goes only to members rather than being published openly.

Why dynamic markets suit smaller firms

Dynamic markets remove several of the barriers that keep smaller suppliers out of framework-based buying:

• No missed window. You are never shut out for years by bad timing. A firm that incorporates, wins its first references and buys the right insurance this quarter can join next quarter.
• A lighter door. Joining is a qualification check, not a full bid, so the effort to get in is modest compared with a framework competition.
• Every contract is contestable. Because direct awards are not allowed, a well-prepared small firm gets a real shot at each call for competition rather than watching work handed to an incumbent.
• Join only what fits. Where a market is split into categories or regions, you sign up for the slice you can genuinely deliver, which keeps you competing against relevant rivals rather than the whole field.

The discipline is the same as for any standing arrangement: membership is marketing spend, not revenue. It earns you visibility of the work and the right to bid. Winning still depends on responding quickly and well when the competitions come.

How to find and join one

• Search Find a Tender. Dynamic markets are advertised there through their establishment notices, alongside the tender notices for each competition. Save searches for your keywords, categories and region so new markets and new calls reach you by email.
• Check the devolved portals too. If you sell in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, watch Public Contracts Scotland and Sell2Wales as well, since buyers there advertise their own arrangements.
• Read the conditions for membership before applying. They tell you exactly what evidence you need: turnover figures, insurance levels, relevant experience and case studies, and confirmation that no exclusion grounds apply. Assemble that evidence once and reuse it.
• Apply early, then stay ready. Joining is only the start. Keep your details, certificates and contacts current on the buyer's portal so the competition invitations keep arriving, and treat each one as the actual sales opportunity it is.

If dynamic markets exist for what you sell, join them as soon as you qualify. The cost of entry is low, the door never shuts, and every contract that flows through them has to be won in open competition, which is exactly the ground a prepared smaller firm should want to fight on.