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Things worth saying about UK public procurement that the data supports and nobody else is saying. Written pieces, with the figures as at the date each was published — the numbers that move on their own live in the reports.
4,858 Everything ends on 31 March One date carries 157 times the contracts of a normal day. It happens every year, and the replacement work reaches the market in a ten-week window. 20 Aug 2026 2,072 Given without competition, July 2026 A direct award is a contract placed with one supplier without competition. July's largest, with each buyer's own rate of using the route. 16 Aug 2026 £88.1tn Why you cannot add up UK contract values Every published figure is real. Adding them together still produces a number nearly three hundred times too large — and the reason is worth understanding before you trust any table that ranks suppliers by money. 16 Aug 2026