month in review
UK public procurement in October 2018
3,847 UK public sector tenders and contract awards were published in October 2018 by 882 buying organisations, 30% up on September 2018. 9.3% of those with a recorded route to market were awarded directly, without competition.
most active buyers
- Nottingham Trent University92
- UK Shared Business Services Limited69
- Crown Commercial Service67
- Staffordshire County Council62
- National Highways59
- Leeds City Council56
- SE Shared Services56
- University of the West of England51
- Buckinghamshire County Council49
- Suffolk Sourcing49
who won most
- G Evans (Services) Ltd19
- Software Box Limited17
- Softcat PLC15
- Arup12
- Wilkin Chapman LLP11
- Allen Lane Limited9
- Centerprise International Limited8
- Ebsco Information Services8
- Specialist Computer Centres PLC8
- Insight Direct (UK) Ltd7
biggest changes on September 2018
Change in the number of notices published, against the month before. Measured as an absolute change and shown only where it is at least ten notices — a buyer going from one notice to four is a 300% rise and means nothing.
| buyer | September 2018 | October 2018 | change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nottingham Trent University | 6 | 92 | +86 |
| FCDO Services | 71 | 2 | -69 |
| University of the West of England | 0 | 51 | +51 |
| Staffordshire County Council | 17 | 62 | +45 |
| Suffolk Sourcing | 89 | 49 | -40 |
| League Football Education | 0 | 37 | +37 |
| Sheffield Hallam University | 3 | 34 | +31 |
| L&Q Construction | 3 | 33 | +30 |
| Darlington Borough Council | 9 | 39 | +30 |
| The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office | 5 | 32 | +27 |
what was bought
- construction work 562
- business and professional services 381
- health and social care 378
- architecture and engineering 229
- IT services 226
- education and training 209
- software and information systems 188
- research and development 172
- repair and maintenance 120
- transport services 115
the biggest awarded contracts of October 2018
| contract | buyer | won by | value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Digital Outcomes and Specialist 3 | Crown Commercial Service | named in the notice | £1,200,000,000 |
| RM6003 Media Buying Award Notice | Crown Commercial Service | OMD Group Ltd | £800,000,000 |
| 2183 Lincolnshire County Council- Highways 2020 Term Contract | Lincolnshire County Council | Balfour Beatty Group Ltd +2 | £762,000,000 |
| Area 10 Maintenance and Response Contract | Highways England | Amey OW Limited | £325,950,000 |
| NHS England - Midlands and East Branded Medicines - Tranche B | NHS England | Amgen Ltd +26 | £295,035,882 |
| Furniture: Supply and installation | NEUPC Ltd | Broadstock Office Furniture +1 | £268,125,000 |
| The Engineering Delivery Partner Agreement | Ministry of Defence, Agencies/Misc, Other | QinetiQ Ltd | £250,000,000 |
| HCC - 05/18 - The Provision of the Hertfordshire Growth Hub - AWARD | Supply Hertfordshire | Exemplas Ltd | £220,000,000 |
| Provision of Vehicle Enforcement Services | DVLA Commercial Directorate | NSL Ltd | £215,000,000 |
| Adult Education Budget (AEB) | Greater London Authority | 5E Ltd +28 | £200,000,000 |
Contracts published in October 2018 that name a winning supplier, ranked by the value the buyer published, excluding those flagged as a maximum rather than a price. Figures are as published; gvtcx does not adjust them. A large contract is often a multi-year framework, so the value is what may be spent over its whole life — and where several suppliers share one framework, each is shown against the framework's full value rather than its own share.
how this was counted
Notices published in October 2018 across Contracts Finder, Find a Tender, Public Contracts Scotland and Sell2Wales, under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Counts are of contracting processes, not published notices: a tender and its award notice are one contract and are counted once.
There is no total value on this page, deliberately. Published values repeat a framework's entire ceiling against every supplier on it, so a month containing one large framework would read as a spending spike that never happened. The median excludes anything flagged as a ceiling, and the reasoning is set out in full here. Where a total IS defensible — contracts awarded to a single supplier, with no framework — it is on the direct awards page.
A month stays open to revision: publishers backdate, so figures for the current month and the one before it may still move.