month in review
UK public procurement in November 2019
4,362 UK public sector tenders and contract awards were published in November 2019 by 1,052 buying organisations, 5% down on October 2019. 7.1% of those with a recorded route to market were awarded directly, without competition.
most active buyers
- UK Shared Business Services Limited102
- SE Shared Services98
- London Borough of Enfield76
- FCDO Services73
- Ministry of Justice69
- Ministry of Defence65
- East Riding of Yorkshire Council48
- National Highways45
- Suffolk Sourcing44
- City of London Corporation43
who won most
- Wilkin Chapman LLP22
- Computacenter (UK) Limited12
- Ford Motor Company Ltd11
- Insight Direct (UK) Ltd11
- Prestige Domestic Property Maintenance11
- Atkins10
- Lura Constructions Limited10
- Motus Group / Imperial Commercials Ltd10
- Softcat PLC10
- Software Box Limited10
biggest changes on October 2019
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 | October 2019 | November 2019 | change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newcastle University | 96 | 6 | -90 |
| SE Shared Services | 45 | 98 | +53 |
| Ministry of Justice | 112 | 69 | -43 |
| Southern Housing | 9 | 39 | +30 |
| Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council | 12 | 38 | +26 |
| Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office | 43 | 18 | -25 |
| Buckinghamshire County Council | 49 | 25 | -24 |
| Cheshire East Borough Council | 31 | 8 | -23 |
| North Tyneside Council | 5 | 28 | +23 |
| City of London Corporation | 21 | 43 | +22 |
what was bought
- construction work 721
- business and professional services 438
- architecture and engineering 287
- health and social care 283
- vehicles and transport equipment 248
- IT services 246
- software and information systems 224
- research and development 181
- education and training 160
- repair and maintenance 136
the biggest awarded contracts of November 2019
| contract | buyer | won by | value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thamesmead Waterfront Development | Peabody | Lendlease Europe Holdings Limited | £3,500,000,000 |
| Water, Wastewater and Ancillary Services (2) | Crown Commercial Service | ADVANCED DEMAND SIDE MANAGEMENT LIMITED +14 | £2,000,000,000 |
| National Fuels (2) | Crown Commercial Service | AMP BIOMASS FUEL LTD +18 | £2,000,000,000 |
| Training Estate Services | Crown Commercial Service | Amey Community Limited +4 | £1,500,000,000 |
| NEPO507 - Travel Management Services | Association Of North East Councils | Click Travel Ltd | £1,000,000,000 |
| Silsden Primary School | Bradford Metropolitan District Council | Galliford Try Building Ltd | £892,907,045 |
| Innovation Chain North | Great Places Housing Group | AA Connolly +110 | £750,000,000 |
| Prisoner Escort and Custody Services (Generation 4) - Lot South | Ministry of Justice. | Serco Limited | £745,000,000 |
| Prisoner Escort and Custody Services (Generation 4) - Lot North | Ministry of Justice. | GEO AMEY PECS Limited | £632,000,000 |
| Furniture and Associated Services | Crown Commercial Service | Alba Beds Ltd +19 | £400,000,000 |
Contracts published in November 2019 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 November 2019 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.