month in review

UK public procurement in February 2021

5,462 UK public sector tenders and contract awards were published in February 2021 by 1,270 buying organisations, 5% up on January 2021. 6.6% of those with a recorded route to market were awarded directly, without competition.

notices

5,462

buyers

1,270

named a winner

4,052

awarded directly

6.6%

median value

£100,000

most active buyers

who won most

biggest changes on January 2021

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	January 2021	February 2021	change
West Sussex County Council	2	131	+129
North East Lincolnshire Council	148	27	-121
UK Shared Business Services Limited	76	164	+88
Department for Education	90	33	-57
SE Shared Services	58	4	-54
East Ayrshire Council	0	44	+44
Hampshire County Council	61	19	-42
National Highways	41	80	+39
Derby City Council	55	16	-39
University of the West of England	0	38	+38

what was bought

the biggest awarded contracts of February 2021

contract	buyer	won by	value
Private Sector Development Partner for the South East Territory	The South East Territory, comprising Lothian NHS Board, Borders NHS Board, City of Edinburgh Council, Scottish Borders Council, East Lothian Council, West Lothian Council, Midlothian Council, Police Scotland, Scottish Ambulance Service, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and their statutory successors	Hub South East Scotland Limited	£1,200,000,000
676_20 Facilities Management Services	Espo	ABM FACILITY SERVICES UK LIMITED +19	£500,000,000
676_20 Total Facilities Management	ESPO	ABM Facility Services UK Limited +19	£500,000,000
Campaign Solutions 2	Crown Commercial Service	named in the notice	£490,000,000
For Transparency Purposes Only: Future Service Delivery Contract (FSDC): Provision of Armed Forces Pay, Pensions and Military HR and Administrative Services	MINISTRY OF DEFENCE	SHARED SERVICES CONNECTED LTD	£294,190,913
Supply of tyres, glass and fast fit solutions	Crown Commercial Service	Advanced Vehicle Glazing Ltd +13	£200,000,000
Adult Education Budget Procurement Contracts for Services 2021/22	Department For Education	ACACIA TRAINING LIMITED +87	£157,000,000
Adult Education Budget Procurement contracts for services 2021/22	Department for Education acting through the Education and Skills Funding Agency	Acacia Training Limited +85	£157,000,000
NTP Deloitte Support Phases 3 & 4	Department of Health and Social Care (T&T)	Deloitte LLP	£145,000,000
Hard Facilities Management Services	Scottish Fire and Rescue Service	Robertson Facilities Management (FM)	£135,000,000

Contracts published in February 2021 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 February 2021 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.