month in review

UK public procurement in March 2021

7,271 UK public sector tenders and contract awards were published in March 2021 by 1,395 buying organisations, 33% up on February 2021. 10.4% of those with a recorded route to market were awarded directly, without competition.

notices

7,271

buyers

1,395

named a winner

5,695

awarded directly

10.4%

median value

£100,000

most active buyers

who won most

biggest changes on February 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	February 2021	March 2021	change
Public Health England	48	216	+168
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)	41	178	+137
Department of Health and Social Care	125	243	+118
West Sussex County Council	131	18	-113
Department for Education	33	124	+91
Defra Network eTendering Portal	102	171	+69
Ministry of Defence	73	128	+55
UK Shared Business Services Limited	164	116	-48
Department for Transport	6	52	+46
Ministry of Justice	39	80	+41

what was bought

the biggest awarded contracts of March 2021

contract	buyer	won by	value
Strategic Property Development Partner	Warwickshire County Council	Countryside Properties (UK) Ltd	£2,500,000,000
2nd Generation Search & Rescue Aviation (UKSAR2G) ITSFT	MCA - Maritime and Coastguard Agency	Bristow Helicopters Limited	£1,959,355,159
Voucher Schemes	Crown Commercial Service	CHARIS GRANTS LIMITED +12	£1,500,000,000
Private Sector Development Partner for the East Central Territory	The East Central Territory comprising the public authorities listed in the notice.	Hub East Central Scotland Limited	£1,200,000,000
AASC - Asylum Accommodation & Support Services Contract NW	Home Office	Serco Limited +1	£1,079,000,000
AASC - Asylum Accommodation & Support Services Contract MEE	Home Office	Serco Limited +1	£1,030,000,000
WSCC - TH - Strategic Development Partner - AWARD	West Sussex County Council	Morgan Sindall Investments Ltd	£1,000,000,000
Building Materials and Equipment	Crown Commercial Service	named in the notice	£900,000,000
Media Services	The Minister for the Cabinet Office acting through Crown Commercial Service	23red Limited +24	£800,000,000
Joint Venture for Development of Multiple Sites in Suffolk	Suffolk County Council	Lovell Partnerships Limited	£750,000,000

Contracts published in March 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 March 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.