month in review

UK public procurement in March 2024

8,001 UK public sector tenders and contract awards were published in March 2024 by 1,555 buying organisations, 36% up on February 2024. 9.8% of those with a recorded route to market were awarded directly, without competition.

notices

8,001

buyers

1,555

named a winner

6,350

awarded directly

9.8%

median value

£101,549

most active buyers

who won most

biggest changes on February 2024

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 2024	March 2024	change
UK Research and Innovation	110	328	+218
FCDO Services	14	105	+91
UK Shared Business Services Limited	108	182	+74
Cambridgeshire County Council	8	62	+54
NHS Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly Integrated Care Board	60	8	-52
Health & Safety Executive	59	7	-52
London Borough of Islington	0	51	+51
Ministry of Justice	37	82	+45
Hampshire County Council	19	60	+41
Defra	49	88	+39

what was bought

the biggest awarded contracts of March 2024

contract	buyer	won by	value
RM6329 Logistics, Warehousing, and Supply Chain Solutions	Crown Commercial Service	named in the notice	£1,540,500,000
OPR005 IRN Refresh 2024 -New Suppliers	Essex County Council	AYS Care Ltd +6	£1,000,000,000
Hertfordshire and West Essex Pathology Services Reference number: T121-19	The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust	Health Services Laboratories Analytics LLP +1	£950,000,000
Hyde Park Winter Wonderland 2025-2032	The Royal Parks Ltd	International Management Group (UK) Limited	£900,000,000
Scape Construction framework — Scotland	Scape Procure Scotland Ltd	Kier Construction Limited +2	£500,000,000
Ceramic Membrane Programme	Scottish Water	Ross-Shire Engineering Ltd	£500,000,000
Audio Visual: System Design/Consultancy, Supplies, Installation and Maintenance	NEUPC Ltd	ANJELI LIMITED +16	£450,000,000
Heathrow.Published for completeness, see description for details	Home Office	MITIE CARE & CUSTODY LTD	£256,740,429
P5939-Harriott, Apsley and Pattison Houses Regeneration Project	Tower Hamlets	Countryside Properties (UK) Ltd	£200,000,000
Supply of Audio-Visual Solutions	Kent County Council (T/A Procurement Services)	Akhter Computers Limited +20	£200,000,000

Contracts published in March 2024 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 2024 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.