month in review
UK public procurement in May 2024
7,355 UK public sector tenders and contract awards were published in May 2024 by 1,602 buying organisations, 8% down on April 2024. 10.6% of those with a recorded route to market were awarded directly, without competition.
most active buyers
- Ministry of Defence173
- UK Research and Innovation119
- National Highways117
- UK Shared Business Services Limited93
- FCDO Services83
- London Borough of Haringey78
- Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office73
- Surrey County Council71
- North Yorkshire Council68
- Buckinghamshire Council62
who won most
- CSG Usher's Ltd25
- Insight Direct (UK) Ltd25
- Softcat PLC24
- Phoenix Software Limited22
- Chiltern Healthcare20
- Oracle Corporation UK Limited20
- Dyer & Butler19
- Civica UK Limited17
- Alanis Coach Travel16
- Deloitte LLP16
biggest changes on April 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 | April 2024 | May 2024 | change |
|---|---|---|---|
| North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board | 115 | 1 | -114 |
| UK Research and Innovation | 211 | 119 | -92 |
| King's College Trust | 2 | 51 | +49 |
| Met Office | 53 | 4 | -49 |
| Environment Agency | 73 | 30 | -43 |
| The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King's Lynn NHS Foundation Trust | 44 | 3 | -41 |
| Transport for London | 65 | 30 | -35 |
| Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office | 41 | 73 | +32 |
| Suffolk County Council | 72 | 42 | -30 |
| Southern Housing | 1 | 31 | +30 |
what was bought
- construction work 1,010
- business and professional services 830
- health and social care 645
- IT services 527
- architecture and engineering 477
- software and information systems 439
- transport services 388
- repair and maintenance 318
- education and training 295
- vehicles and transport equipment 271
the biggest awarded contracts of May 2024
| contract | buyer | won by | value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Travel, Transport, Accommodation & Venue Solutions | Crown Commercial Service | named in the notice | £12,500,000,000 |
| Digital and Legacy Application Services (DALAS) Lots 1, 4a & 4b | Crown Commercial Service | named in the notice | £2,800,000,000 |
| Construction Professional Services 2 | The Minister for the Cabinet Office acting through Crown Commercial Service (CCS) | AECOM Limited +18 | £2,000,000,000 |
| Peterhead to North Yorkshire HVDC Link Project | Eastern Green Link 2 Limited | BAM NUTTALL LIMITED, HITACHI ENERGY UK LIMITED and HITACHI ENERGY Sweden AB +1 | £1,600,000,000 |
| YPO 001187 - Supply of Natural Gas and Associated Services | YPO | Corona Energy Retail 1 Limited | £1,560,000,000 |
| Tech Devices - LINK4 | Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, trading as North of England NHS Commercial Procurement Collaborative ("NOE CPC"), for itself and acting as agent for the Participating Organisations and NHS Shared Business Services Limited | Ballicom Ltd +26 | £1,500,000,000 |
| Digital Capability for Health 2 | Crown Commercial Service | named in the notice | £1,200,000,000 |
| Torness to Hawthorn Pit HVDC Link | National Grid Electricity Transmission PLC | GE Vernova & Mytilineos +2 | £924,000,000 |
| Debt Resolution Services 2 | The Minister for the Cabinet Office acting through Crown Commercial Service | 1ST LOCATE (UK) LIMITED +38 | £800,000,000 |
| Integrated Community Care Equipment and Associated Services | Kent County Council (T/A Procurement Services) | Access UK Limited +13 | £800,000,000 |
Contracts published in May 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 May 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.