month in review

UK public procurement in May 2025

8,512 UK public sector tenders and contract awards were published in May 2025 by 1,454 buying organisations, 15% up on April 2025. 22.2% of those with a recorded route to market were awarded directly, without competition.

notices

8,512

buyers

1,454

named a winner

5,177

awarded directly

22.2%

median value

£420,000

most active buyers

who won most

biggest changes on April 2025

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 2025	May 2025	change
UK Research and Innovation	153	246	+93
Transport for London	26	100	+74
NHS Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly Integrated Care Board	71	0	-71
Peterborough City Council	68	3	-65
NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board	86	25	-61
University of the West of England	7	58	+51
Leeds City Council	31	72	+41
Defence Equipment and Support	4	44	+40
The Crown Estate	58	18	-40
Nottingham City Council	69	30	-39

what was bought

the biggest awarded contracts of May 2025

contract	buyer	won by	value
NHS Supply Chain Logistics Service Provider	Supply Chain Coordination Limited	GXO	£4,400,000,000
Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services 3 (CHFS3) VEAT notice	Transport Scotland	CalMac Ferries Limited	£3,900,000,000
2025 Standard Crime Contract Outcome	The Legal Aid Agency	named in the notice	£1,800,000,000
Hydrometry Measurement Instrumentation - Lot 2.1-2.2	DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS	Druck Ltd +2	£1,600,000,000
Contract for Collections, HWRC and Material Management and Street Cleansing Services	Southend City Council	SUEZ Recycling and Recovery UK Limited	£310,000,000
Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) Pathway Services	NHS England	Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership +31	£261,653,840
Extra Care and Care at Home PRINCIPAL providers	Cheshire west and Chester Borough Council	named in the notice	£250,000,000
Treatment & Disposal of Residual Waste; and Management of Household Waste Recycling Centre Services	West Northamptonshire Council	FCC Waste Services (UK) Limited +1	£237,000,000
NHDC 202302-01: The Provision of Waste and Recycling Collection and Street Cleansing Contract	North Hertfordshire District Council	Veolia	£230,000,000
Non-Invasive Ventilation, Sleep Therapy (CPAP) and Sleep Monitoring (Diagnostics)	Supply Chain Coordination Limited	Acurable Limited +27	£160,000,000

Contracts published in May 2025 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 2025 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.