month in review

UK public procurement in December 2025

6,721 UK public sector tenders and contract awards were published in December 2025 by 1,439 buying organisations, 9% down on November 2025. 29.2% of those with a recorded route to market were awarded directly, without competition.

notices

6,721

buyers

1,439

named a winner

5,838

awarded directly

29.2%

median value

£200,000

most active buyers

who won most

biggest changes on November 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	November 2025	December 2025	change
Portsmouth City Council	11	130	+119
National Highways	99	40	-59
Defra	74	15	-59
Ministry of Justice	85	32	-53
Buckinghamshire Council - e-Tendering System	56	7	-49
Scottish Government	24	72	+48
NHS England	189	145	-44
City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council	31	72	+41
Transport for London	57	20	-37
Suffolk County Council	72	39	-33

what was bought

the biggest awarded contracts of December 2025

contract	buyer	won by	value
Midlands Rail Hub Alliance – Alliance Partners (Non-Signalling Disciplines)	Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd	AtkinsRealis UK Limited +2	£1,380,000,000
Supply of Prisoner and Non-Prisoner Food	Ministry of Justice	BFS GROUP LIMITED	£879,600,000
Civil Engineering Framework (Scotland)	Scottish Government	Amalgamated Construction Ltd +7	£600,000,000
Workplace Services	Nuclear Restoration Services Limited	Amey Community Limited	£495,000,000
Procurement of a delivery partner for New Homes 6	London Borough of Lambeth	Countryside Properties (UK) Limited	£400,000,000
Media Planning and Buying	BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation)	Havas Media Limited	£299,900,000
ABANDONED - Green Assets Maintenance & Management Procurement	HS2	named in the notice	£209,408,000
IT Managed Service Procurement	Northern Ireland Electricity Networks	British Telecommunications PLC	£200,000,000
Integrated Community Musculoskeletal and Pain Service	NHS Mid and South Essex Integrated Care Board	Cora Health MSK Ltd	£164,149,073
Newlon Housing Trust - Repairs and Voids Contract	Newlon Housing Trust	MNM Property Services Limited +1	£150,000,000

Contracts published in December 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 December 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.