month in review

UK public procurement in April 2026

8,626 UK public sector tenders and contract awards were published in April 2026 by 1,606 buying organisations, 22% down on March 2026. 24.8% of those with a recorded route to market were awarded directly, without competition.

notices

8,626

buyers

1,606

named a winner

7,094

awarded directly

24.8%

median value

£300,000

most active buyers

who won most

biggest changes on March 2026

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	March 2026	April 2026	change
Buckinghamshire Council - e-Tendering System	4	192	+188
UK Research and Innovation	316	137	-179
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust	120	16	-104
NHS North Central London Integrated Care Board	66	0	-66
UK Shared Business Services Limited	93	27	-66
NHS Property Services Limited	89	24	-65
North Yorkshire Council	57	112	+55
Department for Education	100	45	-55
University of Exeter	67	15	-52
NPL Management Limited	56	11	-45

what was bought

the biggest awarded contracts of April 2026

contract	buyer	won by	value
STEP Construction Partner (CP)	United Kingdom Fusion Energy	ILIOS	£20,000,000,000
Construction Procurement Partnership	Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation	PAGABO LIMITED	£20,000,000,000
YPO - 001100 Supply of Electricity and Ancillary Services	Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation	Npower Commercial Gas Limited	£2,600,000,000
714964450 - Engineering Delivery Partner (EDP) Future Contract - PD1 - Pipeline Notice (UK 1)	Defence Equipment and Support	named in the notice	£2,500,000,000
Picture Archiving and Communication (PACS) System	The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust	accuRx +81	£2,000,000,000
Capital Investment Works 2026 to 2046	Southern Housing	Amber Construction Services Limited +5	£1,448,000,000
Provision of New Medium Helicopter and Support Contract	Ministry of Defence	Leonardo UK Ltd	£1,200,000,000
Electricity & Gas Supply With Metering Services	YORKSHIRE WATER SERVICES LIMITED	ENGIE POWER LIMITED	£950,000,000
704_26 Outsourced Catering Services and Procurement Support	Leicestershire County Council, trading as ESPO	ACCENT CATERING SERVICES LIMITED (04298350) +57	£800,000,000
Energy Supply for NWG - Lot 3 Meter Operator	NORTHUMBRIAN WATER LIMITED	ENERGY ASSETS LIMITED +1	£600,000,000

Contracts published in April 2026 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 April 2026 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.