frequently asked questions

Public Sector Tenders provides tender alert services of public sector opportunities to businesses across the UK. Our goal is to make it easier for suppliers to find public sector contracts to bid for by alerting you when relevant contracts and tenders are published thereby saving you time and effort.

Organisations that spend public money as part of a procurement are required by the government to publish the opportunity as well as make it open to suppliers that may be interested in bidding. Public Sector tenders and contracts are published by various organisation such as – local government, authorities, councils and central government, universities, housing associations, NHS trusts and various others.

Public Sector Tenders saves suppliers and businesses interested in finding and bidding for public contract notices time, money and resources. By sending the most pertinent and important contracts straight to your inbox, your resources can be allocated to other core aspects of your business.

Our service is designed to be accessible, easy to use and reasonably priced for those new to bidding on public sector tenders. You can try our full service free of charge for 14 days and get all the support you need to start bidding on tenders. If you stay with us as a paid member, the monthly fee is significantly less than our competitors.

Tender opportunities on our website are updated hourly. However, if you’re registered with us, you don’t have to worry about remembering to check the site each day since we send you a daily email alert with a snapshot of the latest available tender opportunities.

Searching for tenders on our website is designed to be straightforward and easy. You can search for tender and contract opportunities by using the search form on the homepage or via the search tenders page. To find a tender service, simply enter the keywords that pertain to the tenders you want to see, the location, the minimum and maximum value of the tender. If you would like to see a broader range of search results, you can leave these blank.

The most important thing you can do to increase your chances of winning a tender is to ensure that you take time to review and understand the tender specifications and whether or not your product or service fits those requirements. You should also spend time to carefully create your offer and ensure it’s tailored to the tender. If you’d like a more detailed breakdown of the tendering process and how to increase your chances of winning a bid, have a look at our comprehensive guide to public sector tenders & contracts.

An invitation to tender (ITT) is the first step in tendering. At this stage, suppliers and contractors are invited to provide their offers for supply or service contracts in the public sector. An ITT document will list the organisation’s requirements. This includes the timeline, goods, services and the evaluation process that will be followed. Invitations to tender are commonly used by public sector organisations.

A request for information is a general request to the supplier to provide more information about their service offerings, which should include things like features and your capacity to deliver the project if awarded. The RFI does not explicitly seek specific information, such as pricing or service tiers. It is used to learn about potential suppliers that meet the initial requirements of the contract.

A request for proposal (RFP) is when a company or public sector organisation puts out an open request for suppliers and contractors to submit bids to complete a new project that the organisation has published.

A Request for Quote (RFQ) is when the organisation asks potential suppliers or service providers to submit their price quotes for consideration when bidding on tenders.

The Response Deadline refers to the date on which anyone intending to bid on a tender must have responded to the opportunity. For contract opportunities, this means answering any questions asked by the buyer and completing the necessary steps before the submission deadline. It’s not possible to submit your response after this deadline.

Procurement is the process used by a company or organisation when they’re acquiring goods and services for government programmes or projects.

Contracting refers to the process used to acquire those goods and services, which varies depending on the organisation, regulations that must be followed, and other factors.”

Yes, we do. You can try out our services completely free of charge for 14 days before deciding if you’d like to sign-up for one of our paid plans.”

Yes. If you want to upgrade or downgrade your current plan, you can easily change this from within the “My Account” dashboard. Simply login to your account and click “change” on the subscription section of your account.

When you sign up for one of our paid plans, you’ll automatically start a 14-day free trial. If you decide to continue as a paid member, you’ll be billed once the trial period ends and then on the same date each month until you cancel.

We operate a simple and straightforward cancellation policy. There are no cancellation or early termination fees and you can open or close your account at any time. Simply login to your account and click “cancel” on the subscription section of your account. Please note that this is final and will fully cancel your subscription.

If you’re unable to access your account because you’ve lost your password, go to the login page, then click “lost password”, enter your email address, and we’ll send you a link to reset your password. If you do not see the email prompting you to reset your password, please check your spam folder, or get in touch with us at hello@publicsectortenders.co.uk, and we’ll be happy to help you.

You can close your account via your account dashboard. Simply login to your account and click “cancel”. Please note that this is final and will fully close your account.