Contracts Finder lets you search for information about contracts worth over £10,000 with the government and its agencies. You can use Contracts Finder to:

• search for contract opportunities in different sectors
• find out what’s coming up in the future
• look up details of previous tenders and contracts

TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) is a supplement to the Official Journal of the EU whereby all tenders over the European thresholds (OJEU thresholds) must be published. Here you can sign up for email alerts to receive notifications of new tendering opportunities within your area of business. 

This is our YouTube Channel. Here we will post new videos every week and keep you up to date with the basics around public sector procurement, understanding your buyers and tendering tips and tricks. Subscribe to our channel to get the latest content sent straight to your inbox. 

We have a LinkedIn page where we post content directed towards businesses.

Please consider following us on Twitter, where we discuss topics focusing on procurement and tendering in the public sector, keep up to date with news and what's happening within the market as well as posting our latest content.

The Digital MarketPlace is composed of three separate frameworks, including the G-Cloud. It covers a wide range of digital products with the G-Cloud focussing on cloud based IT services.  It is managed and administered by the Crown Commercial Services and contains hundreds of registered suppliers. Explore the website and read through their comprehensive 'Supplier's Guide' to discover how to register as a supplier and sell through this framework.

Crown Commercial Services (CCS) is an executive agency and trading fund of the Cabinet Office of the UK Government. The CCS is responsible for improving government commercial and procurement activity. This link will take you through to a list of frameworks that have been procured by the CCS. Take a look at their pipeline pages to keep track of upcoming frameworks that you may wish to compete for.

ESPO (Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation) is a publically owned procurement organisation set up to conduct tender exercises for the purpose of creating frameworks on behalf of schools, local authorities, charities, emergency services, public sector and other businesses such as nurseries and care homes. ESPO have provided an excellent guide on how to become a supplier. 

YPO (Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation) is another publically owned procurement organisation, much like ESPO. As with ESPO it had been set up to conduct tender exercises for the purpose of creating frameworks on behalf of schools, local authorities, charities, emergency services, public sector and other businesses such as nurseries and care homes. YPO have provided a supplier information page which will walk you through the next steps to joining this framework. 

Constructionline is a website where suppliers within the construction industry can register to become part of an approved list of contractors. The website requires registrants to submit pertinent information, such as insurance certifications, accreditations, financial information etc that are typically requested by contracting authorities during a pre-qualification tender stage. Constructionline then takes on the role of administrator, collecting, verifying and continually monitoring this company information.

NEPO (North East Procurement Organisation) undertakes high-value procurement in major strategic areas of spend in conjunction with North East local authorities and a range of associate members. 

SUPC (Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium) is a membership-based buying organisation for universities and further education colleges that develops and manages framework agreements.  Its members have access to over 90 professionally tendered, EU compliant agreements and SUPC works very closely with the other regional and national higher education purchasing consortia in the UK.

From 25th May 2018 the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) will come into effect. If you collect, process or store any personal or sensitive data you will need to be aware of the new rules as these will effect all businesses going forward. The ICO website is packed full of helpful, no-nonsense information about how to prepare. Click on the logo or click here for the ICO's 12 steps to prepare for GDPR.

From 26th February 2015 the Public Contracts Regulations took effect. This was an updated set of procurement and contract rules to incorporate various European laws, known as Directives, and described the rules around how contracting authorities must manage their procurement activity. The regulations are vast, however, they cover four key areas:

• a revised set of thresholds
• clear timescales that cover the duration of a tender process
• the publication of notices relating to opportunities as well as awarded contracts
• exclusions from these regulations

The Concession Contracts Regulations took effect from 18^th April 2016. This set of regulations specifically looked at a category of contracts known as concession contracts. This type of contract allows an organisation to operate its business within the authority’s jurisdiction.

The Public Services (Social Value) Act came into force on 31^st January 2013 and still plays an important role today. This piece of legislation means contracting authorities must consider the wider social, economic and environmental benefits of a contract before they begin a procurement process. Contracting authorities should look at what added social, economic and environmental value suppliers can offer.

Gov.uk is a fantastic resource for information on the rules and processes surrounding public sector contracting. 

If you have any concerns about procurement practices you can seek advice from the government's Public Procurement Review Service.