Find a Tender is the new system to advertise public sector contracts after Brexit

THE Cabinet Office has announced that from 1 January, Find a Tender will be the new UK-wide system used to advertise UK public sector contracts, replacing the EU's TED system.

Please be aware of this update to public procurement policy. The guidelines for businesses can be found here and the Procurement Policy Note is here.

The Cabinet Office has published the first of two PPNs, Procurement Policy Note 08/20 - Introduction of Find a Tender, setting out the changes to procurement which will come into effect at the end of the Transition Period.

This PPN informs contracting authorities of the steps they need to take to ensure their legal obligations under the Regulations to publish certain notices in relation to public procurements continue to be met. This includes the circumstances where FTS or the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU)/TED must be used, how to access FTS and an associated FAQ.

The key messages are:

1. Find a Tender will go live at the end of the transition period (23:00 on 31 December 2020).

2. Procurements on OJEU/TED that were commenced prior to the end of the transition period must be concluded on OJEU/TED.

3. New procurements commenced after the end of the Transition Period must be advertised on Find a Tender.

4. Requirements to advertise on Contracts Finder, MOD Defence Contracts Online, Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales and eTendersNI remain unchanged.

5. If you currently use an eSender to publish you should be able to continue using them to publish to FTS provided they have completed integration work.