Supplier reference
Public procurement language, connected.
Use these plain-English definitions to tell the people, records, routes and decisions apart. Formal wording can vary between the Procurement Act regime, devolved Scottish procurement and older procedures, so the official notice remains the final reference.
- Published
- Updated
- Next review
Buyer needProcurement
→Published signalNotice
→Supplier offerTender
→Decision and deliveryAward → Contract
Reference section
Core people and objects
The participants and things that make up a procurement.
- Award
- The buyer's decision to select a supplier or suppliers for a contract.An award is a decision; it is not the signed contract.
- Buyer
- The public organisation buying goods, services or works. Formal guidance may call it a contracting authority.
- Contract
- The binding agreement under which the chosen supplier provides the required goods, services or works.
- Economic operator
- The legal term for a person or organisation that provides, or could provide, goods, services or works. In supplier guidance this is usually called a supplier.
- Opportunity
- A practical chance to prepare, engage or compete for public work.Opportunity is useful supplier language, but it is not one formal notice type.
- Procurement
- The whole process of buying from external suppliers, from identifying a need through competition or another route, award, contract and delivery.
- Supplier
- A person or organisation that provides, or seeks to provide, goods, services or works to a buyer.
- Tender
- The formal bid a supplier submits for a specific contract.In everyday speech people also use “tender” for the competition, but the buyer's tender notice and the supplier's tender are different records.
Reference section
Published records and identifiers
The records that describe planning, competition, decisions and contracts.
- Contract award notice
- Under the Procurement Act regime, the notice published after the award decision and before the contract is entered into. It may start a standstill period.
- Contract details notice
- The notice published after a buyer has entered into a contract. It records contract-stage information rather than opening a competition.
- Contract notice
- The competition notice used under earlier UK regulations and in Scottish procurement terminology. For new Procurement Act competitive procedures the corresponding current record is generally a tender notice.
- Notice
- A structured public record about one part of a procurement. One procurement may produce several linked notices.
- OCID
- Open Contracting Identifier: an identifier intended to connect records about the same contracting process in Open Contracting data.
- Pipeline notice
- A forward-looking Procurement Act notice about potential future contracts or dynamic markets. It is not an open invitation to submit a tender.
- Planned procurement notice
- A Procurement Act notice stating that a buyer intends to publish a tender notice. When it meets the statutory timing and content conditions it can affect later tendering periods.
- Preliminary market engagement notice
- A notice explaining that a buyer intends to conduct, or has conducted, engagement with the market before a competition.
- Source notice ID
- The identifier assigned by the official publishing service, such as Find a Tender or Contracts Finder.Scout retains this alongside its own local identifier so the route back to the source is not lost.
- Tender notice
- The Procurement Act notice used to invite suppliers to submit a tender or, in some competitive flexible procedures, a request to participate.
Reference section
Routes and structures
Ways a buyer can organise competition and future contract awards.
- Call-off contract
- A specific contract awarded under the terms of a framework agreement.
- Competitive flexible procedure
- A Procurement Act competitive procedure designed by the buyer within the Act's rules. It can include stages such as participation, negotiation or successive tender rounds.
- Direct award
- An award made without a competitive tendering procedure where an applicable legal justification or route permits it.
- Dynamic market
- An arrangement under the Procurement Act through which eligible suppliers can join and be considered for future contracts. Applications for membership remain possible during its term.
- Framework
- An agreement setting terms for future contracts with one or more suppliers.Joining the framework and winning a later call-off are separate events; a framework is not simply another lifecycle stage.
- Lot
- A separately described part of a procurement or contract. Suppliers may be able to bid for one, several or all lots, subject to the notice and documents.
- Open procedure
- A single-stage Procurement Act competitive procedure in which any interested supplier may submit a tender.
Reference section
Finding and assessment
Terms that help a supplier locate, understand and respond to the requirement.
- Award criteria
- The criteria the buyer uses to decide which tender best satisfies its requirements, together with their relative importance or assessment method.
- Conditions of participation
- Proportionate conditions used to assess whether a supplier has the legal and financial capacity or technical ability to perform the contract.
- CPV code
- A Common Procurement Vocabulary classification used in published procurement data to describe the subject of a contract.A CPV code helps discovery but should not replace reading the title, description and documents.
- Estimated value
- The buyer's estimate of the contract's value under the applicable valuation rules. It is not necessarily the eventual award value or amount spent.
- Incumbent supplier
- A supplier currently or previously delivering comparable work for the buyer.An award notice can evidence a past award but does not by itself prove who is delivering the service today.
- Procurement Specific Questionnaire (PSQ)
- The questionnaire used with the central digital platform to obtain procurement-specific supplier information that is not already held as core supplier information.
- Standstill period
- A pause between an award decision and entering into the contract when the applicable rules require one. Under the Procurement Act regime, a contract award notice can start it.
- Threshold
- A contract-value checkpoint used to determine which procurement rules and procedures apply.A threshold does not decide whether a supplier response is linguistically a tender, and the applicable figures and valuation rules vary by regime and contract type.
Use with care
A definition does not establish what happened in one procurement.
- Read the exact notice type and legislation shown by the official source.
- Do not treat an estimated value as an award value or actual spend.
- Do not treat a historical award as proof of the current incumbent.
- Use the source notice ID or OCID to keep related records and corrections in view.
Primary sources
Terminology checked against current official material.
Winston checked these sources on 27 August 2026. The definitions explain; they do not replace legislation or procurement documents.