Central Digital Platform - factsheet (HTML)

Question 1

Introduction

Accepted Answer

The Procurement Act 2023 legislates for provision of a central digital platform to facilitate the publishing of required notices and documents in accordance with the new regulations. The central digital platform will be an enhancement of the existing Find a Tender service and will make it easier to find and bid for contracts, and for buyers to meet their transparency commitments under the Act.

It will:

Feature a simple registration and identification for both suppliers and buyers.
Store suppliers’ core business details that can be used for multiple bids.
Enable easy management and updating of core information quickly, and shared easily between suppliers, eSenders and buyers.
Make public procurement opportunities visible making it easier to search at no cost and set up alerts for tenders of interest for suppliers.
Allow for procurement noticing throughout the procurement lifecycle.
Capture procurement data and eventually allow creation of dashboards to analyse that data.

This leaflet provides a summary of the key facts you will need to know about the central digital platform.

The Central Digital Platform will be free to use for everyone. There are no charges and you should not pay to view opportunities in the public sector

Question 2

1.  What is the central digital platform?

Accepted Answer

The central digital platform (CDP) will be where all UK contracting authorities publish information relating to procurement. It is also the place where identifiers are recorded and/or issued and for suppliers to input their commonly used information. It will be a fully integrated digital platform where noticing, sign-in and registration, supplier information all work together to support public sector procurement.

Question 3

2.  What will this mean for buyers and procurement teams?

Accepted Answer

The CDP is the central place for the contracting authority to register their organisation initially and then publish their procurement notices. However, many buyers use a third party [an eSender] to facilitate publication of notices - they will log into and publish most of their notices from there.

Therefore, many buyers will never need to visit Find a Tender, other than to register, and use the data for research and analysis purposes. For teams that publish directly on Find a Tender, online forms will be set up for required publication points.

Question 4

3.  What will this mean for suppliers?

Accepted Answer

The CDP is the place for suppliers to find out what opportunities are coming along that they might wish to bid for, as well as details on contracts that have been let, how contracts are being changed and other useful information. Additionally, suppliers will use the central digital platform to register, input and then share their commonly used information as part of the procurement.

Question 5

4.  What is the delivery timeline?

Accepted Answer

We have launched private beta and users are testing all the elements. We have a range of testers signed-up to test the service and provide feedback.

Following this period, we will commence onboarding for contracting authorities from late January 2025.

Question 6

5.  When can buyers register?

Accepted Answer

There will be a managed onboarding process for contracting authorities from late January 2025. There will be a few stages to go through, but it will be fairly straightforward. Each buying organisation has to be registered to be able to publish notices. This account will be run by your administrators; it will be simple to add (or remove) more administrators or users.

For an organisation that uses an eSender to publish notices, it may only be necessary to register a small number of individuals - but your organisation must be registered.

Question 7

6.  When can suppliers register?

Accepted Answer

There is no hurry to get suppliers registered. They only need to register at the point that they want to bid for a contract after the law comes into force on 24 February 2025.

We will update further when the service is ready for suppliers to register. Registering and entering their supplier information should be fairly straightforward and quick, especially if they have to hand all of the information that they need before they begin.

There is no assurance undertaken on this data by Cabinet Office before the supplier shares it. It is up to the buying organisation to ensure that the information meets all of their due diligence checks.

Onboarding and Registration: commences late January 2025 We will confirm dates and provide tools to assist you nearer the time

Go-live: 00:01 on 24 February 2025

Question 8

7.  Will suppliers complete their bids on the central digital platform?

Accepted Answer

Suppliers will always need to complete their bids in the form and manner required by the contracting authority. This will include the need to complete basic information on the supplier information part of the central digital platform, declare it is correct and generate a share code or download a file of their information.

The supplier will need to submit this share code or file in the way that was determined by the buyer in the tender notice or tender documents. This could be by pasting the share code into the eSender system against the opportunity or by emailing the file directly to the buyer. We will be issuing more “how-to” guides on this as we get closer to go-live.

Question 9

8.  What information will be required for supplier registration?

Accepted Answer

Suppliers will be required to submit their core business information which can then be shared across multiple bids and customers. This includes business information and records of accreditations and financial information. Depending on the structure of your business, this also includes information such as connected persons. Suppliers will also need to declare accuracy of this information. The good news is that once this is completed it will be simple to review it and re-use it every time for each tender. We suggest you start getting this ready now in preparation for go-live.

Supplier Information

To complete registration, you will need:

Basic Information: Name, address, Companies House number (or equivalent, e.g. Charity number), VAT Number (if applicable), relevant qualifications or trade assurances and whether the organisation is a SME, VCSE or public mutual.

Financial information: Copies of your accounts from the most recent financial years

Connected Persons: Names, addresses and details on any connected persons to the business (e.g. persons with significant control). These are individuals or organisations who have influence or control over the supplier.

Exclusions: Details of any discretionary or mandatory exclusions for the supplier or connected persons as set out in schedules 6 & 7 of the Procurement Act 2023

Question 10

9.  Who can see the information suppliers enter into the central digital platform, how is it protected and who can view it?

Accepted Answer

The details that suppliers enter into the central digital platform will be shared only with those contracting authorities that the supplier chooses to share with. This information is not accessible in any other way. To share, the supplier will either input a share code into the eSender platform as part of their bid or by the supplier downloading the information and sharing as directed by the contracting authority.

There is no assurance undertaken on this data by Cabinet Office before the supplier shares it; it is up to the buying organisation to ensure that the information meets all of their due diligence checks.

Question 11

10.  If I am already registered on Find a Tender, will I need to re-register?

Accepted Answer

Yes, you will need to re-register and enter your organisation information.

We will provide further details on how to do this closer to 24 February 2025.

But the URL https://www.gov.uk/find-tender is the same as the one used to access Find a Tender today.

Question 12

11.  What support will be available for the registration process?

Accepted Answer

We will make How To guides and support videos available to guide you through the onboarding process. We will communicate this through our regular newsletter, so if you have not yet signed up please make sure you do so via the link below. There will also be a help desk available to support with any additional help when registering.