Caleb Roenigk_Flickr
The public never gets to know who won more than 50% of tenders published by Local Government and the NHS according to data on Contracts Finder, the Government’s tender portal. Across the whole of Government 43% of tenders do not have a contract award even though publishing contract award data is a legal requirement.1
Using data taken from Contracts Finder, we have counted up all the tenders that had deadlines more than a year ago and yet are still missing contract award notices. However, because the public sector often uses frameworks, contracts that can be used multiple times by different buyers, the number of contract awards should actually exceed the number of tenders. This means that there are far more contract awards missing, we just can’t know how many.
Central government had the best response rate, publishing 81% of its contract awards. Local government and the NHS fared less well, publishing 48% and 43% of their contract awards respectively. The worst performers were procurement organisations.* These bodies conduct procurement on behalf of multiple public sector buyers, often within a region or a specific sector. Despite being procurement specialists and publishing a high volume of tenders, on average 7 tenders per month, these organisations only published 60% of contract awards.
Buyer type |
Tenders |
Missing contracts |
Percent missing |
Procurement organisations |
2,778 |
1,654 |
59.5% |
NHS |
3,021 |
1,720 |
56.9% |
Local Government |
17,408 |
9,127 |
52.4% |
Emergency Services |
405 |
117 |
28.9% |
Higher Education |
5,847 |
1,678 |
28.7% |
Other |
7,996 |
1,661 |
20.8% |
Central Government |
8,368 |
1,625 |
19.4% |
Of the buyers who published over 20 tenders, 11 have published no contract awards and only 11 have published a contract award for every tender.
Buyers with no contract awards:
Buyer |
Tenders |
BRITISH LIBRARY |
26 |
DE MONTFORT UNIVERSITY |
34 |
EAST MIDLANDS STRATEGIC COMMERCIAL UNIT |
36 |
EPSOM AND ST HELIER UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS NHS TRUST |
50 |
KING'S COLLEGE LONDON |
33 |
SAINT HELENA GOVERNMENT |
26 |
SALISBURY NHS FOUNDATION TRUST |
32 |
SOUTH OXFORDSHIRE DISTRICT COUNCIL |
21 |
STAFFORDSHIRE AND LANCASHIRE COMMISSIONING SUPPORT UNIT |
36 |
UNIVERSITY OF DERBY |
89 |
UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER |
46 |
Buyers with an award for every tender:
Buyer |
Tenders |
CABINET OFFICE |
47 |
DEPARTMENT FOR CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT |
55 |
GOVERNMENT DIGITAL SERVICE |
83 |
HIGHWAYS ENGLAND |
62 |
INDEPENDENT POLICE COMPLAINTS COMMISSION |
34 |
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OFFICE |
85 |
LONDON FIRE BRIGADE |
38 |
SERIOUS FRAUD OFFICE |
25 |
SHEFFIELD HALLAM UNIVERSITY |
58 |
STEVENAGE BOROUGH COUNCIL |
25 |
UK HYDROGRAPHIC OFFICE |
31 |
Buyers with the highest number of missing contract awards:
Buyer |
Contracts Missing |
SANDWELL METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL |
458 |
SOUTH EAST SHARED SERVICES |
430 |
CROWN COMMERCIAL SERVICE |
344 |
UK SHARED BUSINESS SERVICES LTD |
343 |
DERBYSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL |
320 |
MINISTRY OF DEFENCE |
298 |
DEPARTMENT FOR ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS |
285 |
NHS ARDEN AND GREATER EAST MIDLANDS COMMISSIONING SUPPORT UNIT |
285 |
CUMBRIA COUNTY COUNCIL |
241 |
NHS SHARED BUSINESS SERVICES |
227 |
16 buyers published more than 500 tenders. These buyers published 80% of their contract awards in total, but two of them were missing 70% of their contract award notices:
Buyer type |
Tenders |
Missing contracts |
Percent missing |
SANDWELL METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL |
651 |
458 |
70.4% |
SOUTH EAST SHARED SERVICES |
612 |
430 |
70.3% |
UK SHARED BUSINESS SERVICES LTD |
500 |
246 |
49.2% |
CUMBRIA COUNTY COUNCIL |
515 |
241 |
46.8% |
DEPARTMENT FOR ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS |
845 |
275 |
32.5% |
MINISTRY OF DEFENCE |
1,166 |
215 |
18.4% |
CROWN COMMERCIAL SERVICE |
2,058 |
344 |
16.7% |
LEEDS CITY COUNCIL |
543 |
68 |
12.5% |
NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY |
615 |
45 |
7.3% |
HOMES AND COMMUNITIES AGENCY |
517 |
28 |
5.4% |
HIGHWAYS AGENCY |
781 |
36 |
4.6% |
UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM |
880 |
39 |
4.4% |
TRANSPORT FOR LONDON |
826 |
25 |
3.0% |
UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST OF ENGLAND |
668 |
19 |
2.8% |
DEPARTMENT FOR TRANSPORT |
533 |
13 |
2.4% |
FCO SERVICES |
503 |
4 |
0.8% |
Conclusions
There is a significant shortfall in the publishing of contract awards and the failure to publish is widespread. Publishing rates vary significantly across different types of buying organisation, which indicates that 100% publishing could be attained, were buyers sufficiently motivated to publish this data. Clearly the legal mandate to publish is insufficient to improve publishing rates.
Perhaps it is time to consider introducing a law similar to the one adopted in Slovakia where a contract is invalid unless openly published within three months of being signed.2 This law has had a positive impact on corruption, saving public money while improving the business climate. The data has been used by citizens, journalists and public servants, thereby improving transparency.
Methodology
This analysis was conducted on the 1st and 2nd of November, 2017. We gather tender and contract data from the Contracts Finder API daily. To begin this analysis, we counted the tenders published on Contracts Finder and contract awards linked to the original tender on Contracts Finder, 365 days after the original tender was published, covering the period from March 2014 to October 2016. We linked this to public sector entities and added buyer types to all these entities that had published over 20 tenders in the period analysed.
*Procurement Organisations
EAST MIDLANDS STRATEGIC COMMERCIAL UNIT |
EASTERN SHIRES PROCUREMENT ORGANISATION |
LOCAL GOVERNMENT SHARED SERVICES |
NHS SHARED BUSINESS SERVICES |
NORTH EAST PROCUREMENT ORGANISATION |
NORTH OF ENGLAND COMMERCIAL PROCUREMENT COLLABORATIVE |
SOUTH EAST SHARED SERVICES |
SOUTH OF ENGLAND PROCUREMENT SERVICES |
UK SHARED BUSINESS SERVICES LTD |
WELLAND PROCUREMENT UNIT |
WEST YORKSHIRE COMBINED AUTHORITY |
YORKSHIRE PROCUREMENT ORGANISATION |