# UK Public Tenders Scraper (`1mp/uk-public-tenders`) Actor

UK government tenders and awards from Find a Tender and Contracts Finder, one row shape, newest first. Filter by keyword, CPV, stage, date. Procurement Act notices included. No contact data. $8 per 1,000 notices.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/1mp/uk-public-tenders.md
- **Developed by:** [Jesse Hawkins](https://apify.com/1mp) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Business, Agents
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$8.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## UK Public Tenders Scraper

UK public-sector tenders, contract awards and pipeline notices from
both official government portals, in one clean feed:

- **Find a Tender**, the UK's service for higher-value public
  procurement, including every Procurement Act 2023 notice;
- **Contracts Finder**, lower-value contracts, mainly in England.

Give keywords, CPV codes, a stage or a date range, and get one row per
notice, newest first: title, description, buyer, CPV codes, value,
deadlines, contract dates, award date, suppliers and the link to the
official notice. **$8.00 per 1,000 notices.** No API key, no browser,
no proxy.

### Why another UK tenders Actor

Three things the two APIs do, found while building this one and handled
here:

- **Find a Tender's own `stages=tender` filter misses Procurement Act
  notices.** On 2026-10-01 it returned 7 of the day's 66 tender
  notices: only those under the 2015 regulations. This Actor reads every
  notice and takes the stage from the notice itself, so the other 59
  are in your results.
- **Contracts Finder's paging stops early on longer date ranges.** For
  9 to 10 September 2026 its "next page" link ended after 100 notices
  of 237. This Actor pages by date instead, so it reads them all.
- **Both portals throttle.** They answer `429 Too Many Requests` with a
  two-minute wait. This Actor paces its requests and waits as asked,
  so a long run slows down instead of failing.

### Input

```json
{
  "keywords": "software, cloud hosting, cyber",
  "cpvCodes": ["72"],
  "stage": "tender",
  "portal": "both",
  "dateFrom": "2026-09-01",
  "maxItems": 500
}
```

- `keywords`: comma-separated phrases. A notice matches if any phrase
  is in its title, description, lot titles or descriptions, or buyer
  name. Case-insensitive; a phrase matches at the start of a word, so
  `cyber` finds `cybersecurity`. A short all-capitals phrase (`IT`,
  `CCTV`) matches capitals only, so `IT` does not match every "it".
- `cpvCodes`: CPV codes or prefixes. `72` or `72000000` selects all IT
  services, `45` all construction. With keywords, a notice must match
  both.
- `stage`: `all` (default), `planning`, `tender` (open opportunities and
  their changes), `award`, or `contract` (contract changes and
  terminations).
- `portal`: `both` (default), `fts` (Find a Tender) or `cf` (Contracts
  Finder).
- `dateFrom`, `dateTo`: `YYYY-MM-DD` or `YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS`, UK time
  unless it ends in `Z` or an offset; also `today` and `yesterday`.
  Find a Tender filters by when a notice was last updated, Contracts
  Finder by when it was published. Default: the last 30 days.
  `publishedWithinDays` sets the window as a number of days instead.
- `maxItems`: stop after this many notices, newest first. Default 100;
  `0` returns every match in the window.
- `dedupeByOcid`: on by default: one row per procurement (its newest
  matching notice). Off: a tender and its award are both returned.
- `includeRawOcds`: add the full OCDS release as `rawOcds`, with
  personal data removed (see below).

The field names are the ones other UK tender Actors on the Store use
(`keywords`, `cpvCodes`, `dateFrom`, `dateTo`, `stage`, `portal`,
`maxItems`, `dedupeByOcid`, `includeRawOcds`), and `keyword`, `stages`,
`updatedFrom`, `updatedTo`, `publishedFrom`, `publishedTo`,
`publishedWithinDays` and `maxResults` are read too, so an existing
input usually runs here unchanged.

### Output

One row per notice. A real row from a run on 2026-10-05
(`{"keywords": "soapbox", "dateFrom": "2026-10-01", "dateTo":
"2026-10-01"}`), description shortened:

```json
{
  "ocid": "ocds-h6vhtk-077f1b",
  "noticeId": "093054-2026",
  "portal": "fts",
  "stage": "tender",
  "releaseTags": ["tender"],
  "title": "Provision and Delivery of an Annual Town Centre Soapbox Racing Event 2027-2029",
  "description": "Kettering Town Council invites tenders from suitably capable event operators to plan, promote, manage and deliver an annual public soapbox racing event in Kette ...",
  "status": "active",
  "buyerName": "Kettering Town Council",
  "buyerId": "GB-PPON-PCVT-2884-LDPW",
  "buyerStreetAddress": "10 Headlands",
  "buyerLocality": "Kettering",
  "buyerRegion": "UKF25",
  "buyerPostalCode": "NN15 7HP",
  "buyerCountry": "United Kingdom",
  "cpvCodes": ["79952000"],
  "mainCpvCode": "79952000",
  "mainCpvDescription": "Event services",
  "valueAmount": 160000.0,
  "valueCurrency": "GBP",
  "valueAmountGross": 192000.0,
  "valueMinAmount": null,
  "procurementMethod": "open",
  "procurementMethodDetails": "Below threshold - open competition",
  "mainProcurementCategory": "services",
  "aboveThreshold": false,
  "suitableForSme": null,
  "suitableForVcse": null,
  "deliveryRegions": ["UKC", "UKD", "UKE", "UKF", "UKG", "UKH", "UKI", "UKJ", "UKK"],
  "publishedDate": "2026-10-01T18:10:45+01:00",
  "deadline": "2026-10-23T12:00:00+01:00",
  "expressionOfInterestDeadline": null,
  "enquiryDeadline": "2026-10-09T12:00:00+01:00",
  "contractStartDate": "2026-12-14T00:00:00+00:00",
  "contractEndDate": "2029-09-30T23:59:59+01:00",
  "awardDate": null,
  "awardValueAmount": null,
  "awardValueCurrency": null,
  "awardCount": 0,
  "supplierNames": [],
  "contractValueAmount": null,
  "contractValueCurrency": null,
  "contractSignedDate": null,
  "noticeUrl": "https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/093054-2026",
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/api/1.0/ocdsReleasePackages/093054-2026",
  "releaseId": "093054-2026"
}
```

- Dates are UK time with their offset, as the portals publish them.
- `valueAmount` is the notice's own value, or the sum of its lots'
  values when it has none of its own. `valueMinAmount` is Contracts
  Finder's lower bound when it gives a range. A missing value is
  `null`, never estimated.
- `deadline` is the tender submission deadline. Many Procurement Act
  notices on Find a Tender set `expressionOfInterestDeadline` instead
  (the deadline to ask to take part), so check both.
- `awardValueAmount` adds up the award values when they are all in
  one currency; `supplierNames` lists every supplier awarded.
- `contractValueAmount` and `contractSignedDate` come from signed
  contracts. Find a Tender's contract details notices put the value
  there, not on the award.
- `contractStartDate` and `contractEndDate` are the notice's own
  contract period, else the earliest start and latest end over its
  awards and lots.
- `noticeUrl` is the official notice page; `sourceUrl` is the OCDS
  record it was read from.

### No personal data

Notices carry the buyer's contact person: name, e-mail and phone. This
Actor never returns them. The OCDS `contactPoint` is dropped, and in
every text it copies, e-mail addresses become `[email removed]` and
phone numbers `[phone removed]`. `rawOcds` has the same removal, and
also drops suppliers' street addresses and postcodes, since a sole
trader's may be a home. Contact the buyer through the official notice
page in `noticeUrl`.

### Price

Pay per event: **$8.00 per 1,000 notices** returned, nothing per run.
Notices filtered out by your keywords, CPV codes or stage are not
billed.

| Run | Notices | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| `{"keywords": "software", "maxItems": 20}` | 20 | $0.16 |
| Default: newest 100 of the last 30 days | 100 | $0.80 |
| Every tender-stage notice of one weekday, both portals (2026-10-01) | 119 | $0.95 |

Set **Maximum cost per run** to cap a run; it stops there and keeps
what it returned.

### Speed and limits

- Find a Tender publishes about 450 notices on a weekday and Contracts
  Finder about 200 (2026-10-01). A keyword search reads every notice in
  the window, 100 per request, and keeps the matches. Measured on
  2026-10-05: 1.5 to 6.5 seconds per 100 notices read, so about 15
  seconds for 4 days, 40 seconds to 3 minutes for a week, 3 to 15
  minutes for 30 days. A year can pass the default one-hour run
  timeout: raise it, or split the year.
- A capped run stops as soon as it has `maxItems` notices.
- If a portal is down or keeps refusing, the run returns what the other
  portal gave and says which one failed in its status message. It fails
  only if neither answered.
- Coverage is what the two portals publish. Scotland (Public Contracts
  Scotland), Wales (Sell2Wales) and Northern Ireland have portals of
  their own; most of their above-threshold notices also appear on Find
  a Tender.

### What it will not do

- No contact names, e-mail addresses or phone numbers, ever.
- No tender documents: they sit on each buyer's own e-tendering system,
  often behind a supplier login. Follow `noticeUrl`.
- No scraping of buyers' portals. The two official APIs only.

Not affiliated with the Cabinet Office or Crown Commercial Service.
The data is published under the Open Government Licence v3.0; credit
"Find a Tender" and "Contracts Finder" where you publish it.

### Changelog

- 0.1 (2026-10-05): first release.

# Actor input Schema

## `keywords` (type: `string`):

Optional. Comma-separated phrases; a notice matches if ANY phrase is in its title, description, lot titles or descriptions, or buyer name. Case-insensitive, and a phrase matches at the start of a word, so cyber finds cybersecurity. A short all-capitals phrase (IT, CCTV, HVAC) matches capitals only. Empty: every notice. Example: software, cloud hosting, cyber

## `cpvCodes` (type: `array`):

Optional. CPV codes or prefixes; a notice matches if any of its CPV codes starts with one. 72 or 72000000 selects all IT services; 45 all construction; 79952 event services. Combined with keywords: a notice must match both.

## `dateFrom` (type: `string`):

Optional. YYYY-MM-DD, YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS (UK time unless it ends in Z or an offset), today or yesterday. Find a Tender filters by when a notice was last updated; Contracts Finder by when it was published. Empty: 30 days before To.

## `dateTo` (type: `string`):

Optional. Same formats; a date alone means the end of that day. Empty: now.

## `publishedWithinDays` (type: `integer`):

Optional. The window as a number of days back from To, used only when From is empty. Empty: 30.

## `stage` (type: `string`):

planning (pipeline and prior information notices), tender (open opportunities, their amendments and cancellations), award (contract awards), contract (contract changes and terminations), or all. Read from each notice's own release tags, so Procurement Act 2023 notices are included.

## `portal` (type: `string`):

fts: Find a Tender, the UK's main service for higher-value procurement. cf: Contracts Finder, lower-value contracts, mainly in England. both: one feed, newest first.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many notices, newest first. 0 returns every matching notice in the window. Each notice returned is one billed result.

## `dedupeByOcid` (type: `boolean`):

On (default): keep only the newest matching notice of each procurement process (OCID). Off: one row per notice, so a tender and its award are both returned.

## `includeRawOcds` (type: `boolean`):

Add the notice's full OCDS release as rawOcds, with contact points, e-mail addresses, phone numbers and suppliers' street addresses removed. Larger rows; same price.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Off by default: both are open government APIs. Turn on only if they refuse the requests.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "keywords": "software",
  "stage": "all",
  "portal": "both",
  "maxItems": 20,
  "dedupeByOcid": true,
  "includeRawOcds": false,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `notices` (type: `string`):

Every notice returned, one item each, as JSON from the run's default dataset.

## `overview` (type: `string`):

The same notices in the dataset's overview view: published, portal, stage, title, buyer, value, deadline, CPV, suppliers and notice link.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "keywords": "software",
    "maxItems": 20
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("1mp/uk-public-tenders").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "keywords": "software",
    "maxItems": 20,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("1mp/uk-public-tenders").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "keywords": "software",
  "maxItems": 20
}' |
apify call 1mp/uk-public-tenders --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,1mp/uk-public-tenders"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/XoKyjT4QeFRCRbHdG/builds/UPijDltngsKWgfAw6/openapi.json