Contracts Finder UK Procurement Scraper

Scrape UK public procurement notices from the official Contracts Finder OCDS API.

Use this actor to collect tenders, awards, planning notices, buyers, suppliers, CPV codes, values, deadlines, document links, and source notice URLs without running a browser or maintaining your own Contracts Finder integration.

What does Contracts Finder UK Procurement Scraper do?

Contracts Finder UK Procurement Scraper queries the UK government Contracts Finder public OCDS endpoint and converts procurement releases into clean dataset rows.

It can pull recent notices, search by keyword, filter by notice type, filter by tender status, and keep CPV code prefixes that matter to your market.

The actor follows cursor pagination automatically and saves one flattened record per procurement notice.

Who is it for?

• 🧑‍💼 Bid managers monitoring public-sector opportunities.
• 🏢 B2G sales teams finding buyers with active tenders.
• 📊 Procurement analysts building public-spend dashboards.
• 🕵️ Market intelligence teams tracking competitors and awards.
• 🏛️ Civic-tech teams using official open contracting data.
• 🧾 Compliance teams auditing awards, values, and suppliers.

Why use this actor?

• ✅ Uses the official public OCDS JSON endpoint.
• ✅ No login, account, token, or browser automation required.
• ✅ Low-cost HTTP-only execution.
• ✅ Flat rows that are easy to export to CSV, Excel, BigQuery, or BI tools.
• ✅ Useful fields for tender discovery and award analysis.
• ✅ Works with Apify schedules, webhooks, API clients, and MCP.

What data can you extract?

Field	Description
ocid	Open Contracting ID for the release.
releaseId	Contracts Finder release identifier.
noticeType	OCDS release tag such as tender or award.
title	Tender or award title.
description	Public description from the notice.
tenderStatus	Tender status such as active or complete.
procurementMethod	Procurement method/details text.
procurementCategory	Main procurement category.
buyerName	Buying authority name.
buyerId	Buyer identifier when present.
buyerContactName	Buyer contact person.
buyerEmail	Buyer contact email.
buyerPhone	Buyer contact phone.
supplierNames	Awarded supplier names when present.
valueAmount	Estimated or awarded value.
valueCurrency	Value currency, usually GBP.
cpvCode	Common Procurement Vocabulary code.
cpvDescription	CPV description.
publishedDate	Release publication date.
tenderDeadline	Tender deadline.
contractStartDate	Contract start date.
contractEndDate	Contract end date.
awardDate	Award date when available.
awardStatus	Award status when available.
smeSuitable	SME suitability flag.
vcseSuitable	VCSE suitability flag.
deliveryLocations	Delivery locations from tender items.
documentUrls	Notice and document URLs.
noticeUrl	Direct Contracts Finder notice URL.
sourceApiUrl	OCDS API URL used for the row.
scrapedAt	Timestamp when the row was saved.

How much does it cost to scrape UK Contracts Finder notices?

This actor uses pay-per-event pricing.

You pay a small start fee and then a per-notice event for each saved procurement notice.

The BRONZE tier is about $0.10 per 1,000 notices before volume discounts.

Because the actor is HTTP-only and uses the public API, runs are designed to stay inexpensive for recurring monitoring.

Quick start

1. Open the actor on Apify.
2. Add one or more keywords such as construction, software, or facilities management.
3. Set publishedFrom to the beginning of the monitoring window.
4. Choose notice types such as tender and award.
5. Set maxItems to a low number for your first run.
6. Run the actor.
7. Export the dataset as CSV, JSON, Excel, or via API.

Input options

keywords

Optional list of terms to send to Contracts Finder.

Leave it empty to collect the newest notices in the selected date range.

publishedFrom

Start date for publication filtering.

Use YYYY-MM-DD format.

If omitted, the actor defaults to the last 30 days.

publishedTo

Optional end date for publication filtering.

Use this for historical snapshots or repeatable backfills.

noticeTypes

Filter rows by OCDS release tags.

Common values include planning, tender, award, contract, and implementation.

tenderStatuses

Filter by tender status after extraction.

Common values include active, complete, cancelled, and planned.

cpvCodes

Keep only notices whose CPV code starts with one of your prefixes.

Example: 72000000 for IT services or 45000000 for construction work.

maxItems

Maximum number of notices to save.

Start with 25 or 50 while testing a new workflow.

includeRawOcds

Attach the full source OCDS release JSON to each row.

Use this for audits or custom transformations.

Leave it off for smaller datasets.

Example input

{
  "keywords": ["construction", "software"],
  "publishedFrom": "2026-06-01",
  "noticeTypes": ["tender", "award"],
  "maxItems": 50,
  "includeRawOcds": false
}

Example output

{
  "ocid": "ocds-b5fd17-example",
  "releaseId": "example-release-id",
  "noticeType": "award",
  "title": "Public sector software support contract",
  "buyerName": "Example Council",
  "supplierNames": ["Example Supplier Ltd"],
  "valueAmount": 25000,
  "valueCurrency": "GBP",
  "cpvCode": "72000000",
  "cpvDescription": "IT services",
  "publishedDate": "2026-06-15T09:00:00+01:00",
  "noticeUrl": "https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/example",
  "sourceApiUrl": "https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Published/Notices/OCDS/Search?...",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-06-15T10:00:00.000Z"
}

Tips for best results

• Use several focused keywords instead of one broad keyword.
• Combine keyword searches with CPV prefixes for better sector targeting.
• Schedule daily runs with publishedFrom set to a recent date for monitoring.
• Export to CSV for quick review by bid teams.
• Enable includeRawOcds only when you need source-level audit detail.

Common workflows

Tender monitoring

Run the actor daily for keywords that match your services.

Send new dataset rows to Slack, email, Airtable, or your CRM.

Award intelligence

Filter for award notices and track supplier names, buyer names, and awarded values.

Use this to identify incumbents and likely renewal windows.

CPV market sizing

Run broad CPV prefix searches over a date range.

Aggregate by buyer, value, category, and supplier.

Buyer prospecting

Search for recurring buyers in your sector.

Export buyer contact fields and notice URLs for qualification.

Integrations

Contracts Finder UK Procurement Scraper works with Apify integrations.

• 🔔 Webhooks for new tender alerts.
• 📥 Dataset API for ETL pipelines.
• 📊 Google Sheets or BI exports for dashboards.
• 🧱 Make and Zapier for no-code automations.
• 🗄️ BigQuery or data warehouse sync for analytics.

API usage

Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('automation-lab/contracts-finder-uk-procurement-scraper').call({
  keywords: ['construction'],
  publishedFrom: '2026-06-01',
  maxItems: 50
});
console.log(run.defaultDatasetId);

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient('APIFY_TOKEN')
run = client.actor('automation-lab/contracts-finder-uk-procurement-scraper').call(run_input={
    'keywords': ['software'],
    'publishedFrom': '2026-06-01',
    'maxItems': 50,
})
print(run['defaultDatasetId'])

cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/automation-lab~contracts-finder-uk-procurement-scraper/runs?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"keywords":["construction"],"publishedFrom":"2026-06-01","maxItems":50}'

MCP usage

Use the Apify MCP server to call this actor from Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, or any MCP client that supports HTTP transport.

MCP URL:

https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=automation-lab/contracts-finder-uk-procurement-scraper

Claude Code setup:

$claude mcp add --transport http apify-contracts-finder https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=automation-lab/contracts-finder-uk-procurement-scraper

Claude Desktop setup:

1. Open Claude Desktop settings.
2. Go to Developer → Edit Config.
3. Add the JSON below and restart Claude Desktop.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify-contracts-finder": {
      "transport": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=automation-lab/contracts-finder-uk-procurement-scraper"
    }
  }
}

Cursor setup:

1. Open Cursor Settings → MCP.
2. Choose Add new global MCP server.
3. Use the name apify-contracts-finder, transport http, and the MCP URL above.
4. Save, then enable the server in your Cursor chat/tools panel.

VS Code setup:

1. Install an MCP-compatible extension such as Claude Code or another MCP client extension.
2. Add a new MCP server with transport http.
3. Use the name apify-contracts-finder and the MCP URL above.
4. Reload VS Code and confirm the Apify tool appears in the agent/tool list.

Example prompts:

• "Find recent UK public-sector tenders about facilities management."
• "Scrape Contracts Finder awards for software since June 1 and summarize the largest values."
• "Collect active construction tenders and list buyer contacts."

Scheduling

Create an Apify schedule to run the actor every morning.

For daily monitoring, use a recent publishedFrom date and a manageable maxItems value.

For historical analysis, run larger date windows in batches.

Data quality notes

The actor returns data as published by Contracts Finder.

Some notices may not include values, suppliers, buyer contact details, or CPV classifications.

Award notices usually contain supplier and award fields.

Tender notices usually contain deadlines and opportunity details.

Legality

Contracts Finder publishes public procurement information for transparency and opportunity discovery.

Use the data responsibly and comply with applicable laws, Apify terms, and the source website terms.

Do not use scraped contact details for spam.

FAQ

Troubleshooting

Why did I get fewer notices than maxItems?

Your filters may be narrow, or the selected date range may contain fewer matching notices.

Try removing CPV filters or broadening the publication dates.

Why are some value fields empty?

Not every notice discloses an estimated or awarded value.

The actor preserves missing source values as null.

Why are supplier fields empty?

Supplier names are usually available on award notices, not on active tender notices.

Include award in noticeTypes if you need supplier intelligence.

Related scrapers

• https://apify.com/automation-lab/ted-europa-tenders-scraper
• https://apify.com/automation-lab/contracts-finder-uk-procurement-scraper

Changelog

0.1

Initial release with keyword/date search, cursor pagination, notice-type filters, CPV filtering, flattened OCDS output, and pay-per-notice charging.

Support

If you need additional fields, contact enrichment, attachment downloading, or workflow help, open an issue on Apify.

Field reference

The actor keeps stable field names for downstream automation.

Fields may be null when the public source does not provide them.

Arrays such as supplierNames, deliveryLocations, and documentUrls are always arrays.

Performance

The actor is HTTP-only.

It does not open a browser.

It does not use residential proxies by default.

That keeps small scheduled monitoring runs fast and inexpensive.

Reliability

The actor follows the official OCDS pagination cursor.

It de-duplicates releases by release ID or OCID during a run.

It logs skipped HTTP errors and continues where possible.

Source transparency

Every row includes sourceApiUrl.

Most rows include noticeUrl when the source documents expose a direct Contracts Finder notice link.

Use these URLs to verify important tender or award details.