📜 UK Contracts Finder Contract Award & Incumbent Win Watch

UK public-sector contract AWARDS on Contracts Finder as they are published: who won, for how much, from which buyer, with the supplier's Companies House number where the notice carries one. Also flags wins by suppliers you name, so you can watch an incumbent or a competitor. Keyed on the OCDS award id. POST-AWARD ONLY: every record here is a contract already awarded. This actor does not list open opportunities and must not be used to find biddable work.

Output is one cf_award_record row per result; billing is pay-per-event, the value event being one source check (a $0.02 start fee per run, then $0.10 per source check plus one $0.10 source check per run that reads the source). Source: www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk.

📊 Sample Output

Real rows from run acz6UmcDqDKa2QbHe on build 0.1.10 (2026-09-17), the same input as the Quick start below — every value is as the source published it (emails masked, long text shortened):

award_id	ocid	release_id	title	buyer_name	buyer_id
ocds-b5fd17-324c6637-5afb-49f3-82e2-eaf71ab46234-1	ocds-b5fd17-324c6637-5afb-49f3-82e2-eaf71ab46234	ff3a41e3-dc0c-49ca-bcce-48933e882f3d-908296	SEN19025-SEN- W/C TAXI-Ashfield Academy	Leicestershire County Council	GB-CFS-58010
ocds-b5fd17-56a42037-6ff8-4927-868a-65b602fa8a0b-1	ocds-b5fd17-56a42037-6ff8-4927-868a-65b602fa8a0b	95c08572-99ae-4fd2-a60b-d4ffab83fcb6-908295	SEN19021-SEN-TAXI-BIRKETT HOUSE SENIORS-COUNTESTHORPE COLLEGE	Leicestershire County Council	GB-CFS-58010
ocds-b5fd17-b16ecab5-3a70-46f3-b7ea-63838d624681-1	ocds-b5fd17-b16ecab5-3a70-46f3-b7ea-63838d624681	4781bb8e-e8b9-4335-afa2-525d08189d5a-908294	SEN19019 -SEN-TAXI-Foxfields Academy	Leicestershire County Council	GB-CFS-58010
ocds-b5fd17-7b568a9a-eba6-42d9-ab8e-88d12d3c173a-1	ocds-b5fd17-7b568a9a-eba6-42d9-ab8e-88d12d3c173a	2554d4de-a8e1-4d66-bdb0-2b1156c07e5b-908293	SEN19011-SEN-TAXI-Foxfields Academy	Leicestershire County Council	GB-CFS-58010
ocds-b5fd17-219eade6-be5b-4aca-9bc6-72ece4a33beb-1	ocds-b5fd17-219eade6-be5b-4aca-9bc6-72ece4a33beb	3680fdca-d650-4cc2-be75-5775a44fdf48-908292	SEN18822-SEN-TAXI-DOROTHY GOODMAN UPPER BARWELL	Leicestershire County Council	GB-CFS-58010
ocds-b5fd17-9adfd174-486b-4827-9032-675dbade6b23-1	ocds-b5fd17-9adfd174-486b-4827-9032-675dbade6b23	cd7214de-ddf6-41c7-90aa-adb2e02a14d1-908291	SEN18762-SEN-TAXI - Birkett House School	Leicestershire County Council	GB-CFS-58010
ocds-b5fd17-925e9307-0afd-4897-808e-9525e829ceff-1	ocds-b5fd17-925e9307-0afd-4897-808e-9525e829ceff	c6bd9f0a-ebfa-4d06-81e4-8aac7efef241-908290	SEN18819-SEN-TAXI-DOROTHY GOODMAN UPPER BARWELL LANE	Leicestershire County Council	GB-CFS-58010
ocds-b5fd17-81bba70b-4c24-48ae-bf0f-8c7fb02c3f8f-1	ocds-b5fd17-81bba70b-4c24-48ae-bf0f-8c7fb02c3f8f	79a57008-b576-4d26-8dcd-da6031469336-908289	Provision of an ESN Wide Area Network (ESN WAN)	Home Office	GB-CFS-323145

The run finished with the status message: PARTIAL: emitted 10 item(s); WINDOW NOT EXHAUSTED: stopped after 1 page(s) / 100 release(s) without reaching the end of 2026-07-22..2026-07-26. Raise max_items or narrow the window; the unread releases are not in the bas

✅ What you get

Each row is flat JSON with these fields (from the dataset schema and the sample run; a field the source does not publish for a given row is null):

• record_key (string/null) — e.g. cfa:ocds-b5fd17-324c6637-5afb-49f3-82e2-eaf71ab46234-1
• award_id — e.g. ocds-b5fd17-324c6637-5afb-49f3-82e2-eaf71ab46234-1
• ocid — e.g. ocds-b5fd17-324c6637-5afb-49f3-82e2-eaf71ab46234
• release_id — e.g. ff3a41e3-dc0c-49ca-bcce-48933e882f3d-908296
• stage — e.g. award
• title — e.g. SEN19025-SEN- W/C TAXI-Ashfield Academy
• buyer_name — e.g. Leicestershire County Council
• buyer_id — e.g. GB-CFS-58010
• award_status — e.g. active
• award_date — e.g. 2026-07-25
• published — e.g. 2026-07-25T14:39:23+01:00
• value_amount — e.g. 38714
• value_currency — e.g. GBP
• supplier_names — e.g. ["Cityrides Leicester Ltd"]
• supplier_ids — e.g. ["GB-CFS-336914"]
• category — e.g. services
• notice_url — e.g. https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/ff3a41e3-dc0c-49ca-bcce-48933e
• record_type (string) — e.g. cf_award_record
• delta_type (string/null) — null in every sample row
• delta_kinds (array/null) — null in every sample row

⚙️ Sample inputs

1. Quick start — the Store example (this is what the sample above came from)

{
  "delta_types": [
    "contract-award"
  ],
  "supplier_contains": [],
  "min_value_gbp": 0,
  "published_from": "2026-07-22",
  "published_to": "2026-07-26",
  "buyer_contains": [],
  "max_items": 10,
  "watch_mode": false,
  "baseline_id": "default"
}

The sample run charged exactly: 1 × $0.02 apify-actor-start + 1 × $0.10 source-check = $0.12 on the Free tier — every delivered row was billed.

2. A smaller, narrowed run

{
  "delta_types": [
    "contract-award"
  ],
  "supplier_contains": [],
  "min_value_gbp": 0,
  "published_from": "2026-07-22",
  "published_to": "2026-07-26",
  "buyer_contains": [],
  "max_items": 5,
  "watch_mode": false,
  "baseline_id": "default"
}

Caps the run at 5 rows — about $0.62 on the Free tier ($0.02 start + $0.10 source check + 5 × $0.10). published_from narrows what the source is asked for.

3. Watch mode on a schedule

{
  "delta_types": [
    "contract-award"
  ],
  "supplier_contains": [],
  "min_value_gbp": 0,
  "published_from": "2026-07-22",
  "published_to": "2026-07-26",
  "buyer_contains": [],
  "max_items": 10,
  "watch_mode": true,
  "baseline_id": "default"
}

The first run seeds a private baseline and emits zero deltas; every later run emits one row per change, billed at $0.10 each plus the $0.10 source check; billed deltas are capped at 500 per run.

🧾 JSON sample record

One real record from run acz6UmcDqDKa2QbHe, exactly as it lands in the dataset (emails masked, long text shortened):

{
  "record_key": "cfa:ocds-b5fd17-324c6637-5afb-49f3-82e2-eaf71ab46234-1",
  "award_id": "ocds-b5fd17-324c6637-5afb-49f3-82e2-eaf71ab46234-1",
  "ocid": "ocds-b5fd17-324c6637-5afb-49f3-82e2-eaf71ab46234",
  "release_id": "ff3a41e3-dc0c-49ca-bcce-48933e882f3d-908296",
  "stage": "award",
  "title": "SEN19025-SEN- W/C TAXI-Ashfield Academy",
  "buyer_name": "Leicestershire County Council",
  "buyer_id": "GB-CFS-58010",
  "award_status": "active",
  "award_date": "2026-07-25",
  "published": "2026-07-25T14:39:23+01:00",
  "value_amount": 38714,
  "value_currency": "GBP",
  "supplier_names": [
    "Cityrides Leicester Ltd"
  ],
  "supplier_ids": [
    "GB-CFS-336914"
  ],
  "category": "services",
  "notice_url": "https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/ff3a41e3-dc0c-49ca-bcce-48933e882f3d-908296",
  "record_type": "cf_award_record",
  "schema_version": "1.0",
  "output_mode": "preview",
  "preview_cap": 25,
  "preview_truncated": 0
}

🔧 How it works

Transport. Plain HTTPS from the Apify platform, no proxy. Every request carries an identified contact User-Agent.

Charging. Each source check is charged at the moment it is pushed (source-check); a row that fails to charge is not delivered, so the dataset count always equals the charged count. One source-check is charged per run that actually read the source.

Source

UK Contracts Finder OCDS Search API, award stage (public, logged-out)

• https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Published/Notices/OCDS/Search?stages=award

Public, logged-out only — no API key, login, cookie or CAPTCHA. OCDS 1.1.

POST-AWARD ONLY

Every record this actor emits is a contract that has already been awarded. It does not list open opportunities and must not be used to find biddable work — for that, use the tender-stage actor instead. Each record carries stage: "award".

Delta types

Leave delta_types empty for both. Every delta carries delta_kinds.

value	fires when
contract-award	an award appears, or its status, value or supplier set changes
incumbent-win	an award goes to a supplier you named in supplier_contains

incumbent-win on its own with no supplier named is rejected: with nobody to watch the run would report nothing indefinitely while looking healthy.

How the window is read

The source's default order is not newest-first — an un-windowed request returned releases spanning ten days. So recency comes from published_from / published_to, walked to exhaustion through the OCDS links.next cursor. A run that cannot reach the end of its window reports a named PARTIAL rather than implying it read everything.

Snapshot mode is a PREVIEW

watch_mode: false returns at most 25 records, hard-capped in code.

Watch semantics

First watch run seeds and emits zero deltas. Billed deltas capped at 500 per run. A record leaving the publication window is the window moving, not a withdrawal, and is never reported as one.

Terminal states

NORMAL · SUCCEEDED-0: GENUINE_EMPTY · SUCCEEDED-0 (no change) · PARTIAL · BLOCKED.

What is not done. No login, no cookie or CAPTCHA bypass, no private or personal-account data, no browser automation.

⏰ Set it on a schedule

A single run is a snapshot. The value is the feed: open the actor in Apify Console → Schedules → Create new, add this actor with input 3 above (watch_mode: true), and pick a cadence:

• Daily — 0 7 * * * (07:00 UTC): catch changes within a day.
• Weekly — 0 7 * * 1: a Monday digest.

The baseline persists in a named key-value store between runs, so every scheduled run compares against the last one; use a different baseline_id for independent watches. Schedules can also POST results to a webhook (Console → Integrations).

💰 Pricing example

Event	Free	Bronze	Silver	Gold
Actor Start (apify-actor-start)	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02
Source check (source-check)	$0.10	$0.09	$0.08	$0.07

Worked at the live Free-tier price (watch mode, one delta per change):

• 8 source checks: $0.02 start + $0.10 source check + 8 × $0.10 = $0.92
• 25 source checks: $0.02 start + $0.10 source check + 25 × $0.10 = $2.62
• 800 source checks: $0.02 start + $0.10 source check + 800 × $0.10 = $80.12

A run that delivers zero rows charges the $0.02 start fee plus the $0.10 source check (the source was read and reported empty). A BLOCKED run (source refused) fails loud and charges no value event. The start fee is charged once per GB of run memory; the default run memory is 1024 MB.

Yield on the sample run: PARTIAL: emitted 10 item(s); WINDOW NOT EXHAUSTED: stopped after 1 page(s) / 100 release(s) without reaching the end of 2026-07-22..2026-07-26. Raise max_items or narrow the window; the unread release. max_items is a hard ceiling on what is delivered and billed, never a target. Snapshot output is capped at 25 records regardless of the cap you set; watch mode is the full feed.

⚖️ Legal & ToS

This actor reads public, logged-out pages and feeds published by www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk. It collects only what the source publishes to any visitor, identifies itself with a contact User-Agent, and does not access accounts, private data or anything behind authentication. Use the output in line with the source's terms and your local law; the intended use is B2B research and monitoring.

❓ FAQ

Q: Do I need an API key or a login?
A: No. The source (www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk) is read logged-out; the input schema has no key field and the actor carries no secrets.

Q: Why did my run return 0 rows?
A: Read the run's status message. GENUINE_EMPTY means the source was read and had nothing in scope for your input (in watch mode the first run always seeds the baseline and returns zero deltas); BLOCKED means the source refused and the run failed without billing a value event — retry later or narrow the input. A zero-row run bills the start fee plus one source check.

Q: How many rows can one run return?
A: Up to max_items (default 800); snapshot previews stop at 25. Raise the cap for a bigger run; you pay per delivered row.

Q: What does watch mode remember between runs?
A: A private baseline of source-native record ids in a named key-value store (baseline_id names it, so several independent watches can coexist). Each later run diffs the live source against it and emits only changes.

Q: How fresh is the data?
A: Every run reads the source live at run time; nothing is cached between runs except the watch baseline. Put it on a schedule for a continuous feed.

Q: What formats can I export?
A: The dataset downloads as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or RSS from the run's Dataset tab or the Apify API, and any run can push to a webhook or integration.

Q: How is this different from the other public procurement watches actors?
A: Same output shape and billing model; this one covers www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk. The siblings under Related Actors cover the other sources or slices — run several on one schedule for a combined feed.

🆘 Troubleshooting

• Run FAILED with BLOCKED → the source refused the request or changed its page shape → nothing was billed beyond the start fee; retry after a while, and if it persists open an Issue with the run id.
• Status says CAPPED → your cap (max_items) was reached → raise it for a bigger run.
• Input validation error on start → a field is outside the schema's allowed values → start from the Quick start block and change one field at a time.
• Run TIMED-OUT → a very wide request on a slow day → raise the run timeout in Run options or narrow the input; what was delivered before the timeout is still in the dataset.
• First watch run shows no deltas → expected: it seeds the baseline; changes appear from the second run.

🔗 Related Actors

• 🇪🇺 EU TED Tender & Award Delta Feed — Procurement Watch — EU TED tender & award delta feed — new tenders, awards, and procedure deltas across all member states; watch mode, honest terminals
• 🇸🇬 Singapore GeBIZ Tender & Award Change Watch — Monitor public Singapore GeBIZ listings and get structured, seed-zero deltas when tenders open, change, close, are cancelled, or publish an award sta…
• Japan Government Procurement Notice Watch (Procurement Portal) — Japanese central-government procurement notices from the government's own Procurement Portal (調達ポータル), read through its English WTO-covered search: c…
• UK Contracts Finder Contract Award Watch — UK public-sector contract awards. A post-award record — not an opportunity feed
• UK Contracts Finder Tender Deadline Change Watch — Submission-deadline changes on open UK public-sector tenders
• UK Contracts Finder Incumbent Supplier Repeat-Award Watch — Repeat wins by the suppliers you name. A post-award record — not an opportunity feed
• 🏢 About NexGenData — NexGen Watch is NexGenData's fleet of 256 public monitoring and lookup actors built on official sources, pay-per-result. Browse the catalog at apify.com/nexgenwatch.

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