Frameworks: what they are and how to get on one
By James Rehman, founder of Bidwhistle · Last checked 28 September 2026 · About 9 minutes to read
A lot of public sector work is never advertised as a contract of its own. The buyer runs one competition to choose a group of approved suppliers, called a framework, and then gives out the work among them over several years. If you are not on the framework, you cannot win that work until the framework is let again.
This guide explains how frameworks work under the Procurement Act 2023, which applies in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and how a small business can get a place on one and turn it into work. It covers the rules as they stood on the date above.
The short version
- A place on a framework is not a contract for work. It lets you compete for, or be offered, work later. It does not promise any.
- You join when the framework is tendered. Most frameworks close once they are awarded. If you miss the tender, you wait for the next one or work as a subcontractor to a supplier already on it.
- Open frameworks are the exception. They must be let again at set points, and new suppliers can bid each time.
- Read how the work will be shared out before you bid: by a further competition between the suppliers, or without one, by a fixed method such as taking turns.
- Most frameworks last up to four years. Plan for the next one before the current one ends.
1. What a framework is
The Act defines a framework as a contract between a buyer and one or more suppliers that provides for contracts to be awarded to those suppliers in future. The contracts awarded under it are called call-off contracts, or call-offs.
Winning a place is an achievement, but it is not the same as winning work. The government's own guidance says that in most cases a framework does not commit the buyer to award any call-off at all. What you win is the right to compete for, or be offered, the work as it comes up.
A framework must say which public bodies may use it. Some are used only by the buyer that set them up. Others are open to hundreds of public bodies, and some of the largest are run by buying organisations whose whole purpose is to buy for others. The biggest national one, Crown Commercial Service, became the Government Commercial Agency on 1 April 2026. Its frameworks keep their RM reference numbers.
2. Getting a place: the framework tender
A framework is won like any other contract: through a tender, awarded to the most advantageous tenders against criteria the buyer publishes in advance. New frameworks under the Act are advertised with a tender notice on Find a Tender.
The tender notice for a framework tells you most of what you need to decide whether to bid:
| What to look for | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| How call-offs will be awarded | Decides how work is shared out once you are on it (section 4) |
| How many suppliers will get a place: one, a maximum number, or no limit | A framework with three places is a very different bet from one with thirty |
| The lots | You can bid only for the parts you can deliver |
| The term | Usually up to four years. If it is longer, the buyer must say why |
| Which public bodies may use it | Tells you how much work could flow through it |
| Whether it is an open framework | If it is, you may get another chance to join |
| Any fee, as a fixed percentage | You pay it on work you win, so build it into your prices |
Lots matter to small businesses. Before tendering, buyers must consider dividing a contract into lots, and if they decide against lots where they would be reasonable, they must give their reasons. Bidding for one region or one type of service is easier than bidding for everything. Some frameworks limit how many lots one supplier can bid for or win, which also helps smaller firms.
3. Closed and open frameworks
Most frameworks close once awarded. The Government Commercial Agency puts it plainly: once suppliers have been awarded a place, no new suppliers can join. If you miss the tender, your choices are to wait for the replacement framework or to work as a subcontractor to a supplier already on it.
The Act introduced a new kind, the open framework: a series of frameworks on substantially the same terms. It must be let again at least once in its first three years, and at least once every five years after that, and the whole arrangement ends after eight years. Each time it is let again, new suppliers can bid for a place. The tender notice says whether a framework is part of an open framework, and when the open framework is expected to end.
4. How the work is shared out: call-offs
The framework must say how call-offs will be awarded. There are two ways.
A further competition. The Act calls it a competitive selection process; most people call it a mini-competition. The buyer invites the suppliers on the framework, or on the relevant lot, to submit proposals. Proposals can be scored only against award criteria that were used to award the framework, although the buyer may refine them.
Without a further competition. This is allowed only if the framework has a single supplier, or if it sets out the main terms of the call-offs and an objective way of choosing the supplier. The government's guidance gives two examples: a rota, where suppliers take turns, and a ranking from the framework tender, with a cap on how much work each supplier gets. Buyers often call this a direct award, although under the Act a direct award is something else and cannot be used for call-offs.
For a further competition, the buyer may set conditions, but they must be proportionate. It cannot demand audited accounts from a business that is not required to have them, ask for insurance before the award, or require you to have won work under the framework already. Before it awards you a call-off after a further competition, the buyer must confirm that you are registered on Find a Tender and have shared your up-to-date core supplier information with it.
Call-offs are quieter than ordinary tenders. No tender notice is published for a call-off, so call-off opportunities come to you from the buyer, not from Find a Tender. What is published is the result: a contract award notice for each call-off, which is new under the Act, and a contract details notice saying whether there was a further competition. There is no compulsory standstill period before a call-off contract is signed, and the buyer does not have to send you an assessment summary, although the guidance encourages it. Ask for feedback anyway.
5. Fees
A framework may charge the suppliers that win work a fee, as a fixed percentage of the estimated value of each call-off. The government's guidance says a framework cannot charge you to join it or for managing it, and that the percentage cannot change during the framework's life. The fee must be set out in the framework and in its tender notice. Build it into your prices.
6. How long frameworks last
Most frameworks last up to four years. Frameworks used only for defence and security contracts, or only for utilities contracts, can last up to eight. A buyer can set a longer term if the nature of the work needs it, but it must publish its reasons in the notice. Call-off contracts can run beyond the end of the framework itself.
7. Frameworks set up under the old rules
Frameworks set up under the old rules, the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, carry on under those rules. That covers frameworks awarded before 24 February 2025, and those whose tender had started by then, so some were only awarded later in 2025. There is no cut-off date: each runs to its own end date, and its call-offs follow the old rules until the last one ends. For some years you will see both kinds side by side.
8. Scotland
Scottish public bodies follow Scotland's own rules, under which frameworks are limited to four years except in exceptional cases. Scottish frameworks are run nationally by the Scottish Government, by sector centres of expertise and locally, and are advertised on Public Contracts Scotland.
9. Finding frameworks
Find a Tender is free to search, and new frameworks under the Act are advertised there with a tender notice. Large buyers publish pipeline notices each spring listing what they plan to buy, which can give you well over a year's warning. The Government Commercial Agency publishes a list of its upcoming agreements with their Find a Tender notices, and many regional and sector buying organisations publish their own.
What to do this month
- Register on Find a Tender and keep your core supplier information up to date: you need it before any call-off can be awarded to you through a further competition.
- List the frameworks your customers buy through, with their end dates, and note when each is likely to be tendered again.
- When a framework tender appears, read how call-offs will be awarded, how many places there are and the lots before you decide to bid.
- If you have missed a closed framework, ask suppliers already on it about subcontracting.
- Once you have a place, make sure the buyers who can use the framework know you are on it: a place brings no work on its own.
How Bidwhistle helps
Bidwhistle finds tenders from UK and European public portals, including new frameworks, and matches them to your business. It recognises framework, DPS and multi-lot notices, so it does not rule one out because its headline value is the total for every supplier over several years. Olivia, our AI bid adviser, explains what each tender is asking for.