Image credit: Pixabay

Research by OpenOpps.com shows that the procurement process is least efficient in the NHS, where tender awards take longer and bidders are given less time to respond to tenders.

Open Opps analysed over forty six thousand tender and contract notices to determine how long it takes organisations to go from publishing a tender notice to awarding a contract. This is a useful metric to analyse, as it serves as a proxy for organisational efficiency, but also has an impact on the bidders, particularly smaller companies, who thrive on the cash-flow benefits of being able to do deals quickly.

Our research shows that it takes an extra month and half for the NHS to go from tender to contract than it does central government.

NHS: 128 calendar days

Housing Association: 113 calendar days

Public Corporation: 109 calendar days

Local Government: 93 calendar days

Private Limited Company: 88 calendar days

Central Government: 82 calendar days

Education: 82 calendar days

Of the five slowest tenderers is government, three are part of the NHS, while a fourth operates catering procurement, often on behalf of the NHS.

The full analysis is available here: https://openopps.com/blog/post/62/the-waiting-game-who-are-the-slowest-buyers-in-the-uk/.


Contracts Finder only contains contract award data for 27% of tenders. Of these tenders, many did not have accurate tender start or award start dates. This analysis was only conducted on the entities with 20 or more tenders and valid tender start and award start dates. This means that, although we have identified some examples of poor practice, the named tenderers are in fact the ones publishing the most reliable tender and award data. This lack of data shows that some oversight is required

The results are available here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Tmu86g8wFysvckZWxWj86kCFphcgZnQ0FZNHWjxRoFY/edit?usp=sharing.

If any representative of the mentioned organisations wishes to get in touch with a correction, we will happily update the article.

Understanding spend

Thoughts and analysis on public purchasing from the team behind openopps.com and spendnetwork.com

Helen McNally

Written by

Understanding spend

Thoughts and analysis on public purchasing from the team behind openopps.com and spendnetwork.com

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