Public sector

How do I sell software to the UK public sector?

Last updated 9 October 2026

Most pages on this were accurate two years ago. Since then the framework has changed shape, the rules changed in February 2025, the thresholds changed in January 2026 and the buying organisation changed its name. Here is the current position, and the number that tells you whether any of it is worth your time.

Three things that have changed under everyone

G-Cloud 15, as it stands

Launched August 2026, running four years, and structured as an open framework — which is the part that matters if you missed the first window. It reopens after 18 months and again after 36, with an unlimited number of suppliers. That mechanism exists because the Procurement Act limits ordinary frameworks to four years precisely to stop suppliers being locked out for long periods.

The five lots: cloud hosting; cloud hosting for higher security classifications; infrastructure software; other software as a service; and cloud support. G-Cloud 15 folded in what used to be separate agreements, which is why the lot structure changed.

Applications go through the Digital Marketplace apply-to-supply service. Note that the buyer-facing side of the old Digital Marketplace has gone: buyers are now directed to the Contract Award Service, and the old marketplace URL redirects. If a guide tells you buyers will browse your listing on the Digital Marketplace, it is describing something that no longer works that way.

The other routes

Spark is worth a second look for two reasons. It is the only genuinely rolling route, so you do not wait for a window. And that 15-working-day assessment is the only published turnaround figure anywhere in this landscape — nothing equivalent exists for G-Cloud. You do have to show your product meets its definition of radical or disruptive innovation.

The rules changed in February 2025

The Procurement Act 2023 took effect on 24 February 2025. For a supplier the practical change is registration: from 1 April 2026 you need to be registered on the central digital platform — which is Find a Tender with new features — and to have a unique supplier identifier, which you share with the authority before it publishes a contract details notice.

Registration is free, takes about five minutes by the government’s own estimate, and the identifier is reusable across procurements. One piece of older guidance still says you only need to register when you want to bid. Register before, not during — it costs nothing and the identifier is now needed at the award end.

Where opportunities are published, and the thresholds

Find a Tender is the central platform and carries both above- and below-threshold notices for new UK procurements. Contracts Finder is still live and still covers below-threshold contracts in England, but new notices go to the central platform.

Two things here. Including VAT is not a detail — the guidance says in terms that the estimated value includes VAT, and pages quoting ex-VAT figures are using the pre-2025 approach. And these stand until 31 December 2027, because thresholds are revised on 1 January of every even year.

One consequence worth carrying across: NHS trusts and foundation trusts count as central government authorities, so their below-threshold advertising trigger is £12,000, not £30,000. If you are selling into health, far more of that work is visible than people assume.

The number that answers “is it worth it”

Three in four suppliers, one pound in nine. That ratio is the fair answer, and it is the thing the framework-onboarding industry does not put on its pages. Getting listed is permission to be bought from. It is not a pipeline, and a large majority of listed suppliers are competing for a small minority of the money.

Nobody publishes an average time to first sale on G-Cloud, and nobody publishes the share of listed suppliers who never transact. The nearest official indication: the National Audit Office reported that 3,926 suppliers recorded spend through CCS frameworks in 2022-23, against over 9,500 suppliers holding a place. That implies something around two in five recorded any spend in that year — my arithmetic on two of the NAO’s figures, not a ratio the NAO publishes, and the supplier count is a floor, so treat it as indicative.

What that means practically

Go for a framework when you have a specific buyer or a specific need already in view, or when you can afford a long horizon. Listing speculatively and waiting for the phone is the strategy the numbers above describe. The suppliers who do well on these routes almost always had a relationship, a pilot or a named problem first, and used the framework as the contracting mechanism rather than as the marketing channel.

Sources. G-Cloud 15 lots, dates and the open-framework mechanics: the Government Commercial Agency agreement page for RM1557.15 and Find a Tender notices 067801-2025 and 068082-2025. Call-off length, the lot consolidation and the SME supplier share: GOV.UK, G-Cloud 15 launch, 10 August 2026. Management charge: Find a Tender notice 068082-2025. Procurement Act commencement and supplier duties: GOV.UK, the Procurement Act 2023 short guide for suppliers, updated 23 June 2026, and new legislative requirements under the Procurement Act 2023, updated 23 June 2026; framework duration from sections 47 and 49 of the Act. Thresholds: PPN 023, 2026 threshold amounts, November 2025, and GOV.UK guidance on thresholds and below-threshold contracts, updated 13 July 2026. SME figures: CCS SME Action Plan, 20 October 2025, and the Government Commercial Agency annual report and accounts 2025-26. Supplier-spend indication: National Audit Office, efficiency in government procurement of common goods and services, HC 116, July 2024 — the two-in-five figure is my arithmetic on its numbers. All retrieved 9 October 2026.