How Noticehawk works
Where the tenders come from, how often they are checked, how each score is worked out, and what the service does not do.
Where the tenders come from
Every tender comes from one of the two official UK notice services: Find a Tender, which carries higher-value contracts from across the UK, and Contracts Finder, which carries lower-value contracts, mostly in England. Both publish under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Every tender we send links to its official notice.
We keep notices for construction, building maintenance, building services and design work, and leave the rest out.
How often it is checked
Both services are read every morning. Alerts go out by email every Monday, and the tender pages on this website are rebuilt every day.
Changed, withdrawn and closed notices
- Changed. When a buyer amends a notice, the next morning's check picks up the new details, such as a moved closing date, and the tender is scored again.
- Withdrawn or cancelled. These are taken out of alerts and off this website at the next morning's check.
- Closed. A tender drops out once its closing date has passed. Alerts only include tenders with at least a few days left to bid.
- Published twice. Some contracts appear on both services. We show them once.
A notice can change after an alert has gone out, so always check the official notice for the current closing date and time before you start a bid.
How the type of work is decided
Each notice is first sorted by its procurement codes and wording. The label is then checked each day using an AI model, which corrects the type of work where the rules got it wrong and removes notices that are not construction or building maintenance at all. Tenders on this website have all been through that check.
How the score is worked out
Each tender gets a score out of 100 from a fixed points table. Nothing in the score is a guess about your firm; it measures how well the tender suits a smaller construction business in general.
- Fit with construction work, up to 30 points. Highest when both the procurement code and the wording say it is construction or maintenance work.
- Contract size, up to 25 points. Highest when the stated value is between £100,000 and £500,000.
- Time to bid, up to 20 points. Highest when there are three to five weeks left.
- Suits smaller firms, up to 15 points. Highest when the buyer says it is suitable for smaller firms; some points if it is split into lots.
- Detail in the notice, 10 points. Given when the notice states the value, the closing date and where the work is.
Paid alerts show these points for every tender, together with anything the notice leaves out and anything worth checking first, such as a short deadline or a framework that does not guarantee work.
What Noticehawk does not do
- It reads the published notice, not the full tender pack. Requirements such as accreditations, insurance levels and minimum turnover are usually set out in the buyer's documents, which sit on the buyer's own portal. Where a notice does state them, paid alerts say so.
- It does not tell you whether your firm is eligible, and a high score is not a prediction that you will win.
- It does not write or submit bids.
- Coverage of lower-value contracts in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is thinner, because those are mostly published on the devolved notice services rather than the two we read.
Questions: hello@noticehawk.co.uk