In short. Councils in England must publish details of contracts above £5,000 under the Local Government Transparency Code 2015 (the Code). Each entry carries a supplier, a value and start, end and review dates. Since 24 February 2025, new procurements under the Act are published on Find a Tender, and notices under the older rules can still appear on Contracts Finder. A register is the council's own record, not a confirmed expiry list.
The Code duties in this guide apply to councils in England. Notices cover the whole UK: Find a Tender is UK-wide, and Contracts Finder covers England and non-devolved bodies.
What is a council contracts register?
Here, a contracts register means the contract details a council publishes because the Code requires them. The Code says councils "must also publish details of any contract" with a value that "exceeds £5,000" (paragraph 32). It also requires details of every invitation to tender above £5,000 (paragraph 31).
The Code is issued under section 2 of the Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980. Regulations make its Part 2 duties binding. The text lists the information to publish, not a page name or file layout. In practice it appears as a page, a file or a link, and differs by council.
What should each entry tell you?
| Field the Code lists | What it is | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Reference number and title | The council's identifier | Whether it matches any notice |
| Department responsible | The owning department | Which service it sits under |
| Description of goods or services | What is provided | Whether it matches your service |
| Supplier name and details | Who holds it | Trading and company names can differ |
| Sum to be paid over the contract, or estimated annual spend or budget | The value | Which of the two the council recorded |
| VAT that cannot be recovered | Irrecoverable VAT only | Whether the value includes it |
| Start, end and review dates | Three separate dates | End and review dates differ |
| Quote or tender, and SME or voluntary sector status | How it was procured and who the supplier is | Whether a registration number is given |
The last column is our advice, not a statement of the Code.
How current is a register?
Procurement information is published quarterly, "not later than 1 month after the quarter" it applies to (paragraph 27). Check the date on each file or page before you rely on it.
Contracts Finder or Find a Tender: where is the notice?
The main provisions of the Procurement Act 2023 came into force on 24 February 2025. Find a Tender is now the central digital platform, at the same web address as the old service.
New procurements are published on Find a Tender. Contracts Finder is not closed: PPN 019, a government procurement policy note, says it still carries notices for procurements under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.
For procurements above £5,000 and below £30,000, government guidance says a council may use Find a Tender for tenders and awarded contract information, and treat those parts of the Code as discharged. The rest of the Code still applies. If required, historical data should still be published on the council's own website. On our reading, a council's own register can be thinner for those contracts.
What do the Find a Tender notices tell you?
Four Find a Tender notice types can mark a contract from award decision to end.
- Contract award notice (UK6): published after an award decision and before a contract is signed.
- Contract details notice (UK7): published after a contract has been signed, above and below threshold.
- Contract change notice (UK10): published before a change to a contract's value or term.
- Contract termination notice (UK11): published after a contract has ended.
The timing rules are set in the Act and are not covered here.
How to read a register in five steps
- Find the council's published contracts, and its notices on Find a Tender and Contracts Finder.
- Record the supplier, the description and the value, and whether the value is a total or an annual figure.
- Read the start, end and review dates as three separate things. An end date is the date the council recorded, not a confirmed expiry or tender date.
- Compare with the council's spending file to see what was paid.
- Write down the source, the file date and the day you looked.
What a register cannot tell you
The Code requires entries for contracts and other agreements above £5,000 only. It is as complete and current as the council makes it. It records a value, not payments made. It covers England under the Code, and councils in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland publish under other rules not covered here.
Where Axxo Intel fits
Axxo Intel is a private account-planning workspace for suppliers of repeatable services to UK councils. It is an account plan, not a tender or opportunity feed. It shows registered awards approaching a decision window, labelled with the procurement regime and how confident the end date is. An award with no usable end date is shown as not windowed. Our Data sources page lists every source, what we take and what we leave out. Axxo Intel is a managed service, not a self-serve tool, and a paid Evidence Pilot is how you test it first. Read about pricing and the Evidence Pilot.
Sources
- Local Government Transparency Code 2015, accessed 2 October 2026.
- The Local Government (Transparency Requirements) (England) Regulations 2015, accessed 2 October 2026.
- The Procurement Act 2023 (Commencement No. 3 and Transitional and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2024, accessed 2 October 2026.
- Procurement Act 2023: a short guide for suppliers, accessed 2 October 2026.
- PPN 019: update to legal requirements to publish on Contracts Finder, accessed 2 October 2026.
- Guidance for reconciling the Procurement Act 2023 and the Transparency Code, accessed 2 October 2026.
- Find a Tender service, notice types, accessed 2 October 2026.
- Contracts Finder on GOV.UK, accessed 2 October 2026.