Northern Ireland public sector contract rules
How Northern Ireland public sector contracts are advertised and processed.
In February 2025 new procurement rules came into effect. These regulations aim to make the procurement process simpler and more transparent. See the .
Most of the provisions in the Act apply only for public contracts. A contract is considered a public contract when its estimated value meets or exceeds the threshold amounts - see .
Public sector organisations are required to tender contracts for products or services that exceed the threshold amount for their respective category.
Set procedures
Contracts over the thresholds can only be awarded by using one of two set procedures.
Open procedure
In the case of the open procedure, the tender notice is the ‘invitation to tender’ as it invites all interested suppliers to submit a tender.
Public organisation will evaluated the tenders received against the award criteria and determine the most advantageous tender. Suppliers will be informed of the outcome.
Competitive Flexible Procedure
In contrast to an open procedure, a competitive flexible procedure will be multi-staged and therefore contracting authorities can limit the number of suppliers participating in a procurement or progressing to the next stage.
The competitive flexible procedure allows the contracting authority the freedom to design its own procedure.
The contracting authority may choose to incorporate numerous processes into the procedure, such as negotiation, dialogue or a demonstration stage before awarding a contract.