OJEU / FTS
OJEU was the EU publication for above-threshold tenders; Find a Tender Service (FTS) replaced it for UK contracts post-Brexit.
Definition
OJEU (Official Journal of the European Union) was the EU-wide publication where public sector contracts above EU thresholds had to be advertised by member states. UK contracts above threshold were published on OJEU until 31 December 2020. From 1 January 2021 the UK left the EU public procurement regime and the Find a Tender Service, abbreviated FTS, took over as the UK central portal for above-threshold opportunities. OJEU continues to operate as TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) for EU member states; UK contracts are no longer published there.
How it works in practice
The migration was practically seamless for UK suppliers: contract notice formats, threshold values, and OCDS data model carried over largely unchanged. The substantive change was domain: notices for UK public sector contracts now live on the find-tender.service.gov.uk domain rather than the EU TED website. Cross-border procurement is less common since Brexit but UK suppliers selling into the EU still monitor TED for relevant lots, and EU suppliers selling into the UK monitor FTS. Historical OJEU notices remain accessible via TED archives, which is useful for analytical work such as tracking winning supplier history, comparing past contract values, and identifying which suppliers have renewed which framework over time. For practical purposes, current procurement monitoring in the UK requires FTS plus Contracts Finder, Sell2Wales, and Public Contracts Scotland. KimonBids polls all four UK portals plus optionally TED for cross-border-relevant categories. The Procurement Act 2023 introduces a unified central digital platform that absorbs FTS into a wider notice ecosystem with new notice types (Pipeline Notice, Tender Notice, Transparency Notice, Award Notice, Contract Performance Notice). The notice schema is broadly OCDS-compatible so third-party tooling that integrated with FTS will work with the new platform once the transition lands.
Common questions
When did OJEU stop being used for UK contracts?
31 December 2020. UK contract notices above threshold published from 1 January 2021 onwards are on Find a Tender (FTS), not OJEU. OJEU continues to operate as TED for EU member states.
Are there still OJEU notices for UK contracts?
No new UK-buyer notices have been published on OJEU since 1 January 2021. Some pre-Brexit OJEU notices are still in force as ongoing contracts or framework call-offs; the underlying contract remains valid even though the notice was published under the OJEU regime.
Do I need to monitor TED if I only sell in the UK?
No. UK contract notices from 2021 onwards are on FTS, Contracts Finder, Sell2Wales, or Public Contracts Scotland. TED is only relevant if you sell cross-border into EU member states.