Central Digital Platform registration: a step‑by‑step guide for suppliers

The government’s guidance describes the platform as the online system named in the Act and the Procurement Regulations 2024, at find-tender.service.gov.uk. Suppliers use it to register, receive a unique identifier, and submit and store their core supplier information. That information is seen only by the contracting authorities a supplier chooses to share it with.

The regulations sort core supplier information into four groups: basic information (such as your name, identifier, address, VAT number, legal form and any qualifications or trade associations), your economic and financial standing as shown in your latest accounts, your connected persons, and any exclusion grounds that apply to you.

• One person as administrator. gov.uk’s registration guide says every supplier should give one person the job of setting up the account. That person can add and approve other users and enter and change the organisation’s details.
• A GOV.UK One Login for that person, made with their own work email. Security codes come by text message or an authenticator app.
• Your Companies House number, or an equivalent such as a Charity Commission number, and your registered address. If you have no such number, the platform gives you an identifier.
• An organisation email address that the team can reach, not one person’s inbox.

gov.uk’s short guide for suppliers also says that a supplier with an account on the old Find a Tender service must register again on the new one; saved searches may carry over if the same email address is used.

These steps follow gov.uk’s guide How to register your organisation and find your unique identifier (updated 21 October 2026). The wording on the screens can change; follow the screens where they differ.

1. Create your GOV.UK One Login. Enter your work email, agree to the terms, enter the six-digit code sent to you, choose a password and how to receive security codes. A text-message code lasts 15 minutes.
2. Start the Central Digital Platform registration. Agree to the service’s privacy policy and enter your name. Your account page then offers to register an organisation.
3. Register the organisation as a supplier. Choose Supplier, not Buyer. Enter your Companies House number if you have one: the name and address fill in. Mark your SME status if it applies, check the registered name, enter the organisation email and check the registered address (an address outside the UK is accepted). Check your answers and save.
4. Note your unique identifier. It shows on your organisation’s page. The guide says to share it with the contracting authority before you are awarded a contract.

gov.uk’s walkthrough for administrators (updated 21 October 2026) lists six sections:

Gather directors’ and owners’ details and your latest accounts before you start, since those two sections ask for them. If your accounts are not audited, say so. The guidance on conditions of participation says a buyer cannot demand audited accounts from a supplier that is not already required to have them audited.

When the information is complete, you declare it accurate and choose Share my information, then Create a share code. You read and accept a declaration, give your name, job title, work email and the organisation’s postal address, and the platform gives you the code. The walkthrough describes a share code as a number that is entered in the contracting authority’s tendering portal. You can also download your information as a file to email or upload, if the buyer asks for it that way.

A share code belongs to one submission. If your information changes, update it and create a new share code before you send it to the next buyer.

The platform does not replace the buyer’s own e-tendering portal. Many buyers still run the tender itself on a portal such as In-tend, ProContract or Jaggaer, which is where you get the documents and submit, and you register there separately. The share code is one of the things you enter there.

• A competitive tender: the buyer must get confirmation that you are registered and have shared your information before the tendering period ends, and it can set an earlier point.
• A call-off under a framework: before the award decision.
• A direct award: before the contract is awarded.
• A notifiable below-threshold contract (from £12,000 including VAT for central government and NHS trusts, £30,000 for other authorities): you must be registered, have submitted the specified information and given your identifier.

If the regulations say a piece of information comes through the platform and yours is missing, the buyer must not ask for it separately; it will ask you to add it to the platform. Information not covered by the platform, such as most conditions of participation, is asked for through the buyer’s own route, often a Procurement Specific Questionnaire.

The guidance asks suppliers to check and update their information before they submit it. If you give a buyer updated or corrected information before its award decision, it must get a fresh confirmation that the information has been shared through the platform. In practice: review the record before every bid, and make a new share code after any change.

1. Administrator chosen; GOV.UK One Login made with a work email.
2. Organisation registered as a supplier; unique identifier noted.
3. Six sections complete, with connected persons and the latest accounts in.
4. Declaration made and a share code created for this tender.
5. Share code entered in the buyer’s portal, in the place its documents say, before its deadline.

This guide covers procurements under the Procurement Act 2023. Tenders published only on Public Contracts Scotland may follow Scotland’s own rules, so check what the notice asks for.

1. How to register your organisation and find your unique identifier: a guide for suppliers, updated 21 October 2026. www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-act-2023-short-guides/how-to-register-your-organisation-and-find-your-unique-identifier-a-guide-for-suppliers-html
2. Suppliers: detailed walkthrough – how an administrator completes and updates supplier information, updated 21 October 2026. www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-act-2023-short-guides/suppliers-detailed-walkthrough-how-an-administrator-completes-and-updates-supplier-information-html
3. The Procurement Act 2023: a short guide for suppliers, updated 21 October 2026. www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-act-2023-short-guides/the-procurement-act-2023-a-short-guide-for-suppliers-html
4. Procurement Act 2023 guidance: Central Digital Platform and Publication of Information (paras 1–2, 18–20, 59–75), updated 17 August 2026. www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-act-2023-guidance-documents-procure-phase/guidance-central-digital-platform-and-publication-of-information-html
5. Procurement Act 2023 guidance: Conditions of Participation (paras 16–17, 37–39), updated 17 August 2026. www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-act-2023-guidance-documents-procure-phase/guidance-conditions-of-participation-html
6. Procurement Act 2023 guidance: Below-Threshold Contracts (paras 10, 23), updated 13 July 2026. www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-act-2023-guidance-documents-define-phase/guidance-below-threshold-contracts-html

Read on 24 October 2026. Guidance and tender documents change; check the current version before relying on any detail. Examples that use a fictional supplier say so.