Framework Agreements vs Dynamic Purchasing Systems

What are you being asked to bid for?

A notice headed framework, dynamic purchasing system, or dynamic market is offering a method of buying. The award at the end of this competition may be a place on a list. The work, and the revenue, arrives later, when a buyer awards a call-off, runs a mini-competition, or invites every admitted supplier to price a specific contract.

That difference belongs in the bid decision, in front of the drafting. A one-off contract has a scope, a price, and a start date. A multi-year arrangement has a term, a list of buyers who may use it, and a rule for how each later contract will be awarded. A team that prices the first and skips the second can spend a full proposal on a place it cannot staff when the real competitions begin.

The legal name changes by country. Above the EU thresholds, Directive 2014/24/EU sets the classical public-sector rules for framework agreements and dynamic purchasing systems. Member States transpose those rules into national law. Below those thresholds, national rules apply, and they can be simpler or different. In England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, procurements started on or after 24 February 2025 follow the Procurement Act 2023, which speaks of frameworks, open frameworks, and dynamic markets. Scotland has its own procurement legislation. The notice names the regime. This article explains the two instruments suppliers have to tell apart, and the checks that belong on the bid record before anyone writes a methodology.

Read the instrument before the specification. The instrument decides whether a win is a contract or a place on a list.

What is a framework agreement?

Article 33 of Directive 2014/24/EU defines a framework agreement as an agreement between one or more contracting authorities and one or more economic operators. Its purpose is to establish the terms governing contracts to be awarded during a given period, in particular with regard to price and, where appropriate, the quantity envisaged.

The term shall not exceed four years, except in exceptional cases duly justified, in particular by the subject of the framework agreement. A longer term is a justification the buyer has to record. It is a fact to find in the notice, and then to read, rather than a default suggested by a large estimated value.

Two further limits decide whether the framework is usable for you. Later contracts stay between the contracting authorities identified for that purpose in the call for competition and the economic operators who are parties to the framework as concluded. A contract based on the framework must not substantially modify the terms laid down in it. A call-off applies those terms. It does not reopen the scope, the pricing logic, or the list of parties.

The framework is concluded with one supplier or with several. The procurement documents have to make that choice visible, because it decides whether later work is ordered from a single supplier or shared across a panel. Highlight it on the first reading of the notice.

How is later work awarded under a framework?

Where the framework is with a single economic operator, contracts are awarded within the limits of the terms already laid down. The authority may consult that supplier in writing and ask it to supplement its tender where that is necessary. There is no second competition, because there is no other party to the agreement.

Where the framework is with more than one economic operator, Article 33 provides three ways to perform it. The first is an award without reopening competition. It is available where the framework already sets all the terms governing the works, services, or supplies, and it sets the objective conditions for deciding which party performs the contract. Those conditions have to appear in the framework documents. A ranking, a rotation, or a cascade is only as good as the rule written there.

The second way mixes the two. Some purchases follow the terms already set, and some reopen competition, where the documents provide for both and set objective criteria for which route applies. The documents also specify which terms may be reopened. The third way is a reopening of competition, often called a mini-competition, used where the framework does not lay down all the terms.

For a mini-competition the authority consults, in writing, the economic operators capable of performing that contract. The time allowed has to be long enough for its complexity. Tenders are submitted in writing, and they stay unopened until the deadline. The authority awards to the tender that is best against the award criteria set out in the framework documents. Those criteria can be applied with more precisely formulated terms, and with other terms the framework documents already referred to. A mini-competition applies the award criteria the framework already published.

For the supplier, the consequence is capacity. A place on a multi-supplier framework can produce a series of short competitions, each with its own site, deadline, and price. Winning the place and then missing the call-offs leaves the company with a logo on a bid list and no revenue from it.

What is a dynamic purchasing system?

Article 34 describes a different instrument, for commonly used purchases whose characteristics, as generally available on the market, meet the authority's needs. A dynamic purchasing system runs as a completely electronic process. It stays open throughout its validity to any economic operator that satisfies the selection criteria. The authority may divide it into categories of products, works, or services, defined objectively. Those characteristics can include a maximum size for later contracts, or a geographic area in which they will be performed.

The buyer follows the rules of the restricted procedure, with the adaptations the article sets out. Every candidate that meets the selection criteria is admitted, and the number of candidates shall not be limited. A framework, by contrast, is awarded to the suppliers chosen at the outset. A dynamic purchasing system keeps the door open for suppliers who meet the same tests later.

At set-up, the minimum period for requests to participate is 30 days from the contract notice or, where a prior information notice is the call for competition, from the invitation to confirm interest. Once the invitation to tender for the first specific procurement has been sent, no further minimum period applies to later requests to join. Each specific procurement then has its own tender period of at least 10 days from the date the invitation to tender is sent.

The authority assesses an admission request against the selection criteria within 10 working days of receipt. That period may be extended to 15 working days in an individual case that is justified, in particular because additional documents have to be examined. Until the first invitation to tender has been sent, the authority may extend the evaluation period further, provided it issues no invitation during the extension and it states the intended length in the procurement documents. It tells the supplier whether it has been admitted.

For each specific contract the authority invites every admitted participant, or every participant admitted to the relevant category. It awards on the award criteria in the contract notice for the system. Those criteria may be formulated more precisely in the invitation to tender. The buyer may also ask admitted participants for an updated self-declaration, and it can require that declaration within five working days of the request. The period of validity is stated in the call for competition, and a change to that period is notified. No charges may be billed, before or during the life of the system, to economic operators interested in it or party to it.

A supplier that misses the opening can apply later, while the system is still valid, and still has to win each order on the award criteria. Admission shows that the selection criteria were met. It does not reserve a share of the spend.

How do a framework and a dynamic purchasing system differ?

Use the label on the notice, then confirm the behaviour in the procurement documents. Below the EU thresholds, national law can shorten the procedure or use a local name. In France the notices usually say accord-cadre and système d'acquisition dynamique. In Germany they usually say Rahmenvereinbarung and dynamisches Beschaffungssystem. The guide to public tenders in each country is the place to start on portals and thresholds. The rows below describe the classical EU rules in Directive 2014/24/EU, which apply when that directive governs the procurement.

What does the UK Procurement Act 2023 call these tools?

For new procurements in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland started on or after 24 February 2025, the Procurement Act 2023 is the statute. The guide to public tenders in the United Kingdom explains where notices appear and which tendering periods section 54 sets. The labels below are the ones a notice under that Act will use. Scotland remains under its own legislation, and the notice is what identifies the regime.

A framework under the Act is still an arrangement for awarding later public contracts. Section 47 limits the term to four years in the ordinary case, and to eight years for a defence and security framework or a utilities framework. A longer term is allowed where the authority considers that the nature of the goods, services, or works requires it, and the authority must set out its reasons in the tender notice or transparency notice. Those maxima do not apply to an open framework, a framework awarded by a private utility, or a light-touch framework.

Section 49 defines an open framework as a scheme of successive frameworks awarded on substantially the same terms. The scheme has to provide for the award of a framework at least once during the first three years, and at least every five years after that. The final framework expires at the end of the eight years beginning with the day the first framework under the scheme is awarded. If a framework in the scheme is awarded to only one supplier, that framework and the open framework must expire before the end of four years beginning with the day that single-supplier framework is awarded. An open framework lets new suppliers compete at the points the scheme sets. It remains a series of awarded frameworks.

A dynamic market is the Act's open list. Cabinet Office guidance describes it as the commercial tool that replaces dynamic purchasing systems and qualification systems. The authority must accept applications for membership at any time during the term, consider them within a reasonable period, and admit a supplier that meets the membership conditions as soon as reasonably practicable. Those conditions are allowed only where they are a proportionate way to ensure members have the legal and financial capacity, and the technical ability, to perform contracts awarded by reference to the market. The Act does not set a maximum term for a dynamic market. Admission is not itself the award of a public contract. A contract awarded by reference to the market uses the competitive flexible procedure.

Fees need a separate line in the pricing check. On a UK framework, section 45 allows a fee only as a fixed percentage of the estimated value of a call-off awarded to that supplier. Charging a supplier to gain access to the framework is not permitted, and the percentage cannot change during the life of the framework. A dynamic market notice has to state any fee the Act permits for that market. Utilities dynamic markets follow a different fee rule, so read that notice before treating a day rate as margin. An EU dynamic purchasing system is stricter still: Article 34 prohibits charges to interested or participating suppliers.

What should an SME check before bidding for a place?

Write these answers against the notice and the procurement documents before anyone drafts a method statement. A missing answer is a clarification question, or a reason to pause, while the deadline still allows either.

• Name the instrument: one-off contract, framework, open framework, dynamic purchasing system, or dynamic market.
• Name the regime: Directive 2014/24/EU as transposed, a below-threshold national procedure, the Procurement Act 2023, or Scottish procurement law.
• List the buyers allowed to award contracts under the arrangement. On an EU framework, that list is the authorities identified in the call.
• Record the term, including any statement that a longer term is justified.
• Record whether new suppliers can join later, and at which moments.
• Record how each later contract is awarded: direct award, objective allocation, mini-competition, or a competition of everyone admitted to a category.
• Record lots, categories, geography, and any cap on the size of a call-off.
• Match each selection condition to evidence the bidding legal entity can submit, including any duty to refresh a self-declaration.
• Note any fee that is a percentage of awarded contracts, and put that percentage into the price.
• Name the people who would answer call-offs during the term, and the live work those people already hold.

How do you decide whether the place is worth the bid?

Treat the place and the later work as two decisions. The first is whether you can meet the selection conditions and submit a compliant offer for the place. The second is whether the same people, price book, and geographic coverage will still be available when a short invitation arrives months later.

Figures in the notice need a label. The quantity envisaged in a framework, and the estimated quantity in a dynamic purchasing system, are the buyer's planning figures. They are not a promise to spend that sum with you. A multi-supplier framework divides whatever demand appears. A dynamic system can admit further competitors after you join. Build the commercial case on the call-off rule and on your cost of staying ready, and keep the published estimate labelled as an estimate.

A fictional facilities contractor, Harbour & Field Ltd., shows the split. A municipality advertises a four-year, multi-supplier framework for planned building repairs. Call-offs are mini-competitions among the suppliers capable of the trade and the district. Harbour & Field can meet the selection conditions. Its two surveyors are already committed to a live contract in the same region through the first year of the framework. A place on the panel would require those surveyors for competitions the company cannot currently staff. The record can say, at the same time, that eligibility is met and capacity is not. That supports a no-bid, or a bid only once named capacity is actually free. The value printed on the notice does not change the surveyors' diaries.

The same company can treat an open system differently. Where suppliers may apply throughout the life of a dynamic purchasing system, Harbour & Field can finish the live contract and request admission later, with the evidence it will hold on that date. The open door is useful when the selection criteria at the later date are ones the company can meet. Read those criteria before you rely on joining later.

How does TenderFaro help with this reading?

TenderFaro helps a team do the reading this decision depends on. It turns the notice and the procurement documents into structured requirements, including the procedure, the dates, and the conditions a supplier has to meet, and it compares those conditions with the certificates, insurance, policies, and project references the company already holds. Each finding keeps the source attached, so a reviewer can see the sentence that says framework, mini-competition, or dynamic purchasing system and decide what it requires for this bid.

The product does not estimate call-off volume, rank your chances, or decide that you are eligible. The people who would have to answer the later competitions make the bid decision. TenderFaro puts the instrument, the term, the selection evidence, and the gaps on one record before the team starts writing. The guide to public tenders sets out the path from notice to award. The Journal pieces on how a public tender runs, on finding notices worth opening, and the glossary of procurement terms sit beside this one.