Decision guide · Procurement Act 2023
Framework, open framework or dynamic market?
Choose a closed framework where the supplier base is settled and speed at call-off matters; an open framework where the category needs periodic refreshing; and a dynamic market where new suppliers appear continuously or where SMEs and specialists are the point. If your activities are utility activities, a utilities dynamic market and its qualifying variant add commercial options the ordinary routes do not have. The rest of this page is how to tell which of those describes you.
At a glance
The five routes compared
| Closed framework | Open framework | Dynamic market | UDM / QUDM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Supplier list | Fixed at award | Reopens periodically | Never closes | Never closes |
| New suppliers | Wait for the next one | At each reopening | Any time | Any time |
| Cap on members | Effectively yes | Effectively yes | Not permitted | Not permitted |
| Contract terms | Fixed at award | Fixed per framework | Competed each time | Competed each time |
| Direct award | Where terms allow | Where terms allow | No, each is competed | No, each is competed |
| Typical term | Up to 4 years | Reopening obligations | Open-ended | Open-ended |
| Supplier fees | Not a membership fee | Not a membership fee | Award fee only | Membership fees permitted |
| Member-only tenders | n/a | n/a | No | Permitted |
| Admin burden | Low after award | Periodic | Continuous | Continuous |
A general explainer, not legal advice. Where a decision turns on the detail, take advice on your specific facts.
The five routes
What each one actually is
Closed framework
Best where: A settled supplier base and a well-understood requirement.
A framework fixes its contract terms when it is awarded, and buyers place call-off contracts under those terms. A closed framework fixes the supplier list too. That is its strength and its weakness in the same sentence: everything is known at call-off, which makes buying fast, and a supplier that was not appointed at the start cannot get in however good they are. Most frameworks run up to four years, with up to eight for defence and security and for utilities frameworks, and anything longer needing justification. A framework can be single-supplier or multi-supplier, which changes how call-offs are awarded, and it guarantees no work to anyone appointed to it.
Open framework
Best where: A category that needs refreshing, but not continuous admission.
An open framework is a scheme of successive frameworks awarded on substantially the same terms. It must be reopened at least once in the first three years and then at least every five years, which gives suppliers periodic entry points without the administrative weight of a permanently open market. It is the natural answer when a closed framework would go stale before it expires but nobody has the capacity to assess applications continuously.
Dynamic market
Best where: A moving supplier base, or a category where SMEs and specialists matter.
A dynamic market must stay open to new applicants for as long as it operates. Membership cannot be capped, applications must be assessed against the published conditions within a reasonable period, and pending applications must be considered before each competition concludes. Contracts are not called off under pre-agreed terms: each one is competed and awarded on its own terms, using the competitive flexible procedure. It replaced the Dynamic Purchasing System on 24 February 2025.
Utilities dynamic market (UDM)
Best where: Utility activities: water and wastewater, energy, transport and the rest.
A dynamic market established for utility activities. The openness obligations are the same, but the commercial rules differ in ways that matter: a utilities market can be funded differently from an ordinary one, which is what makes it viable to run a market properly over a long period rather than establishing it and letting it decay.
Qualifying utilities dynamic market (QUDM)
Best where: Utilities wanting a market that funds its own administration.
A UDM meeting the additional statutory conditions. Two consequences follow, and both are significant. Membership-related supplier fees are expressly permitted, unlike an ordinary dynamic market where a fee may only be charged to a supplier that wins a contract. And tenders may be made visible only to members, which changes what membership is worth and therefore what suppliers will do to obtain and keep it.
How to decide
Six questions, in the order they matter
Is your supplier base settled, or moving?
This is the first question and it decides more than any other. If new entrants appear regularly, if SMEs and specialists are where the value is, or if the technology moves faster than a four-year term, a closed framework locks you to the market as it looked on the day you awarded it. If the supplier base is stable and well known, that lock-in is not a cost, it is a simplification.
Do you know what you will need, or only roughly?
A framework fixes terms up front, which only works if you can write terms now that will still fit in three years. Where requirements vary materially between call-offs, competing each contract on its own terms through a dynamic market avoids the contortion of forcing an unusual requirement through terms designed for a common one.
How much does speed at call-off matter?
A framework with an objective selection mechanism and core terms can award without further competition, which is the fastest route there is. A dynamic market competes every contract. If your operational reality is that things are needed in days, that difference is decisive, and it argues for a framework even where the supplier base is imperfect.
Who is going to administer it?
The most underestimated question on this page. A dynamic market is not a procurement, it is an operation: applications assessed within a reasonable period, clarifications answered, compliance monitored, membership decisions made and recorded with reasons, notices published, competitions run. For its whole life. If nobody in the team can own that, either choose a framework or have somebody else operate the market.
Are you a utility?
If your activities qualify, the utilities routes are open to you and the ordinary ones are not the only option. The commercial difference is real: a qualifying utilities dynamic market may charge membership fees and may run member-only tenders, which is what allows a market to be properly administered over years rather than starved after the first flush of enthusiasm.
How wide is the buyer base?
A vehicle used by one organisation and a vehicle used by twenty are different propositions. Where several bodies will call off from the same arrangement, the cost of establishing it properly is spread and a more open, better-administered market becomes affordable. This is why central purchasing bodies operate frameworks that individual authorities could not justify alone.
Worked examples
Three categories, taken through all five routes
The framework above is only useful applied. So here are three real categories with the reasoning shown, including the routes we would rule out and why, because the discarded options are usually more informative than the chosen one.
Housing repairs, voids and retrofit
A housing association or ALMO with a local supply chain
High volume and recurring. Local SMEs matter, both commercially and because social value is a policy priority rather than a scoring exercise. Retrofit moves fast: standards, funding waves and installer accreditation all change inside a normal framework term, and firms qualify for work in 2028 that they could not do in 2026.
| Closed framework | no | Fixes the list for up to four years. Every local firm that grows into retrofit capability during that period is locked out, and the ones you appointed may not still be the right ones. This is the route most often chosen here and the one that ages worst. |
| Open framework | maybe | A genuine option if the team cannot operate a permanently open market. Reopenings can be planned around funding rounds, so the list refreshes roughly when the work changes. Less responsive, considerably less to administer. |
| Dynamic market | yes | Local firms are admitted as they qualify rather than when a window happens to open, each package is competed on its own terms, and social value commitments attach to the call-off rather than to a framework signed years earlier. |
| UDM or QUDM | n/a | Not available. A housing provider is not carrying out utility activities, so the utilities routes are closed regardless of how well they would suit. |
Verdict: A dynamic market, unless nobody can own the operation, in which case an open framework with reopenings tied to funding cycles.
The catch: Continuous admission means continuous administration. If applications sit unassessed for a month, small firms stop applying and you are back to the same four contractors.
Water utility civils and infrastructure
A water company delivering an AMP capital programme
Very large capital programmes on a five-year investment cycle, a specialist civils and mechanical and electrical supply chain, and a qualification burden that is genuinely heavy: safety accreditation, technical capability, insurance at levels most SMEs have to work up to. Framework tradition runs deep in this sector.
| Closed framework | maybe | The traditional answer, and utilities frameworks may run up to eight years. Fine for a known programme delivered with known partners. The cost is that a specialist emerging mid-cycle cannot be used without a separate exercise. |
| Open framework | maybe | Reopening points give periodic access without permanent administration. Workable, though it sits awkwardly with a capital programme whose needs change continuously rather than on a schedule. |
| Dynamic market | no | The openness is right and the funding is wrong. An ordinary dynamic market can charge a fee only to suppliers that win, so the qualification burden, which in this sector is the expensive part, is carried entirely by the buyer. Markets funded that way tend to be administered well for a year and poorly thereafter. |
| QUDM | yes | The same openness, with membership-related fees permitted and tenders that may be shown to members only. Fees fund the qualification work that this category actually requires, which is what allows the market to still be run properly in year five. |
Verdict: A qualifying utilities dynamic market, where the qualifying conditions are met.
The catch: A QUDM is only worth more than an ordinary market if somebody genuinely operates it. The fee is not free money, it is what pays for the work that makes membership worth having.
Consultancy and professional services
A council, charity or public body buying advice
Highly variable requirements sitting under one heading: legal, technical, commercial, communications. A long tail of small specialists and sole practitioners. Individual engagements are often low value, and proportionality matters as much as competition, because a three-week piece of advice cannot carry a three-month process.
| Closed framework | maybe | Attractive for speed, since a framework with an objective selection mechanism can award without further competition. The risk is well known: a fixed list of large consultancies, small specialists shut out, and framework rates paid for straightforward work. |
| Open framework | maybe | A reasonable middle. Periodic reopening keeps the list from calcifying, though it still means a specialist you want next month waits until the next window. |
| Dynamic market | yes | Parts drawn by discipline so a planning barrister and a data consultancy are not competing in the same pool, small firms admitted continuously, and each engagement competed proportionately to its value rather than to the framework it sits under. |
| UDM or QUDM | n/a | Not available unless the buyer is carrying out utility activities. |
Verdict: A dynamic market, and the parts are the whole decision.
The catch: One broad professional services part sizes out exactly the specialists you built it for. Draw the parts too finely and you have thirty of them to administer. This is the category where the design phase earns its fee.
Supplier fees
The rule that differs most, and catches people out
Supplier fees are where the vehicles diverge most sharply, and it is the difference least often understood before somebody has committed to a route.
For an ordinary dynamic market, section 38 permits a fee only from suppliers that are actually awarded a contract, and only as a fixed percentage of the estimated contract value. There is no membership fee. A supplier can be a member for years, win nothing and pay nothing, which is fair and which also means the market generates no revenue to fund its own administration.
For a qualifying utilities dynamic market, membership-related fees are expressly permitted: charges connected with obtaining and maintaining membership, set out transparently in the market documentation. A QUDM may also run tenders visible only to members. Those two together are what make a utilities market able to sustain proper administration over a long life, and they are the reason the QUDM is a genuinely different commercial proposition rather than a technical variant.
The practical consequence: if you are a utility and you want a market that is still being run properly in year five, the qualifying route is worth understanding before you default to the ordinary one.
What goes wrong
Five mistakes we see repeatedly
Choosing the vehicle before the category strategy
The route to market is a consequence of how you intend to buy, not a decision that can be taken first and justified afterwards. Deciding on a dynamic market before anybody has worked out the parts, the conditions or who the suppliers are is how markets get established and then sit empty.
Underestimating operation
Establishment is a project with an end date. Operation is not. Most vehicles that disappoint were established competently and then never resourced, so applications went unassessed, compliance lapsed and buyers went back to running standalone exercises because it was quicker.
Writing conditions of participation you cannot change
For a dynamic market, section 36(7)(b) fixes them for the life of the market. Conditions set too high exclude the SMEs you wanted; set too low they admit suppliers you then have to manage around. This is the single most consequential document in the whole exercise and it is frequently copied from another scheme.
Assuming a framework guarantees supply
It sets terms for potential future contracts. It commits nobody to spend anything, and a supplier who joined expecting a pipeline and got nothing is a supplier who will not bother next time.
Treating a DPS and a dynamic market as the same thing
They are close cousins, not synonyms. The dynamic market carries forward continuous openness but adds firmer obligations: membership cannot be capped, assessment must happen within a reasonable time, and pending applications count before each competition concludes.
If you already have a DPS
What happens to a Dynamic Purchasing System
The Procurement Act 2023 came into force on 24 February 2025. It replaced the Dynamic Purchasing System with the dynamic market, and replaced utilities qualification systems with utilities dynamic markets.
A DPS is a PCR 2015 instrument, and the dynamic market is its successor under the new regime, so owners will eventually need to move. We do not publish a deadline for that. The timetable is not settled, and a wrong date from us would be worse than no date at all: an authority that plans around it and finds it incorrect has every reason to stop trusting anything else we say.
What is worth doing now is the analysis rather than the migration: what your existing arrangement covers, how much of your spend actually flows through it, whether the conditions you set years ago still describe the market, and whether the successor should be the same shape at all. Plenty of DPS arrangements were the right answer in 2019 and would not be chosen today.
Questions
Commercial vehicles, answered
What is the difference between a framework and a dynamic market?
A framework fixes its contract terms when it is awarded and buyers place call-off contracts under those terms. A closed framework also fixes its supplier list at award, so a supplier that missed the window waits for the next one. A dynamic market works the other way round: it must stay open to new applicants for its whole life, membership cannot be capped, and each contract is competed and awarded on its own terms using the competitive flexible procedure.
What is an open framework?
An open framework is a scheme of successive frameworks awarded on substantially the same terms, which must be reopened at least once in the first three years and then at least every five years. It sits between a closed framework and a dynamic market: suppliers get periodic entry points rather than one chance at the start or continuous admission throughout.
How long can a framework run?
Most frameworks run for up to four years. Defence and security frameworks and utilities frameworks may run for up to eight, and any longer term has to be justified. An open framework, being a scheme of successive frameworks, has its own reopening obligations instead.
Can a dynamic market limit how many suppliers join?
No. Section 36(7)(a) of the Procurement Act 2023 prevents a dynamic market from limiting the number of members. A supplier meeting the published conditions of participation is admitted regardless of how many suppliers are already in the market.
Can suppliers apply to a dynamic market at any time?
Yes. Section 36(6)(a) requires a dynamic market to accept applications at any time during its life, so there is no closing date. Applications must be assessed against the published conditions within a reasonable period, and pending applications must be considered before each competition concludes.
Can conditions of participation change after a dynamic market is established?
No. Section 36(7)(b) fixes the conditions of participation for the life of the market. This is why they are consulted on before establishment and why supplier input at that stage genuinely matters: getting them wrong is not something that can be corrected later.
Can you charge suppliers to be in a dynamic market?
It depends on the type. For an ordinary dynamic market, section 38 permits a fee only from suppliers that are awarded a contract, charged as a fixed percentage of the estimated contract value. A utilities dynamic market is different: membership-related fees are expressly permitted, which is what makes a utilities market capable of funding its own administration.
What is a UDM and what is a QUDM?
A utilities dynamic market, or UDM, is a dynamic market established for utility activities. A qualifying utilities dynamic market, or QUDM, is a UDM meeting the additional statutory conditions, which permits membership fees and allows tenders to be made visible only to members. Both replaced the utilities qualification systems that existed before the Procurement Act.
What happened to the Dynamic Purchasing System?
The Procurement Act 2023 came into force on 24 February 2025 and replaced the Dynamic Purchasing System with the dynamic market. Utilities qualification systems were replaced by utilities dynamic markets on the same date. A DPS is a PCR 2015 instrument, so owners will eventually need to move, and eSourcing Data does not publish a deadline for that because the timetable is not settled.
Can you award from a framework without running a competition?
Sometimes. A buyer can award a call-off without further competition where the framework sets out an objective mechanism for selecting the supplier and the core terms of the contract. Otherwise the call-off is awarded through a competitive selection process among the appointed suppliers.
Does a framework guarantee suppliers any work?
No. A framework sets the terms for potential future contracts but does not commit the buyer to any spend, so appointed suppliers are not guaranteed work. This is the single most common misunderstanding among suppliers joining one.
Which vehicle is best for a category with a changing supplier base?
A dynamic market, in almost every case. Where new entrants appear regularly, where SMEs and specialists matter, or where the technology moves faster than a four-year term, a closed framework locks you to the market as it looked on the day you awarded it. A dynamic market reconsiders pending applicants before every competition.
Which vehicle is best for a stable, well-understood category?
A closed framework, usually. If the supplier base is settled, the requirement is well understood and the value of speed at call-off is high, fixing the terms and the list at award is a feature rather than a limitation, and it is less to administer.
Who administers a dynamic market once it is established?
Somebody must, for the market’s whole life: assessing applications within a reasonable period, handling clarifications, monitoring compliance, making membership decisions, publishing notices and running competitions. This is the part most often underestimated, and it is why some buyers use a market operated by someone else rather than establishing one of their own.
Still not sure which route fits?
Tell us a requirement you have coming up and we will come back with an initial view on which vehicle fits it best, what establishing each would involve, and what it would mean for your supplier market. Free, and nothing to sign.