Dynamic Markets
How to set up a Dynamic Market under the Procurement Act 2023
Published 11 August 2026 by eSourcingData
Establishing a Dynamic Market is a design exercise, a legal process and an operational commitment in one. Get the design right and you create a fast, compliant route to a living supplier pool; get it wrong and you inherit a permanent administrative burden built on shaky foundations. This is the sequence we follow when we design and launch markets for buyers, from category strategy through the dynamic market notice to a liquid, running market.
Step 1, decide what the market is for
Start with the spend, not the mechanism. Which categories do you buy repeatedly? Where does the supplier base change fast enough that a sealed framework would go stale? Where are you trying to grow SME and local participation? Those categories are Dynamic Market candidates; stable, locked-terms categories usually are not.
Then define the market's scope and structure: one market or several, which categories or lots, which buyers may use it (just you, or a defined group of authorities), and how long you expect it to run. Scope drives everything downstream, entry conditions, fee decisions for utilities, and the shape of competitions.
Finally, be brutally honest about operating capacity. A Dynamic Market generates continuous work for its whole life. Decide at the start whether that is resourced internally or operated for you as a service, the answer changes how ambitious the design can afford to be.
Step 2, design conditions of participation that will survive scrutiny
Conditions of participation are the market's front door: the minimum legal, financial, technical and capability requirements a supplier must meet to join. The Act's test is proportionality, every condition must relate to, and be proportionate to, the contracts the market will award. Set the bar where it gives you delivery confidence, not where only incumbents can reach it.
Design them per category. A £30,000 voids package and a £5m civils programme do not warrant the same financial standing or insurance thresholds, and forcing one bar across both either excludes good small suppliers or under-protects large awards. Tiered, category-level conditions are the mark of a well-designed market.
Write the assessment methodology at the same time, what evidence is required, how it is scored or pass/failed, who decides, and within what service standard. Publishing clear rules now is what makes the continuous assessment obligation manageable later, and it is your defence if an excluded applicant challenges.
Step 3, publish the dynamic market notice and configure the platform
A Dynamic Market is established by publishing a dynamic market notice through the official notice infrastructure, the Central Digital Platform and Find a Tender, setting out what the market covers, who can use it, the conditions of participation and how to apply. From publication, the market legally exists and the open-door obligations begin.
Configure the operating platform before the notice goes live, not after: the application portal, the evidence checklists, the assessment workflow, the member register, the competition templates and the reporting. The notice starts the clock on applications; you want the machine ready for the first one.
Utilities make their commercial decisions here too, membership and award fee levels, and whether tenders under the market will be member-only. Those choices belong in the market's published terms from day one.
Step 4, launch is a recruitment campaign, not a press release
A market with no members is a compliance artefact, not a procurement tool. Launch properly means driving the suppliers you actually want, the right trades, the right regions, the right certifications, to apply in the market's first weeks, so your first competitions have a real field.
That is targeted work: identifying the supplier population for each category, reaching them through the channels they actually read, and making the application process straightforward enough that busy SMEs complete it. This is where our two-sided model earns its keep, WinAContract's supplier reach lets us put a new market in front of thousands of matched, active suppliers at launch.
Measure liquidity from day one: applications received, assessment turnaround, members admitted per category, and time-to-first-competition. A market that cannot field a competitive first tender within weeks of launch was launched, not filled.
Step 5, operate: the phase that never ends
From launch, four workstreams run continuously. Applications: triage, assess and decide within a reasonable time, every time. Compliance: monitor member insurances, certifications, financial standing and exclusion grounds, with suspensions and removals when evidence lapses. Competitions: invite, evaluate, moderate, award and publish the required notices. Reporting: keep the audit trail, management information and transparency records current.
Build the service standards into the operation, target assessment turnaround, re-verification cycles, competition timetables, and report against them. These numbers are how you demonstrate the market is genuinely open and fairly run, and they are the first thing scrutiny will ask for.
This operating phase is exactly what eSourcingData sells as a managed service: the platform automates the workflows, our team runs the market to agreed service levels, and your procurement function keeps the decisions that matter, strategy, criteria and awards.
