Dynamic Markets
What is a Dynamic Market under the Procurement Act 2023?
Published 11 August 2026 by eSourcingData
A Dynamic Market is a pre-qualified pool of suppliers that stays permanently open to new members, established under the Procurement Act 2023 as the successor to the Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS). Contracting authorities use it to award contracts quickly to suppliers who have already met published entry conditions. Since the Act went live on 24 February 2025, Dynamic Markets have become the standard way to run high-volume, repeatable categories of spend, and, for utilities, the replacement for the old qualification systems.
The definition, in plain English
A Dynamic Market is a list of suppliers who have proved, against conditions published in advance, that they are fit to deliver a defined category of work. Once admitted, a supplier is eligible to be invited to competitions run under the market. The buyer no longer re-checks basic credentials for every procurement; the market does that job once and keeps it current.
Two properties make it "dynamic". First, it never closes: a supplier can apply to join at any point in the market's life, and the authority must consider that application within a reasonable time. Second, membership cannot be capped: the authority cannot limit the number of suppliers admitted, so the pool grows as the market grows.
Contracts are then awarded through competitions open to members. Because selection has already happened at the door, those competitions are faster and lighter than a full open procedure, typically a matter of days or weeks rather than months.
What changed from the DPS
The Dynamic Purchasing System under the old regulations was already permanently open, but it was restricted to off-the-shelf goods and services, forced a two-stage OJEU-style process, and sat awkwardly between a framework and an open competition. The Procurement Act 2023 replaced it with the Dynamic Market and removed the biggest constraints.
A Dynamic Market can be used for any type of contract a contracting authority can award, not just commoditised purchases. The authority designs the conditions of participation, can divide the market into categories or lots, and runs competitions under its own published rules using the flexibility of the Act.
Existing DPSs did not convert automatically. Authorities running a DPS under the old rules have been transitioning to Dynamic Markets as their systems expire, which is why so many supplier lists are being rebuilt now, and why suppliers should expect new application rounds even for categories where they were previously listed.
Who can establish and use one
Any contracting authority can establish a Dynamic Market, councils, NHS bodies, housing associations, central government, education and blue-light services. The authority that establishes the market decides which buyers may award through it: it can be a single organisation's market, or open to a defined group of authorities.
Utilities, water, energy and transport operators, have their own variant, the utilities dynamic market, which replaced the qualification systems they previously ran under the Utilities Contracts Regulations. Utilities dynamic markets carry extra commercial freedoms, including the ability to charge suppliers fees and to run member-only tenders without full public advertisement.
A market is established by publishing a dynamic market notice setting out the categories, the conditions of participation and how competitions will be run. From that point it is live, open to applications, and usable for awards.
How suppliers join, and how buyers award
Suppliers apply against the published conditions of participation, typically legal standing, financial capacity, insurance, certifications and relevant experience, all of which must be proportionate to the category. The authority assesses the application within a reasonable time and either admits the supplier or explains why not. There is no deadline to miss, because the market never closes.
When a buyer needs to purchase, it runs a competition among market members, the whole market, a category, or a capable subset identified by objective criteria. Members are invited, respond, and are evaluated against published award criteria. Before awarding, the authority must take account of applications still pending, so new entrants are not silently excluded from imminent work.
Every step, admission decisions, invitations, evaluation, award and the associated transparency notices, needs a recorded audit trail. That operational discipline is precisely why many authorities have the market designed, launched and operated for them rather than absorbing the workload internally.
When a Dynamic Market beats a framework
A framework locks its supplier list on the day it is awarded, usually for four years. That suits stable categories with a known supplier base. It fails in markets where new entrants matter, fast-moving technology, local SME trades, growing categories like retrofit, because capable suppliers who arrive in year two are shut out until the next generation.
A Dynamic Market keeps the door open, keeps credentials current, and keeps competitive tension alive for the whole life of the arrangement. The trade-off is operational: someone must keep assessing applications, monitoring compliance and running competitions, forever. Frameworks concentrate effort at the start; Dynamic Markets spread it across the life of the market.
The practical answer for most authorities is a portfolio: frameworks where the supply base is static, Dynamic Markets where it is not, with the operating burden of the markets handled by a platform and team built for it.
