Tender No Bid Response: 5 UK Steps and a Wording Template

By Aoba Works · Published October 28, 2026 · 17 min read

How this guide was made: drafted with AI assistance from the official sources linked below, then passed an automated editorial check before publishing. Our process

• Procurement Act 2023
• Find A Tender
• Contracts Finder
• Framework Agreements

A tender no-bid response is a short, factual message to the buyer saying you won't submit a bid and giving one specific reason. You send it through the buyer's e-tendering portal, using the Decline button in Atamis or Decline to Respond in Jaggaer, and not through Find a Tender or Contracts Finder, because neither of those has a decline function. For a one-off open tender, declining is good manners and helps the buyer. Inside a framework mini-competition it can be a contractual duty, and skipping without a reason can get you suspended.

Which option is right for you?

What you should do first depends on how the opportunity reached you. Pick the row that matches your situation.

Each row reflects a different level of risk. An open tender gets you no shortlist place, so declining costs the buyer nothing. A shortlist place means the buyer has kept a space for you. A framework call-off is governed by a contract you have already signed.

What Is a No-Bid Response and Why Would an SME Submit One?

A no-bid response is a formal notice to a buyer that you've decided not to tender for an opportunity, sent through the portal's decline function instead of going silent. It is a choice you make on purpose, and making it well helps you with the next tender from the same buyer.

Most UK public buyers run bids through a commercial e-tendering system. In Atamis, which NHS and central government buyers use widely, the supplier guide says: "If you do not intend to respond to the opportunity, click Decline and provide a reason. This will be communicated to the buying organisation" (Atamis Supplier User Guide). In Jaggaer-based portals such as the NHS Attain portal, you click Decline to Respond, choose a reason from a drop-down, and can add detail in a comments box (Attain eProcurement Portal supplier guide; Jaggaer Supplier Handbook).

There are three reasons an SME or VCSE would bother sending one:

• The buyer learns something. If three small suppliers decline because the insurance requirement is £10m when the work is worth £60k, the buyer can change it next time. That makes the market fairer for you.
• Your name stays visible. A buyer reading the decline list sees a supplier who looked at the opportunity and made a reasoned call.
• You stop the chasers. Some portals send reminder emails until you either submit or decline.

Example (illustrative): a three-person landscaping social enterprise opens a council grounds-maintenance tender and finds that it requires a 24/7 call-out service across the whole county. It declines with: "We are a three-person team covering the north of the county only and cannot meet the 24/7 county-wide call-out requirement. We'd welcome lots split by area in future." That message is one sentence of fact plus one useful suggestion.

Pitfalls:

• Declining by email only, while your portal status still shows "Accepted". The buyer's record and your email then disagree. Fix: decline in the portal first, then email if you want to add context.
• Treating "Decline" as permanent. In Atamis you can reverse a decline by clicking Accept again (Atamis guide). If you're unsure, it can still make sense to wait. Just don't leave the decision until after the deadline.

How Do You Submit a No-Bid Response on Find a Tender and Contracts Finder?

You can't. Find a Tender and Contracts Finder publish notices, but they don't collect bids or declines. You submit your no-bid in whichever e-tendering portal the notice links to.

Find a Tender is the central digital platform under the Procurement Act 2023. It went live in its enhanced form on 24 February 2025 (Find a Tender factsheet, GOV.UK). It holds notices and your core supplier information, which you share with a buyer through a share code (Central Digital Platform guidance, May 2026). Contracts Finder lists lower-value opportunities, and you follow the notice's instructions to apply (Contracts Finder user guide). If you're not sure which site lists what, see Contracts Finder vs Find a Tender.

If you never registered interest, there's nothing to decline. Nobody tracks who read a public notice. A decline only matters once the buyer's portal has you on its list as an interested or invited supplier.

Steps in Atamis

1. Sign in to the Atamis supplier portal and open the opportunity from your list.
2. Click Decline.
3. Type your reason. The buyer sees it (Atamis guide).
4. Check the status has changed. If you change your mind before the deadline, click Accept to reopen it.

Steps in Jaggaer (including Attain and many central government portals)

1. Sign in and open the event (often labelled ITT or RFx).
2. Go to My Response.
3. Click Decline to Respond.
4. Pick a reason from the drop-down and add detail in the comments box.
5. Click the green Decline to Respond button to confirm (Attain supplier guide).

Other portals

Delta eSourcing, In-Tend, ProContract and others use their own wording, such as "opt out" or "not interested". Search the portal's supplier help for "decline" before the deadline. If you can't find the option, email the buyer through the portal's messaging or clarification function so there's a dated record.

Example (illustrative): the notice on Find a Tender says "Tenders must be submitted via [buyer] Atamis portal". You registered interest there last week. The correct no-bid route is the Atamis Decline button, not anything on Find a Tender.

What Should You Write in the No-Bid Feedback Field?

Write one or two neutral sentences that name a specific constraint. If you can, add one constructive point the buyer could act on next time. Don't criticise the buyer or hint at a complaint.

Under the Act, buyers have to think about barriers facing SMEs. Feedback that points to a specific barrier, such as lot size, a very short deadline or high insurance levels, gives them something they can fix. Vague or angry comments give them nothing.

Wording template

Keep the structure, swap the bracketed parts, and remove anything that isn't true for you:

Thank you for the opportunity. We have decided not to submit a tender for [contract name/reference] because [one specific reason: e.g. the start date of 1 December conflicts with existing commitments / the minimum turnover of £X is above our current level / the scope covers [service] which we don't provide]. We remain interested in future work with [buyer name] in [your service area], particularly [smaller lots / regional lots / a longer response window].

Reasons that read well (examples):

• Capacity: "Our team is fully committed until March 2027."
• Scope mismatch: "Lot 2 needs electrical installation, which we subcontract and can't price competitively."
• Commercial: "The payment-by-results model doesn't suit our cash flow as a small charity."
• Requirement barrier: "The £5m professional indemnity requirement is above our current cover."

Pitfalls and fixes:

If you want help with the bids you do write, Tender Writing Examples: 5 UK SME Answer Templates uses the same short, plain style.

Does Declining a Tender Affect Future Opportunities with the Same Buyer?

For an ordinary open or competitive tender, a professional decline won't count against you. Under the Procurement Act 2023, each tender is assessed on its own published criteria and nothing scores your bidding history. Framework further competitions are the exception, because the framework contract can require you to take part or explain why.

The Act's penalties are about how you perform on contracts you've won. They have nothing to do with tenders you chose not to bid for. Buyers can publish a contract performance notice for breach or poor performance under section 71. That can lead to a discretionary exclusion ground under Schedule 7, and only after the supplier has had a chance to improve (contract performance notices guidance). No exclusion ground covers "declined to bid". Some articles say no-bids "feed into" the exclusion regime. They don't.

Frameworks work differently. Crown Commercial Service became the Government Commercial Agency (GCA) on 1 April 2026, and existing frameworks carried on unchanged (GCA announcement). CCS framework terms say suppliers must notify CCS of their reasons for not participating in, or withdrawing from, a further competition, and that failing to do so can lead to suspension from new call-off contracts (CCS Framework Schedule 7, Call-Off Procedure v2.0). In a published clarification, CCS confirmed that commercial reasons, such as not having enough resource available, are acceptable. It also said that failing to bid without an acceptable reason may lead to suspension under clause 13.6 of the General Terms (Supplier Registration Service clarifications). Framework KPIs can also trigger remedies: in one CCS KPI schedule, missing a KPI target twice in a rolling 12 months lets the authority suspend you from further competitions (RM3800 KPIs).

Your own exposure depends on your route to market:

For more on these routes, see Framework Agreement: How to Get On and Dynamic Purchasing System: 6 SME Steps.

Pitfall: declining every mini-competition on a framework you fought to join. Even if each decline has a good reason, a buyer or framework manager may ask whether you should be on the framework at all. Fix: when you bid for a framework place, only bid for the lots you can actually deliver.

When Should an SME Decide Not to Bid for a Public Contract?

Decline when the opportunity fails on capability, on realistic chance of winning, or on whether it's worth the money. Bid anyway, even with modest odds, when the relationship or the learning is worth the cost. A short scoring sheet keeps the decision honest.

Public sector deadlines are short. Under the Act the minimum period for an open procedure is 25 days when documents are electronic and available from the start (Ward Hadaway on PA23 time limits). That leaves you very little time to make the bid/no-bid call.

The 5 bid/no-bid steps

1. Check the pass/fail gates first (30 minutes). Open the tender documents and list every mandatory requirement: minimum turnover, insurance levels, accreditations such as Cyber Essentials, and exclusion declarations. If you fail any one of them and can't fix it before the deadline, decline now. Selection questionnaire guidance explains which ones are usually pass/fail.
2. Read the award criteria and weightings. The Act requires the "most advantageous tender". Look at how quality, price and social value are weighted and ask whether that suits you. A price-heavy weighting against national competitors is a warning sign. Most Advantageous Tender: scoring example shows how to read the weightings.
3. Estimate your bid cost. Count the days of writing, pricing, getting sign-off and gathering case studies, then multiply by your day rate. Compare that with the margin you'd make on the contract, not the headline value.
4. Score it with the table below. Give each factor 0–2 points.
5. Record the decision and the reason. Write it down the same day. If the answer is no, decline in the portal using the template above. If it's yes, block out the writing time now.

Scoring table (example scale)

Example reading (illustrative): 0–5 means decline, 6–8 means bid only if you have capacity, 9–12 means bid. These cut-offs are a starting point and not an official standard. Adjust them once you know your own win rate.

Two situations where a low score can still mean "bid":

• First tender with a buyer you want long-term. Bidding gets you an assessment summary with your scores (see the Act section below). Declining gets you nothing to learn from.
• A small lot on a big procurement, where your bid cost is low because you can reuse content.

For the wider strategy, How to Win Government Contracts UK: 7 Steps for SMEs covers targeting buyers before tenders appear.

What Are the Risks of Not Responding to a Tender at All (Silent No-Bid)?

For an open tender you merely browsed, saying nothing carries little risk. It becomes a problem when you've accepted an invitation, been shortlisted, or been asked to take part in a framework call-off, because the buyer is expecting to hear from you.

What saying nothing looks like on the buyer's side:

• Portals record it. In Atamis, sections you never submitted show the status "Did Not Submit" (Atamis: Submitting a Response). A buyer reading that can't tell whether you forgot or chose not to bid.
• Framework EOIs can drop you. Under CCS call-off procedures, a supplier that doesn't answer an expression of interest on time isn't invited to the further competition (CCS Framework Schedule 7). The same schedule lets suppliers deselect themselves after the EOI stage. That's a cleaner route than ignoring it.
• Shortlists lose a competitor. In a competitive flexible procedure, a buyer may limit how many suppliers go forward (see Competitive Flexible Procedure: 6 SME Steps). If you take a place and then disappear, the competition is smaller than the buyer planned. Buyers notice that.

Example (illustrative): a training charity on a regional framework gets three mini-competition invitations in one month and ignores two of them. The framework manager asks why. Two one-line declines ("fully booked until January") would have cost ten minutes and settled the question before it was asked.

Can You Withdraw a Bid After Submission Instead of Declining Early?

Usually yes, before the deadline, by using the portal's retract or withdraw function. After the deadline, withdrawal depends on the tender documents, since the Procurement Act 2023 has no general withdrawal rule. Pulling out late, especially during evaluation, damages trust far more than declining early.

Before the deadline, Atamis has a Retract button next to Submit that lets you withdraw within the response window. For lotted tenders you choose which lots to retract (Atamis: Submitting a Response). You get an email confirming it.

Steps (before the deadline)

1. Open the response in the portal.
2. Click Retract (Atamis) or the equivalent withdraw option. In lotted tenders, select only the lots you're dropping.
3. Check the confirmation email and the status.
4. If you're withdrawing completely, also click Decline and give a reason, so the buyer's record explains why you left.

After the deadline

1. Open the ITT or conditions of tender and search for "withdraw", "validity" and "tender validity period". Many tenders say bids must stay open for a fixed period.
2. Write to the buyer straight away through the portal's messaging, quoting the reference and the reason. Typical reasons are a key person leaving, a material pricing error, or capacity lost to another award.
3. Ask whether the buyer needs anything formal from you.

Pitfalls and fixes:

• Withdrawing after hearing you're the preferred bidder. This is the most damaging move you can make. It can delay the award and restart the standstill period. Fix: run your capacity check before you submit (step 1 of the bid/no-bid list).
• Retracting by mistake when you meant to edit. In Atamis, resubmitting within the window overrides your previous response, so you don't need to retract in order to edit (Atamis).
• Retracting all lots when you meant one. Tick only the lots you're dropping.

How Does the Procurement Act 2023 Change Buyer-Supplier Feedback Rules?

The Act gives formal feedback only to suppliers who submit an assessed tender, through assessment summaries. Suppliers who decline get no statutory feedback, and their decline isn't published or scored. The things that do become formal, published records are award decisions and contract performance.

The parts that matter for a no-bid decision:

• Assessment summaries go only to bidders. Before publishing a contract award notice, the buyer must send an assessment summary to every supplier that submitted an assessed tender. The award notice then starts a standstill period of at least 8 working days (GOV.UK guidance: Contract Award Notices and Standstill). Declining means giving up that scored feedback. For a new SME, that feedback is a real reason to bid on a borderline opportunity.
• Notices make buyer activity public. Find a Tender lists the full sequence of notices, from pipeline and planned procurement to tender, award, contract details and performance (Find a Tender notice types). You can use these to judge whether a buyer will come back to market soon, which is useful when weighing up a decline.
• Performance can be published, bidding behaviour can't. Contract performance notices relate to contracts you hold. They can support a discretionary exclusion under Schedule 7. A decline creates no notice of any kind.
• Your supplier record lives on the platform. Core supplier information is stored on the central digital platform and shared by share code (CDP guidance, May 2026). It holds facts about your organisation, such as who you are, your connected persons and your exclusion declarations. It holds nothing about which tenders you turned down.

Pitfall: believing that one decline puts you on a "list". Nothing in the Act or its guidance creates a register of non-bidders. Contractual framework duties are the real constraint, so read your framework's call-off schedule.

Pitfall: declining because you're "not ready" for the Act. If what's actually stopping you is an unfinished Find a Tender registration, fix the registration. Find a Tender Registration: 5 Steps walks through it.

Next steps

These steps are in the order you'd do them, starting today.

Today (DIY):

1. Open the portal for any live opportunity you've accepted but won't bid for, and click Decline / Decline to Respond with the two-line template above.
2. If you're on a framework, find its call-off procedure schedule (often Framework Schedule 7) and search it for "reasons", "deselect" and "suspend", so you know your exact duty.
3. Copy the six-factor scoring table into a spreadsheet and use it on the next notice your CPV alerts bring in.

If you'd rather not do this yourself: an independent bid consultant or bid writer can run bid/no-bid reviews and write the bids you go for. Fees vary widely, usually by day or per bid, and none are set officially. Ask for a written fixed-fee quote (as of October 2026; check each provider's own pricing page). This makes sense if you bid several times a quarter and the writing is taking time away from delivery. It's a poor fit if you're bidding once a year or for contracts worth less than the fee, and a consultant can't supply case studies or accreditations you don't have. If your question is about framework obligations specifically, the GCA customer and supplier service contacts listed on the GCA website are free.

Related guides on this site:

• How to Win Government Contracts UK: 7 Steps for SMEs
• Framework Agreement: How to Get On
• CPV Codes UK: 5 Steps to Pick Codes and Set Alerts
• Social Value in Tenders: PPN 002 Steps and Answer Examples

FAQ

What happens if you don't respond to a tender?

For a public open tender you only read, nothing happens, because no one tracks who viewed the notice. If you accepted an invitation in a portal, you may show as "Did Not Submit". On a framework, failing to respond or give reasons can lead to suspension from new call-offs under the framework terms (CCS Framework Schedule 7).

Do you need a reason to not bid on a tender?

For one-off tenders there's no legal requirement, but portals such as Atamis ask for a reason when you click Decline. Framework further competitions are different: CCS terms require reasons, and commercial reasons such as limited resource are accepted (Supplier Registration Service clarifications).

Can declining a tender affect your supplier rating?

The Procurement Act 2023 has no supplier rating for bidding behaviour. Its performance and exclusion rules cover how you deliver contracts you've won (Schedule 7). Framework KPIs and participation clauses can still lead to remedies such as suspension, so check your framework's KPI schedule.

How do you politely decline a government tender?

Use the decline function in the buyer's portal. Thank the buyer, name one specific reason, and say you're still interested in future work in your service area. Keep it to two sentences, and leave out complaints and confidential pricing details.

Sources

• Atamis – Guide to Using the Supplier Portal
• Atamis Supplier Support – Submitting a Response
• Supplier guide to registering on the Attain eProcurement Portal (Jaggaer)
• Jaggaer Supplier Handbook
• Crown Commercial Service – Framework Schedule 7 (Call-Off Procedure and Award Criteria) v2.0
• Supplier Registration Service – Clarifications
• Crown Commercial Service – RM3800 Key Performance Indicators
• Government Commercial Agency – Introducing Government Commercial Agency
• GOV.UK – Guidance: Contract Award Notices and Standstill
• Procurement Act 2023, Schedule 7 – legislation.gov.uk
• Procurement Act 2023 guidance: Contract performance notices
• GOV.UK – Find a Tender and the Central Digital Platform factsheet
• GOV.UK – Guidance: Central Digital Platform and Publication of Information (May 2026)
• Find a Tender – Notice types and sequences
• GOV.UK – Contracts Finder user guide
• Ward Hadaway – Procurement Act 2023 Guidance: Time Limits

Spotted something out of date or wrong? Tell us at shigoto.ai.note@gmail.com. Guides are re-checked against official sources on a rolling schedule.