How to find every council contract over £5,000, then spot the five most common red flags

Ever had the feeling your council’s spending is a bit like a loft full of boxes, you know there’s something interesting up there, but it’s hard to find the one you need?

The good news is that a lot of it is already public. If you’re the sort of person who supports Reform UK because you want straight answers, less waste, and public services that work, learning how to read council procurement info is one of the most practical things you can do.

This guide shows how to find every council contract over £5,000 (or as close as you can get with what’s published), then how to spot the five red flags that often point to waste, weak controls, or cosy supplier relationships.

First, know what you’re actually searching for

Councils publish spending and procurement in a few different places, and the labels can be confusing. The key terms you’ll see are:

Contract register: A list of contracts, frameworks, and agreements, often including the supplier, value, and dates. Many councils use the register to cover items over £5,000.

Purchase orders (POs): Day-to-day orders, sometimes shown alongside contracts. A PO might be raised under a bigger contract.

Framework agreements: A pre-approved supplier list that can be used for multiple call-offs. This is where spend can get fuzzy if call-offs aren’t easy to trace.

Redactions: Parts removed for personal data or genuine commercial sensitivity. Redactions can be legitimate, but heavy use can also hide poor value or weak performance.

Where to find every council contract over £5,000 (step-by-step)

You’re trying to build a full picture from multiple sources. Think of it like doing a jigsaw, each dataset is a piece.

1) Start with the council’s own contracts register

Most councils have a dedicated page that explains what they publish and where. For Durham, the simplest starting point is the council’s own Contracts Register, which states it includes agreements exceeding £5,000: https://www.durham.gov.uk/article/5332/Contracts-Register

Open it and look for downloadable files (CSV, Excel, or PDF). If there’s a search box, try supplier names you already suspect are big earners locally (waste, agency staff, highways, IT, property maintenance).

Quick tip: if the register is a spreadsheet, use filters for:

• Value (highest to lowest)
• Start date (new awards)
• End date (contracts quietly rolling on)
• Category (adult social care, temporary staff, highways)

2) Check data.gov.uk for the same information in a cleaner format

Many councils also publish their register as an open dataset on data.gov.uk. Even if you already found the council page, data.gov.uk can be easier to download and sort.

A common starting dataset is the national-style Contract Register listing awards over £5,000: https://www.data.gov.uk/dataset/d7acc439-f740-4a8a-8f52-8dfb3cbd75cb/contract_register

If your council’s name isn’t obvious on that page, search data.gov.uk for your council plus “contracts over 5000”. You’ll often find a dedicated dataset similar to Bristol’s “Contracts over £5000”.

3) Use Contracts Finder to catch bigger awards and missed items

For larger opportunities and many awards, you can search the national portal at: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/

This helps in three ways:

• It can reveal awards that don’t show up neatly in a local register.
• It shows the tender wording, which is useful for spotting tailored specs.
• It gives you dates, values, and buyer details to cross-check.

If you want a wider search interface straight away, use: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Search

4) Understand the post-February 2025 transparency shift

Since February 2025, the Procurement Act 2023 transparency rules have pushed more information into central publishing. One headline point is that contracts over £5 million (including extensions) should be published in full (with sensitive parts removed where justified), alongside more notices and change reporting.

That doesn’t replace the £5,000 contract register culture, but it does give you a second route to verify major spending. If a contract looks huge locally, you should expect to see a stronger paper trail nationally.

5) If something’s missing, request it properly (without guesswork)

Sometimes you’ll see a gap like “supplier named, value blank” or “extension noted, new value unclear”. That’s where a targeted Freedom of Information request can help, but only after you’ve gathered the basics. Ask for:

• The contract award value and any extension value
• KPI or performance reports (if referenced)
• The variation log (what changed, when, and why)

Keep requests tight. One contract at a time beats a fishing trip.

Build a simple tracker in 20 minutes (so patterns jump out)

Once you have the downloads, don’t just skim them. Put them in one spreadsheet tab and add your own columns.

Suggested columns:

• Supplier name
• Service area (adult social care, repairs, comms)
• Contract value (original)
• Total value after extensions (if shown)
• Start date, end date
• Procurement route (open tender, framework, direct award, unknown)
• Notes (anything odd)

This is where council contracts data becomes useful, because you’re no longer reacting to headlines. You’re building a map of where the money goes.

The five most common red flags (and how to confirm them)

Red flags aren’t proof on their own. They’re signs that justify a closer look. The best approach is calm and methodical, exactly the mindset you’d want from any council that claims to be accountable with taxpayers’ money.

Red flag 1: Repeated extensions that quietly change the real price

A contract begins at £300,000, then gets “extended” every year until it’s a £1.2 million relationship. That can happen for good reasons, but it can also be a way to avoid a fresh competition.

What to check:

• Has the scope expanded?
• Did the council re-test the market?
• Does the end date keep moving in a predictable cycle?

Red flag 2: Too many awards to the same supplier (or supplier group)

If one name dominates a category, competition may be weak. Sometimes it’s because they’re genuinely best, but monopolies breed complacency.

What to check:

• Are there multiple subsidiaries with similar names and addresses?
• Are there lots of small awards that add up to a large total?
• Do different departments use the same supplier without a clear strategy?

Red flag 3: “Urgency” and direct awards becoming a habit

Emergency buying exists, but “urgent” shouldn’t become a lifestyle. When you see direct awards often, it’s worth checking whether the urgency was predictable.

What to check:

• Is the reason for non-competitive procurement recorded?
• Are similar “urgent” contracts awarded repeatedly?
• Did the council have time to plan but didn’t?

For wider context on how fraud and corruption risks show up in local procurement, see the UK government’s review: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-government-procurement-fraud-and-corruption-risk-review

Red flag 4: Vague descriptions that make scrutiny almost impossible

Descriptions like “professional services”, “support”, or “consultancy” don’t tell residents what was bought. Vague labels can also hide duplication, like paying two firms to do the same thing.

What to check:

• Is there a specification, outcomes, or deliverables anywhere?
• Are invoices or payments published that clarify the work?
• Does the same vague wording appear across multiple years?

Red flag 5: Weak performance evidence (or none at all)

A council can spend millions and still struggle to show whether it worked. Under newer transparency expectations, higher-value contracts should have clearer performance reporting. When there’s no sign of KPIs, reporting, or accountability, it’s a problem.

What to check:

• Are KPIs named in the award notice or contract?
• Are performance scores or reports published for big suppliers?
• Do complaints and service failures match what the council reports?

Audit Scotland’s procurement red flags guide is a helpful plain-English checklist for what auditors look for: https://audit.scot/uploads/docs/um/fraud_red_flags_procurement.pdf

Here’s a quick way to keep these red flags straight:

Red flag	What it looks like in a register	The quickest check
Endless extensions	End date keeps moving	Compare original vs latest term and value
Supplier dominance	Same name everywhere	Sum totals by supplier across categories
“Urgent” awards	Non-competitive route repeats	Look for planning failures year to year
Vague descriptions	“Support services” for big money	Search for specs, outcomes, deliverables
No performance trail	No KPIs or reporting mentioned	Check national notices for major contracts

Why this matters to Reform UK supporters

If you believe councils should make money go further, keep contractors honest, and stop cushy arrangements that don’t pass the smell test, you need evidence, not just frustration. Contract registers and award notices are where that evidence starts.

It also helps you argue for practical changes, like tighter controls on agency spending, fewer overpriced external contracts, and a culture that explains decisions in plain language.

Conclusion

Council spending doesn’t have to be a mystery. With the contracts register, data.gov.uk datasets, and Contracts Finder, you can assemble a clear view of who gets paid, for what, and for how long.

Once you’ve got that view, the five red flags above help you focus on the deals most likely to waste money or dodge scrutiny. The next time someone says “there’s no alternative”, you’ll have proof to challenge it, calmly and with facts.