What are the contract types?
All-of-Government contracts cover common categories across mandated agencies: banking, travel, office supplies, vehicles, and the like. Syndicated contracts group agencies with a shared need. Common capability contracts (ICT and property among them) hold standing capability agencies can draw on. DIA agreements, such as the Microsoft volume arrangement, are cross-government licences of the same family. The current catalogue sits on the official contracts pages.
Eligibility is a separate question from existence. Check whether your organisation may use a given contract before spending a week on its joining process. The eligibility page is the first document, not the last.
How do you join?
At establishment, or at a reopening. Agencies run an open process to form the panel or contract, and suppliers that meet the conditions join for the term. Between windows, an approach offering your services is correspondence, not a bid. Watch GETS for formation and reopening notices, and future procurement opportunity listings for what is coming.
Joining costs a full pursuit: conditions, pricing schedules, evidence, references. Cost it like one. If the joining effort exceeds the margin on the call-offs you can realistically win, the seat is a trophy.
How does the secondary work reach you?
Through secondary procurements: mini-competitions among panel members for actual work. Agencies increasingly run these through Procure Connect, the specialised secondary tendering tool. Each call-off has its own scope, its own timing, and its own gate. Membership does not convert a call-off into a yes.
Rate files lock you to numbers the joining process froze months ago. Delivery windows collide with your other work. Short-notice call-offs punish firms without spare reviewers. Gate every call-off as its own bid. The general economics are on bid/no-bid for panels.
What about fourth-edition agreements?
The 5th edition has no impact on contracts entered into before 1 December 2025. That includes the supply and service agreements for All-of-Government panels and contracts, syndicated contracts, and other common capability contracts. If the agreement you sit on, or want to sit on at renewal, is 4th-edition, assess it in 4th-edition terms. Which requirements apply owns the edition test.
What does this mean for the bid/no-bid call?
Two calls, two dates. First: is the category worth the joining pursuit, given the call-offs you can evidence winning and the hours formation will cost. Second, per call-off: does this piece of work pass strategy, capacity, and risk today. A firm that says yes to the seat has not said yes to the work. A firm that cannot say no to a call-off should not have taken the seat.