CPV codes: understanding the nomenclature and choosing yours
How the CPV nomenclature works (45 divisions, over 9,400 codes), a method to pick the codes for your business, and the mistakes that make you miss UK tenders.
Updated on September 5, 2026
CPV codes, the Common Procurement Vocabulary, are the shared classification of public procurement across the United Kingdom, Ireland and the rest of Europe. Every notice published under the Procurement Act 2023 on Find a Tender must carry at least one, as must every Irish notice on eTenders and every notice in the Official Journal, and the e-sourcing portals that councils and trusts use record them too. Choosing your codes well is the highest-return decision in tender monitoring: a good CPV filter catches notices whatever their wording, where a keyword search lets a share of them slip past.
How a CPV code is built
A CPV code has eight digits followed by a check digit, for example 45000000-7 for construction work. The digits read from left to right, from the most general to the most specific:
| Level | Significant digits | Count | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Division | first 2 | 45 | 45: construction work |
| Group | first 3 | 272 | 452: works for complete or part construction |
| Class | first 4 | 1,002 | 4523: construction work for pipelines, roads |
| Category | first 5 | 8,135 | 45233: construction, foundation and surface works for highways, roads |
| Sub-categories | 6 to 8 | over 9,400 codes in total | 45233222-1: paving and asphalting works |
Trailing zeros mark a generic level: 72000000 covers all IT services, 72200000 software programming and consultancy, 72260000 software-related services. A supplementary vocabulary of alphanumeric codes can specify a material, a use or a form, but UK buyers rarely use it.
CPV codes do more than help you search. The Procurement Regulations 2024 use them to define which services fall under the light touch regime, with its higher threshold and lighter rules, so the code on a notice tells you which set of rules the buyer is working to.
The divisions worth knowing
The 45 divisions run from 03 (agriculture) to 98 (other services). Goods occupy divisions 03 to 44, works the single division 45, services divisions 48 to 98. Some landmarks:
| Division | Field |
|---|---|
| 30 | office and computing equipment |
| 33 | medical equipment |
| 34 | vehicles and transport equipment |
| 39 | furniture |
| 44 | construction materials |
| 45 | construction work |
| 48 | software |
| 50 | repair and maintenance |
| 55 | hotel and catering |
| 71 | architecture and engineering |
| 72 | IT services |
| 79 | business services: consultancy, legal, marketing, recruitment |
| 80 | education and training |
| 85 | health and social work |
| 90 | environment, waste, cleaning |
| 92 | culture, sport and leisure |
The European Commission's official browser at simap.ted.europa.eu lets you search a code by description in English, and Find a Tender offers CPV lookup when you build a saved search.
A method to choose your codes
1. Start from what you sell, not from your SIC code
CPV describes what the buyer is purchasing, not what your company is. A multi-technical maintenance firm falls under 50 (repair and maintenance), 45 (installation works) and 71 (engineering), depending on the service requested. List your services one by one and find a code for each.
2. Walk down from division to category
Note the division first, then the group and class that describe your activity. Stop at the level that stays accurate: a caterer belongs to 55520000 (catering services), rarely to a finer sub-category.
3. Check against real notices
Search Find a Tender, Contracts Finder and your devolved portal for contract award notices covering work you could have won, and note the codes they carry. Buyers often use more generic codes than expected, or codes from a neighbouring division. One hour of this reveals the codes you would have missed, and tells you who the incumbents are.
4. Build three circles
Organise your list in three circles: the core (three to five precise codes you follow without exception), the extended circle (parent codes and neighbouring divisions, followed with stricter sorting) and the excluded circle (nearby codes outside your field, removed explicitly to cut noise).
5. Add the portal's own categories
There is no UK equivalent of a national list of trade descriptors, but most buyer-side portals keep their own supplier category trees. ProContract, In-tend, Delta and Public Contracts Scotland all ask you to tick categories when you register, and those ticks drive the alert emails they send. Set them alongside your CPV list rather than instead of it, and keep the two consistent.
Sample selections by activity
| Activity | Core | Extended |
|---|---|---|
| Office cleaning | 90910000, 90911200 | 90900000, 90600000, 98300000 |
| Software development | 72200000, 72260000 | 72000000, 48000000, 72500000 |
| Vocational training | 80500000, 80530000 | 80000000, 79600000 |
| Landscaping | 77310000, 77314000 | 77300000, 45112700 |
| Electrical installation | 45310000, 45311000 | 45300000, 50700000, 31000000 |
| Management consultancy | 79410000, 79411000 | 79400000, 72220000, 73000000 |
These are starting points: check them against notices in your target region before freezing them.
Common mistakes
- A single code. A watch on one code misses notices the buyer filed under a parent or neighbouring code. Aim for three to ten codes.
- Too much precision. Going down to the eighth digit excludes every notice coded higher in the tree. Class or category level is almost always enough.
- Ignoring neighbouring divisions. IT is spread across 72, 48, 30 and 50; construction across 45, 44, 71 and 50. Service providers often forget the goods division that goes with their service.
- Confusing CPV with a SIC code. Your Companies House SIC code classifies your business for statistics; it plays no part in procurement.
- Trusting the buyer's code. The buyer picks the codes, sometimes in a hurry. An important notice may carry a generic code such as 79000000 or 98000000. That is why you keep a few broad codes in the extended circle and complement them with portal categories and a few keywords.
- Never revising the list. Review your codes every six months, based on the notices you missed and the noise you received.
Checklist
- One line per service you sell.
- One CPV code per service, at class or category level.
- Checked against twenty recent contract award notices in your sector.
- Three circles defined: core, extended, excluded.
- Matching portal categories ticked on the platforms you are registered with.
- List saved in your Find a Tender, Contracts Finder and devolved portal alerts.
- Review date set in six months.
The guide Setting up an effective tender watch shows how to combine these codes with notice type, region and keywords. Scoutee uses CPV codes as the backbone of its search profiles for exactly this reason.