How to write a tender response that scores

How to write a tender response that scores comes down to one idea: you are marked on what you write, against what the buyer published. That is good news, because the scoring rules are not a secret. The buyer has to tell you how it will assess tenders and, where there is more than one criterion, their relative importance (s.23(3)(b)).

So the method is simple: confirm you can bid, read the scoring rules, pass the compliance checks, then spend your writing time where the marks are. This guide takes you through each step. It is part of our guide to winning public sector contracts, and it assumes you have already decided to bid.

Before you write: confirm you can bid

A well-written answer to a tender you cannot win is a day or two of your time wasted. The buyer must disregard a tender from a supplier that fails the conditions of participation (s.19(3)(a)). Those are the pass/fail checks on things like financial standing or technical ability.

So check the stated requirements first. Look for insurance levels, accreditations, turnover, where the work is, and which lots you could bid for. Our bid or no-bid checklist walks through the decision. Our tender eligibility checker is coming soon. Until then, tell us your trade and postcode to join the free weekly list of live tenders, starting soon.

Start with the assessment methodology

Everything else in the response hangs off this. Read it before you write a word.

Find the award criteria, sub-criteria and weightings

Award criteria must relate to the contract and be sufficiently clear, measurable and specific (s.23(2)). The buyer must also describe how tenders will be assessed, including whether failing a criterion would disqualify you. Where there is more than one criterion, it must show their relative importance, by percentage, ranking or some other description (s.23(3)).

Government guidance says the criteria and the methodology, or a summary, must be published in the tender notice, with the full detail in the tender documents (assessing competitive tenders, para 12). If you are not sure where to look, see how to read a tender notice. For the buyer’s side of the same rules, read how evaluators score your answers.

Pass/fail questions vs scored questions

Buyers can use pass/fail questions, but the methodology must say if failing one disqualifies you (para 13). Treat these as compliance. Answer them completely and plainly. There are no extra marks for style.

Scored questions are where you compete. The guidance also says responses to conditions of participation are assessed separately, and that once you have met them your tender is assessed against the award criteria only, with no reference to any earlier score or ranking (conditions of participation guidance, para 22). So a strong answer on the quality questions is not dragged down by how you did on the entry checks, and vice versa.

Build an answer plan: points available x weighting

Make a one-page plan before you draft. For each scored question, note:

• the weighting (or ranking) the buyer gave it
• the word or page limit
• what evidence you already have (a similar job, a named team, a method statement you use)
• who writes it, and by when

Then put your effort where weighting and evidence meet. A hypothetical example: if a buyer uses a 0-5 scale (illustrative only, buyers set their own), each mark on a question worth 30% of the total is worth 6 points, and each mark on a question worth 10% is worth 2. The 30% question deserves roughly three times the thinking time, as long as you have the evidence to score well on it.

The compliance pass

Do this before you polish anything. A tender that breaches a procedural requirement in the tender notice or documents may be disregarded (s.19(3)(d)). The Act’s definition of a procedural requirement can include a requirement to provide information. Government guidance gives submitting a tender late and exceeding a prescribed word count as examples of this ground (assessing competitive tenders, para 33(d)). So a good answer that is over the limit, or arrives late, can still be set aside.

Make a checklist from the tender documents and tick it off:

• Word and page limits. Stay inside them, including for attachments if the pack says so.
• Required forms and declarations. Every one, signed or confirmed where asked.
• File formats and naming. Upload exactly what the portal asks for.
• The deadline. Note the time as well as the date, and plan to be early.
• Core supplier information on the Central Digital Platform. The tender notice should say that you must submit it through the platform at a stated point, such as when you submit your tender (competitive tendering guidance, para 85). The platform guidance says it should be requested before the end of the tendering period (para 66). Check the pack for the exact point, and do not leave registration to the last hour.

Give one person the job of compliance owner. Writers are not good at spotting a missing form.

Structuring a quality answer

Answer the question asked, in the order asked

Use the question’s own wording as your headings, and answer its parts in the order it lists them. Evaluators work through a methodology criterion by criterion, and the buyer later records a score and reasons for each criterion in your assessment summary (assessment summaries guidance). Make each answer easy to score on its own, without sending the reader to another section.

Evidence: method, people, timeline, risks, proof

A reliable shape for most method questions:

1. What you will do. The method, step by step, in plain words.
2. Who will do it. Named roles, their experience and qualifications. Award criteria can cover staff qualifications, experience and organisation where they are likely to make a material difference to the quality of the supply (s.23(5)), so people are a legitimate thing to score.
3. When. Mobilisation and key dates.
4. What could go wrong. Two or three real risks and what you would do about each.
5. Proof. A relevant job, with numbers: size, timescale, result.

A hypothetical example, to show the level of detail: instead of “we have extensive grounds maintenance experience”, write “we would visit each of the 14 sites every fortnight in the growing season, with a three-person crew, and log each visit in our job system for you to inspect”. The second version can be marked. The first cannot.

Make it specific to this buyer and this contract

Pick up the words in the specification: the sites, the service users, the response times. Show you have read this contract, not a similar one. Do not reuse an answer wholesale from another bid. Do not guess at what the buyer wants beyond what it has published. If something is unclear, ask (see clarification questions below).

Social value answers

Some tenders score social value as a separate question. For central government departments, executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies, PPN 002 requires at least 10% of the total score (or an equivalent) for social value in above-threshold procurements started under the Act on or after 1 October 2025, where it is relevant and proportionate (paras 6-8, 10). It does not apply below threshold. Other buyers set their own approach. Check the scoring table, then read how to write social value answers for the rules and for fill-in-the-blank examples sized for small firms. Keep it relevant, measurable and in proportion to the contract.

Pricing without tripping “abnormally low”

Price is scored by the method the buyer publishes, and it is not automatically decisive. The most advantageous tender replaced the old “most economically advantageous tender” wording, and the guidance says the award need not go to the lowest price (para 4).

If your price looks far lower than the rest, the buyer may disregard it as abnormally low (s.19(3)(c)). But first it must notify you and give you a reasonable opportunity to show you can perform the contract at that price. If you satisfy it, it cannot disregard the tender on that ground (s.19(4)-(5)).

The practical lesson is to build your price from the bottom up and keep your working: hours, rates, materials, overheads, subcontract quotes. If a buyer asks you to explain, you want the explanation ready, not a scramble to rebuild a number.

Clarification questions

If something in the pack is unclear or looks inconsistent, ask through the buyer’s clarification route, which may be inside the buyer’s e-tendering portal, and ask before the deadline. We have not found a fixed national cut-off for clarification questions, so look for the date in the tender documents.

Keep questions specific (“Does the 500-word limit include the table in Q3?”). Do not put commercially sensitive detail in a question. The guidance expects buyers to share relevant information early so that all suppliers have parity (para 8), so assume your answer may reach other bidders.

Submit early and keep a record

Buyers are expected to communicate electronically as far as practicable, and to accept tenders electronically unless that is not practicable (time periods guidance, paras 22-23). In practice, that means a portal upload.

Upload the day before, not the last hour. Keep the confirmation, a copy of exactly what you submitted, and your clarification questions and answers. You will want them if you are shortlisted, or if you need to understand a score later.

After you submit: assessment summaries

If your tender was assessed, you are entitled to an assessment summary. The buyer must give one to each supplier with an assessed tender after assessment and before it publishes the contract award notice (assessing competitive tenders, para 35). It shows how your tender did against each criterion, with reasons.

The summary must give the score for each criterion, including sub-criteria if the buyer used them, and the total (assessment summaries guidance, para 20). For every criterion and sub-criterion, the buyer must explain the score by referring to relevant information in your tender (para 22). It may also add general feedback to help you improve future bids, but that is not a legal requirement (para 36), so do not count on it.

Win or lose, read it, and keep a simple log of each bid: the question, your score, the buyer’s stated reason, and what you would change. After a few bids, patterns show up, such as always losing marks on risk or on evidence. That tells you where to spend your time on the next response. The weak scores point to the questions to rework. The guide to how tenders are scored explains the rest of the post-decision process.

Spending your writing time on tenders that fit your insurance, certifications and location is half the job. Tell us your trade and postcode to join the free weekly list of live tenders, starting soon. On Pro (£49/month), notices that fit your trade and area are checked against what each states about insurance, certifications and location, and you get an email each morning on days with new matches. Start here.