How are tenders scored? Most advantageous tender explained

How are tenders scored? In two steps. First you must meet the buyer’s conditions of participation, which are pass or fail. Then your tender is scored against the published award criteria, and the contract goes to the “most advantageous tender” (s.19(2)). That is the tender that meets the buyer’s requirements and best satisfies the award criteria, using the weightings it published. It is not automatically the cheapest (guidance, para 4).

This is part of our guide to winning public sector contracts. If you are about to write a response, pair it with how to write answers that score.

Two gates: can you do it, then how good is your tender?

Think of every tender as two gates.

Gate 1: conditions of participation. These test whether you are capable of doing the job: legal and financial capacity, or technical ability. A buyer may set them only if they are a proportionate way of checking that (s.22). If you fail them, the buyer must disregard your tender (s.19(3)(a)). They were formerly dealt with at the selection stage under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.

Gate 2: award criteria. These assess the merits of your tender: quality, price, delivery, and anything else the buyer has published. The guidance is clear that the two are distinct. Conditions of participation test whether you can perform the contract, and award criteria assess the tender itself (para 16).

Once you pass gate 1, only gate 2 matters. Your tender must be assessed against the award criteria only, with no reference to any score or ranking from the conditions of participation (conditions of participation guidance, para 22).

This is also how we think about tenders at TenderWorthy: hard requirements first, then fit. It matters because there is no point polishing gate 2 answers if you would fail gate 1. 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. See also the bid or no-bid checklist for passing the first gate.

What “most advantageous tender” means in law

Under section 19(2) of the Procurement Act 2023, the most advantageous tender (MAT) is the one the buyer considers meets its requirements and best satisfies the award criteria. The buyer judges this using its published assessment methodology and, where there is more than one criterion, their relative importance.

MAT replaced “most economically advantageous tender” (formerly MEAT). The guidance calls this a clarification rather than a policy change: tenders do not have to go to the lowest price, and price does not automatically outrank other factors (para 4).

The practical reading: the buyer cannot just pick the one it likes. It has to say in advance what it will value and how much, then apply that to every bidder.

Tender evaluation criteria: the rules buyers must follow

Section 23(2) says award criteria must:

• relate to the subject-matter of the contract
• be sufficiently clear, measurable and specific
• comply with the rules on technical specifications
• be a proportionate means of assessing tenders, given the contract’s nature, complexity and cost

“Subject-matter” is wider than it sounds. It includes the goods, services or works themselves, including aspects of their production or life-cycle, how and when they are supplied, staff qualifications, experience and organisation where they are likely to make a material difference to quality, and price, other costs or value for money (s.23(5)). For light touch contracts it also includes things like the views of the service recipient and the importance of proximity between supplier and recipients (s.23(6)).

Where a tender is split into lots, the buyer may limit how many lots one supplier can win, but it must then provide an objective mechanism for choosing between suppliers (s.23(4)).

Weightings and the assessment methodology

Two things must be published (s.23(3)):

1. The assessment methodology: how tenders will be assessed, including whether failing one or more criteria would disqualify a tender.
2. Relative importance: where there is more than one criterion, a weighting by percentage, a ranking, or another description.

The guidance says the criteria and methodology, or a summary, must be in the tender notice, with fuller detail in the tender documents if needed (para 12). The methodology might be a scoring matrix (para 11). Pass/fail criteria are allowed, but the methodology has to flag them and say whether failing one disqualifies a tender (para 13).

Percentages are not the only option. A buyer can rank criteria or describe their importance in words, so “quality is more important than price” is a legitimate (if less helpful) statement. Our guide to reading the award criteria in a notice shows where to find all of this.

Price: why the cheapest doesn’t always win

Price is part of the subject-matter and can be an award criterion (s.23(5)(d)). But the guidance steers buyers away from treating it as everything:

• Use whole-life cost rather than initial price, except for basic purchases (para 8).
• Be cautious with relative price scoring against the lowest-priced tender, as it can harm value for money (para 8).
• Price as the only criterion is possible but unlikely to suit most contracts (paras 18 and 21).

For you, the point is where to put effort. A buyer who weights quality heavily is saying that a better answer is worth more than a lower price. The example below shows how that plays out.

Social value weighting

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 authorities may choose to apply it (para 3); otherwise they set their own approach. Read the scoring table in the pack, then see social value in tenders for what to write.

A worked example (illustrative)

Take a hypothetical central government contract with three bidders. The buyer’s published weightings are quality 60, price 30 and social value 10, which adds up to 100. Quality and social value are scored out of 5 and converted to points by weighting. Price points are the lowest price divided by the bidder’s price, multiplied by 30.

Illustrative only. Every tender sets its own criteria. These numbers are made up to show the mechanics, not typical weightings or scores.

Bidder A is the most expensive, 20% above the cheapest, and still wins, 5.7 points ahead of Bidder C. Look at where the points moved. Going from £120,000 to £100,000 is worth 5 price points. Dropping one mark on the quality questions costs 12 points (one fifth of 60). Bidder B is cheapest and last.

The method used here, scoring price relative to the lowest bid, is only one approach. The guidance cautions that it can harm value for money (para 8), which is why some buyers use other methods. Your tender documents will say which.

Abnormally low tenders

If a price looks too low to be credible, the buyer may disregard the tender (s.19(3)(c)). Before it does, it must tell 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)). Keep your pricing workings so you can explain them.

After the decision: assessment summaries and standstill

Once tenders are assessed and before the contract award notice is published, the buyer must give an assessment summary to every supplier that submitted an assessed tender (guidance, para 35). The assessment summaries guidance covers what they contain. In outline, expect your scores by criterion with reasons tied to your tender, and, if you were unsuccessful, equivalent information about the winning tender, with sensitive detail redacted where needed.

For most contracts, publishing the contract award notice starts the standstill period. It must be at least eight working days, beginning with the day the notice is published, and weekends and bank holidays anywhere in the UK do not count (standstill guidance, paras 2, 44-45). Framework call-offs, dynamic market contracts and light touch contracts do not have a standstill (para 37). Where one applies, the contract cannot be entered into before working day nine.

If you think the process was unfair, the government has published remedies guidance. This guide is not legal advice. If you are considering a challenge, read that guidance and take advice early.

In a competitive flexible procedure, criteria can be refined

In the competitive flexible procedure, a buyer can refine its award criteria before it invites final tenders, but only if the tender notice or documents provided for that, and only within limits (s.24). The guidance says adding sub-criteria or detail that directly relates to an existing main criterion, and changing weightings within a range already published, are likely to be permitted. Adding new main criteria, adding or removing pass/fail tests, or reversing a pass/fail outcome are likely not (paras 22, 27-28).

The takeaway: the headline criteria you see at the start are the ones that stay.

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