UK Procurement Glossary
Award Criteria
The published criteria a UK public sector buyer uses to evaluate and score bid responses, weighted between quality and price.
Definition
Award criteria are the specific factors a UK public sector buyer uses to evaluate and score tender responses. They are published in the ITT with weightings, typically split between quality (technical merit, methodology, social value, sustainability) and price. Common weightings are 60% quality / 40% price for service contracts, with high-quality-intensive contracts running 70-80% quality.
Under UK procurement law, award criteria must be published in advance and applied consistently across bids. Buyers cannot change them mid-evaluation.
How this affects your bid
Map your response section by section to the award criteria. Score-grade each of your own answers against the published weighting. Where you under-score, redraft before submitting.
Common questions about award criteria
Can a buyer add award criteria after the tender is published?
No. Criteria and weightings published in the ITT are fixed for that procurement. Any change generally requires re-issuing the tender.
How are subjective criteria scored?
Typically against a 0-5 or 0-10 scoring scale defined in the ITT, with descriptors for each score level. Bidders should write to the highest descriptor.
Related terms
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