United Kingdom · award criteria · notice literacy
Award criteria and price–quality weighting on tender notices — notice literacy
Award criteria tell you how a buyer will compare bids — price-only, price–quality split, or quality with a pass/fail gateway. For facilities, cleaning and trades SMEs on roughly £10k–£250k lots, the published split is rarely a hard gate, but it is a useful caution signal before you hire a bid writer. This guide teaches what you can read on Contracts Finder and Find a Tender notice pages — and what stays Unknown until the ITT. Not bid writing. Not advocacy on procurement policy.
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What award criteria are (on a notice read)
Award criteria are the rules the buyer will use to rank or select tenders. On a notice you are looking for the headline — not the full evaluation matrix. Common patterns on UK public notices:
- Price / quality weighting — e.g. “60% price, 40% quality” or “price 70% quality 30%”.
- Lowest price compliant bid — cheapest bid that meets mandatory requirements wins.
- MEAT / most economically advantageous tender — quality and price combined; details usually in the pack.
- Pass/fail gateways — e.g. mandatory social value question must pass before price is scored; see social value wording on tender notices.
This is literacy for triage — whether the competition shape fits your firm — not a guide to writing winning quality answers.
Where award criteria appear on the notice page
Check these fields on a ten-minute notice read:
- Award criteria / evaluation criteria labelled section on Find a Tender UK4 notices.
- Description or further information — buyers sometimes paste “evaluation: 50% price 50% quality” in the body text.
- Attached summary PDFs on the notice page — occasional one-pager with the split before the full ITT.
- Lot-level rows on multi-lot notices — each lot may carry a different split; see multi-lot notices bid/no-bid triage.
Often — especially on smaller Contracts Finder lots — award criteria are not on the notice at all. The ITT says “see evaluation schedule”. That is Unknown on a £9.99 memo, same as pack-only scoring in the notice-visible vs pack-only gates guide.
Reading price–quality splits as caution signals
A percentage split is not a Pass/Fail gate like insurance or turnover. Use it to calibrate bid/no-bid effort:
| Notice line (examples) | What it suggests | Triage use |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest price compliant bid / price only | Price dominates; quality is pass/fail or minimal | Caution for SMEs without scale — still run hard gates (clock, PL, framework) |
| 70% price / 30% quality (or 60/40) | Commoditised competition — common on cleaning, grounds | Ask whether a £699 writer invoice matches a price-led race |
| 40% price / 60% quality (or 50/50) | Method, case studies and staffing plans matter more | Caution on director time — not an automatic No-go |
| Quality sub-criteria listed (e.g. method 20%, staffing 20%) | Partial matrix visible on notice | Note topics; full questions still likely pack-only |
| No award criteria on notice | Evaluation in ITT only | Unknown — do not guess 50/50 from habit |
Worked example (literacy only): a £55k school cleaning notice states 60% price, 40% quality. Your hard gates Pass — clock, geography, PL, no framework-only wording. The split is a caution: a national firm may undercut on price. That is not a Fail; it is a reason to think before you call a writer.
Award criteria vs mandatory gates
Do not confuse scoring weight with knockout gates:
- Knockout gates (Fail possible on notice) — stated minimum insurance, turnover floor, framework-only wording, accreditation you lack, mandatory social value pass/fail when printed.
- Scoring weights (caution only on notice) — price/quality percentages, MEAT headline, sub-criteria titles without pass marks.
- Unknown until pack — full question list, word limits, scoring matrices, moderation rules.
Run knockout gates first on the bid/no-bid checklist. Award criteria come after hard Fail/Pass/Unknown — they rarely kill a bid from the notice alone unless a mandatory pass/fail gateway is explicitly stated.
Three-step triage on award criteria
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Search the notice for evaluation wording. Ctrl+F for price, quality, MEAT, lowest, award criteria, evaluation.
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Classify what you found. Knockout gateway → possible Fail. Percentage split → caution note. Silent → Unknown.
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Combine with competition signals. Pair price-heavy splits with incumbent lookup — see find incumbent / last award on Contracts Finder — and with social value lines if printed.
What a real memo shows when criteria are notice-silent
When award criteria are not on the published notice, a sourced memo marks them Unknown rather than inventing industry norms. Example pattern: the Hull College gutter sample notes quality/price weighting visible on the notice while separate social value scoring stays Unknown — same discipline on £9.99 public-notice memos.
£9.99 vs £29.99 on award criteria
- £9.99 public-notice memo — records award-criteria lines printed on the notice; flags mandatory pass/fail gateways when visible; keeps full scoring matrices Unknown if not on the notice page.
- £29.99 pack memo — you forward the ITT/SQ; we extract evaluation schedules, sub-criteria and pass marks from documents you send. Still not quality answers or a written bid.
When to buy: when a notice match needs a memo.
What BidFit will not do
- Not bid writing or quality scoring. We do not draft method statements or model your price.
- Not predict win probability. A 50/50 split does not mean you have a 50% chance.
- Not guess pack-only evaluation rules. Unknown stays Unknown by design on the £9.99 product.
Questions
Where do award criteria appear on a Contracts Finder notice?
Sometimes in the description, award criteria or evaluation section on the notice page — for example price 60% quality 40%, or lowest price compliant bid. Often the full scoring matrix lives only in the ITT pack. If the notice is silent, mark award criteria Unknown on a £9.99 public-notice memo.
What does a 70/30 price–quality split mean for bid/no-bid triage?
It is a caution signal, not a Pass or Fail gate. A 70% price / 30% quality split suggests price competition dominates — common on commoditised cleaning lots. A 40% price / 60% quality split suggests more room for method statements and case studies. Neither tells you whether you can win; it helps you decide whether bid-writing spend matches the competition shape.
Is lowest price the same as price–quality weighting on a notice?
Not always. Lowest price compliant bid or price only means the cheapest compliant tender wins — a strong caution for SMEs without scale. Price–quality weighting still uses price but scores quality questions too. Read the exact line on the notice; do not assume MEAT applies when the notice says lowest price.
Does BidFit write award-criteria responses or score your bid?
No. BidFit memos flag what the notice or pack states about award criteria — Pass, Fail or Unknown on hard gates like mandatory social value pass/fail when printed. We do not draft quality responses, price models, or bid-winning strategies.
More guides
All BidFit guides: /guides/. Social value gateways: social value wording on tender notices. Notice-visible gates: notice-visible vs pack-only gates. Multi-lot splits: multi-lot notices bid/no-bid triage. Bid/no-bid checklist: bid/no-bid decision for UK SMEs.
Read the split before you pay for the bid
Take the free weekly list. When a notice survives hard gates and you want every line scored, order a £9.99 memo — or triage award criteria yourself and move on.