Evaluation and scoring
Evaluation criteria
Definition
The specific factors and their weightings used by a buyer to assess and score tender responses, typically covering technical quality, methodology, staff, price, and social value.
Evaluation criteria are the buyer's scoring rubric. They define exactly what matters in the assessment and how much each factor contributes to the final score. Buyers must publish their evaluation criteria in the tender documents — this transparency is a legal requirement, not a courtesy.
Criteria typically fall into categories: technical approach (can you deliver the work?), methodology (how will you do it?), staff and resources (who will do it?), price or commercial (what will it cost?), and increasingly, social value (what wider benefits do you bring?). Each criterion is given a percentage weight, and within each criterion there may be sub-criteria with their own weightings.
Experienced bidders read evaluation criteria as instructions. If staff experience is weighted at 20%, your response needs compelling CVs and evidence of relevant track records. If social value is weighted at 10%, you need a concrete social value plan, not a generic statement of good intentions.
Why it matters for bidders
Evaluation criteria are not suggestions — they are the scoring matrix. Every sentence in your bid should be written to score against a specific criterion. Bidders who structure their responses around the evaluation criteria score higher than those who write a generic narrative about their capabilities.
How Skim helps
Skim extracts and structures evaluation criteria from tender documents, mapping each criterion to its weighting and highlighting which areas offer the most scoring opportunity — so your bid writing effort goes where it earns the most marks.
Related terms
Most economically advantageous tender(MEAT)
The evaluation principle requiring public buyers to award contracts based on the best combination of quality and price (or cost), not simply the lowest price.
Quality score
The score awarded to the non-price elements of a tender response, assessed against published evaluation criteria and typically representing 60–80% of the total evaluation in quality-led procurements.
Social value
The wider economic, social, and environmental benefits that a supplier's delivery of a public contract generates beyond the direct goods or services purchased, now a mandatory evaluation criterion in most UK central government procurements.
Win themes
The three to five key messages woven throughout a tender response that differentiate your bid from competitors, articulating why you are the best choice for this specific buyer on this specific contract.