How we evaluate and award contracts

When you receive an invitation from us to quote or tender you should follow the instructions which explain when, and to whom you should return your bid.

If you are responding to an invitation to quote we will open your response when we receive it. Once all of the bids are received we will evaluate your bid against the evaluation criteria that we specified in our invitation to you.

If you are responding to an invitation to tender, your responses will be securely stored until the tender deadline date. Then we will convene a tender opening panel which will examine and record the details of each tender. We will evaluate your tender against the specified evaluation criteria.

Evaluation of bids

We will evaluate your bid against all specified criteria. We may need to clarify your bid with you because either there is something we do not understand or because we believe you misinterpreted our requirement.

We will give you an opportunity to discuss your bid if you want to. However, if you have raised issues that are relevant to the other bidders, we will share your question and our answer, while ensuring that we do not breach any commercial confidentiality.

Awarding contracts

We will award the contract with either a purchase order or a contract award letter, depending on the procedure we have followed.

We will publish details of all awarded contracts valued at over £100,000 (including those advertised in the Official Journal of the European Union).

If you are unsuccessful in bidding for a contract we will provide you with feedback to help you to improve your response the next time you bid for a contract.