Writing the bid: method statements, evidence and the scoring behind the marks

A tender is scored by two or three people with a descriptor ladder, a word limit and not much time. Here are their rules in their own words, how price becomes points, a real North West evaluation, and templates for answers that score. See also Finding tenders, How public procurement works now and Social value.

The reality

How evaluators work, in their own rules

Buyers' guidance and Liverpool's 2026 report describe the same process¹¹³⁸¹⁰:

The rules behind it, in buyers' words:

The scoring ladder, and what moves a 3 to a 5

Two real ladders: a North West council in 2026, and a London borough in 2017 under the old Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (pre-Act, but typical of descriptor scales).

Read it upwards, using Liverpool's own words¹³:

So remove every unevidenced claim and unclear sentence, then add one specific, costed extra. Length closes nothing. Scottish buyers use 0 to 4 or 0/25/50/75/100 with the same words at the top: "Comprehensive, unambiguous"².

Knock-outs come before ranking. Brent (2017): "If a score of 0 is awarded to any one or more question or less than 3 in two or more questions, this will give grounds for excluding that ITT"¹⁶. Liverpool: "a minimum score of three for critical questions. A score of 0 for any question would be an automatic fail"¹³. Cheshire East: fail a pass/fail question and "your response will be rejected"¹⁵.

Price: the formula and the arithmetic

Most buyers score price relative to the lowest bid. Brent: "The best (lowest) price receives the maximum score ... remaining bids receive a score pro rata", that is (lowest bid ÷ your bid) × the price weight¹⁶. Liverpool: "the lowest price being offered the full available weighting"¹³.

With a price weight of 40, a £50,000 bid against a lowest bid of £40,000 scores 40 × 40,000 ÷ 50,000 = 32 points. A 4 out of 5 on a question weighted 23% earns 23 × 4 ÷ 5 = 18.4 points¹⁶. Pricing 10% above the cheapest costs 40 − 40 ÷ 1.1 = 3.6 points; 15% above costs 5.2. One extra mark on the 23% question is worth 4.6, so on a 60/40 split one mark on a heavy question buys back a 10% price gap.

The Act's guidance warns buyers about "the potential negative impacts on value for money of the use of relative scoring mechanisms", so expect variants such as price per quality point or bands; the method must be in the tender documents⁷.

Liverpool City Council's October 2026 evaluation weighted technical 60%, social value 10% and price 30%, and nine of its 28 technical categories carried all 60 technical marks¹³:

The method, from pack to portal

Executive Compass, Thornton & Lowe and Stotles, quoted below, are commercial bid consultancies or platforms: their advice is practice, not buyer rules.

1. Read the pack: a compliance matrix and a response plan

Build two documents in the first hour: a compliance matrix of every instruction that can disqualify you, and a response plan of the scored questions with weightings, owners and review dates¹⁷. Non-compliance gives the buyer "an easy option to thin the pile", so return every document "in the format they were issued" and watch the clarification log, because deadlines change²⁰.

COMPLIANCE MATRIX (one row per instruction, quoted from the pack)
Ref      | Instruction                                          | Where    | Owner | Done | Checked by
ITT 3.2  | "Responses must not exceed 1,000 words per question" | Q1 to Q8 | PW    | [ ]  |
ITT 4.1  | Form of Tender signed by a director, as PDF          | Doc 2    | JD    | [ ]  |
ITT 4.3  | Pricing Schedule in the Excel issued, no changes     | Doc 4    | AK    | [ ]  |
ITT 5.0  | Upload to The Chest by 12:00, 14 Nov 2026            | Portal   | PW    | [ ]  |
Clar. 7  | Revised specification of 2 Nov replaces section 6    | Q3, Q5   | JD    | [ ]  |

Conditions of participation (financial standing, insurance, technical ability) are gates, not scores. Under section 22 they must be proportionate, and insurance cannot be required before award, so a broker's quote is enough at bid¹².

Then allocate words and hours by weighting (in Liverpool's tender two categories held 39 of 60 technical marks¹³), which "will give you an indication of the importance of the specific topic area to the award decision" (Cheshire East)¹⁵.

2. Plan each answer: the question's bullets are your subheadings

"The easiest way to lose points is to make your proposal difficult for the evaluator to score. Mirror the structure of the tender document exactly"²⁴. Use the question's headings and keywords, in the order asked²³²⁵. "Remember, initially buyers have to scan bids" (GOV.UK)²⁶. The skeleton is a synthesis of this guide's sources, not a buyer's template.

METHOD STATEMENT SKELETON (the question's own parts come first)
1. Direct answer (two sentences): the requirement in the buyer's words,
   your approach, the benefit to this contract.
2. Understanding: the buyer's context and outcomes, citing its own
   documents (specification clause, KPI, strategy, pipeline notice).
3. Method: numbered steps or phases. Each: who (named role), what,
   when, with what tools and standards. Sub-headings = the question's bullets.
4. Evidence: one STAR case study with numbers; accreditations; data.
5. Quality and KPIs: what you measure, how often, reported to whom,
   in the buyer's KPI names.
6. Risks: two or three specific to this contract, each with an owner
   and a mitigation.
7. Added value: one or two extras above the requirement, specific,
   costed, tied to a stated outcome. No unpriced promises.
Word check: inside the limit, words allocated to the weighting.

GOV.UK's SME guide builds a model answer as feature, method, value, evidence, advantage, and reminds bidders that "a tender is a sales document"²⁷.

3. Write it: answer first, then numbers and the "so what" test

Would your opening paragraph score alone? "Do not make the evaluator search for your answer"²². Then:

• What, how and why. The "why your approach is appropriate" is most often missing²².
• The "so what" test. "Why should the buyer care? What difference will this make to their contract?" Link cause and effect with "so that": "Do not assume the evaluator will make the connection for you"²².
• Commitments. "If you are prepared to make a commitment, make it unequivocally": "will", never "aim to"²².
• The buyer's words. Cite the specification, KPIs (key performance indicators) and SLAs (service level agreements) by number²³²⁵.

4. Evidence: one case study, many answers

Write case studies as Situation, Task, Action, Result (STAR)²⁴. The Government Commercial Agency asks for "the most recent and relevant evidence and experience" with measurable outcomes²⁸.

STAR CASE STUDY (120 to 180 words, one per answer)
Situation: [Client, place, year]. [The problem, with a number.]
Task:      [What we were contracted to do: scale, constraint, KPI.]
Action:    [What we did, step by step; who led it (role); tools;
            the decision that made the difference.]
Result:    [Outcome in numbers against the baseline; the client's
            KPI met or beaten; a dated reference contact or quote.]
Relevance: [One sentence: why this maps to this question's requirement.]

A practice tip rather than a sourced rule: one contract can serve mobilisation, quality, risk and social value answers. Write it long once, then cut 150 words per question, leading with the result that question scores.

5. Risks and KPIs: the part that earns the 4

The step from 3 to 4 is "any concerns are addressed" (Brent) and "no weaknesses are identified" (Liverpool)¹⁶¹³. Name the two or three risks the buyer worries about, with owners, triggers and reporting, and do not over-promise: Bracknell Forest Council wants a method statement "realistic and thorough, but does not contain promises as to levels of ... Services that cannot be achieved or maintained"³⁰.

RISK TABLE ROW (two or three per answer, specific to this contract)
Risk:        [What could go wrong on this contract, in the buyer's terms]
Likelihood / impact: [L/M/H] / [L/M/H]
Trigger:     [The early sign you watch for, and who watches]
Mitigation:  [What you do before it happens, costed and resourced]
Response:    [What you do within x hours if it happens]
Owner:       [Named role]   Reported: [Where the buyer sees it, how often]

Where you have a gap, commit to closing it by a date. GOV.UK's example is committing to accreditation within six months²⁷; Warwick's strong quality answer below does the same.

6. Price: set the strategy from the split

Thornton & Lowe's worked case is 40% price and 60% quality: "The full 40% score on pricing then going to cheapest or lowest priced bid submission", so everyone else must ask "Can you increase your quality tender scores to balance up your higher tender pricing?"¹⁸

A low price needs a visible logic: before disregarding a tender as abnormally low the buyer "must first notify the supplier and provide it with a reasonable opportunity to demonstrate that it will be able to perform the contract"⁷. "Check totals, check units, check assumptions, check that every deliverable is costed", and avoid "Unexplained efficiencies or 'economies of scale' claims"¹⁹. Cost the full delivery including overheads in the schedule provided⁴, with team sizes identical to the technical answers²⁵.

7. Clarification questions: early, anonymous, logged

Cheshire East: "you are permitted to ask for clarification and the Contracting Authority is obliged to provide it but make sure you ask the question within the timescales". Answers "(not of a commercially sensitive nature) all have to be circulated to all other tenderers"¹⁵. So ask early¹⁷⁴, reveal neither your identity nor your pricing position⁴¹⁸, and read everyone else's questions.

CLARIFICATION QUESTION (one point per question, no identifying detail)
Document and clause: ITT section 6.3; Pricing Schedule, tab 2
Question: Row 14 applies a 12-month rate to a 36-month line. Please
confirm whether bidders should enter the annual or the whole-life
figure, and whether cell F14 will be corrected in a revised schedule.
Why it matters to all bidders: comparability of price scores.

8. Review and submit: a critical friend, a consistency check, 24 hours out

Run three reviews: compliance against the matrix, quality against the descriptors, and a "red team" read by someone new to the bid²⁴; GOV.UK puts the outside read "two thirds of the way through the process"²⁶. Finish with a check that figures match across sections and the pricing schedule¹⁷. Attach only what is requested, page-referenced from the answer³⁰. Then a full portal and document review "no less than 24 hours before the deadline"²¹, an upload hours early with file sizes tested, and the receipt kept²⁵.

Real answers, weak and strong

The weak answers give the evaluator nothing to score. The strong ones say what the policy covers and how often it is reviewed, and turn a gap into a dated commitment, converting "areas of weaknesses into areas of strength" (GOV.UK)²⁷.

The strong version answers in its first sentence, cites the buyer's clause and KPIs, names a role, evidences past delivery and names a risk. The weak one describes the company.

After the result

Under the Act every assessed bidder receives, before the award notice, the winning tender's score and explanation per criterion, its own, and why it did not win⁹. Standstill is at least eight working days from the award notice, and a challenge "issued and notified during the standstill period" suspends signature, so read the summary the day it arrives¹⁰. Framework call-offs need no summary and have no mandatory standstill⁸¹⁰.

Keep a loss log, one row per bid, and hold a lessons-learned session win or lose⁵. Frameworks reopen (How to get on a framework), so a loss is a gap list, not a verdict.

Pitfalls

Grahame Steed's ten common mistakes (Tracker Intelligence, a tender-alert service), condensed, plus three from the buyer rules above²⁵:

Checklist: before you press submit

• Compliance matrix complete and checked by someone outside the bid
• Response plan: owner, word budget by weighting and review date per question
• Every knock-out rule found: pass/fail questions, minimum scores, any-zero exclusion
• Clarification log read and worked in
• Each answer opens with the answer, mirrors the question and passes the 3-to-5 test
• Named roles, numbers, dates and the buyer's KPI numbers in every method
• One STAR case study per answer, recent, with results against a baseline
• Risks specific to this contract, with owners, triggers and reporting
• Price formula modelled; every deliverable costed; figures match the technical answers
• Attachments only where requested and page-referenced; templates unaltered
• Form of tender signed; pricing schedule as issued
• Critical-friend read done, two-thirds through and at the end
• Portal and document check 24 hours out; upload hours early; receipt saved
• Expected award date diarised for the assessment summary; loss log open

Questions

How are UK public sector tenders scored?

Against published weightings for quality, price and social value. Evaluators mark each quality answer on a 0 to 5 ladder independently, then moderate; price is usually scored against the lowest bid¹¹⁶¹³.

What is the difference between a 3 and a 5 in a tender evaluation?

On Liverpool City Council's 2026 ladder a 3 "contains minor weaknesses or lacks clarity"; a 4 has "no weaknesses"; a 5 adds "some areas of the service above the level of requirements"¹³.

How is price scored in a tender?

Most often lowest bid ÷ your bid × the price weight: with a weight of 40, £50,000 against a lowest £40,000 scores 32¹⁶. The tender documents must state the method⁷.

What is a method statement and how should I structure it?

Your account of how you will deliver a requirement: the direct answer, then method with named roles and timings, evidence, KPIs, risks and added value, in the question's order²⁴²².

Can evaluators take into account what they already know about my company?

No. "Prior knowledge/experience/assumptions etc. cannot be taken into consideration" (Cheshire East)¹⁵. Incumbents must write their track record into the answer.

What feedback do I get if I lose a public tender?

Under the Procurement Act 2023, an assessment summary: your scores and reasons and the winner's, criterion by criterion⁹.

How long does it take to write a tender?

GOV.UK says "it can take up to 10 days to construct a good bid and sometimes more for larger and complex contracts"²⁶. The minimum tendering period is 25 days for electronic tenders and can be 10¹¹, so write case studies and CVs before the notice appears.

Written for businesses, founders and researchers in the North West of England and checked against the sources listed above on 18 October 2026. Funders change their rules, so always read the current call before you apply. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.