Under section 50(3) of the Procurement Act 2023, standstill letters have effectively been replaced by 'assessment summaries'. Assessment summaries are intended to be more straightforward and less burdensome for contracting authorities to prepare; removing the need for a comparative analysis of a tenderer's scores against the winning tender and for award criteria and assessment methodology to be set out in full, and requiring information to be included only in relation to questions that are actually assessed.
Regulation 31 of the Procurement Regulations 2024 sets out what must be included in an assessment summary, which is supplemented by Cabinet Office guidance.
What must be included?
- Only a summary of the award criteria and assessment methodology is required, provided that an indication of where the full version of the criteria can be found is also included.
- Minimum award criteria must be included, specifically the title of each criterion and its relative importance (i.e the weighting), how each criterion was to be assessed and the scores available.
- The scores awarded for each criterion (and each sub-criterion) as well as the total score must be included.
- For each award criteria (including any sub-criteria), the authority must explain why that score was awarded. This involves a judgement from the authority as to the relevant level of detail, but an authority will usually need to refer to the detail of the criteria and/or the definition of the score when explaining each score. Best practice would also be to explain why a higher score has not been achieved.
- Scores must also be explained by reference to 'relevant information in the tender'; an authority cannot simply repeat the award criteria and state that the tender demonstrated, or failed to demonstrate, a particular criterion.
- Unsuccessful tenderers' summaries must also include any further explanation of why that supplier is not being awarded, for example if a minimum requirement has failed to be met.
- Note however, that unsuccessful tenderers are only entitled to information actually assessed, meaning that if a pass / fail criterion is not met, the authority is not required to continue the assessment and information need only be provided against those questions assessed.
- A copy of the assessment summary sent to the successful tenderer (redacted where necessary and whilst still ensuring that the information provided is sufficient) must be sent to unsuccessful tenderers.
The Government Commercial Function has produced a template assessment summary, although the template is very high level and largely tailored to government contracts. The GPS template does not anticipate a more complex evaluation structure with multiple assessment stages, or pass / fail criterion. Most contracting authorities will therefore need to develop their own templates to include all of the relevant information required. We would also recommend that contracting authorities align their assessment summary templates with the evaluation templates to be used by evaluators, to minimise the additional work which will be required to produce an assessment summary at the conclusion of the process.
Other points to note:
- Assessment summaries need only be provided to tenderers that submitted an "assessed tender", meaning one which (i) was submitted and assessed for the purposes of determining the most advantageous tender, and (ii) was not disregarded in the assessment of tenderers. Tenderers who are excluded at an early stage in the process are therefore not entitled to receive a full assessment summary at the conclusion of the process, although authorities should provide an appropriate level of detail to those tenderers at the stage they are excluded. The Cabinet Office Guidance on Competitive Tendering Procedures advises contracting authorities to use the same feedback structure for intermediate rounds as the assessment summary structure (which has been designed to ensure suppliers receive a robust explanation for their scores, having regard to the objectives at section 12(1)(c) and 12(1)(d) of the Act).
- Whilst assessment summaries are required for the award of framework contracts, they are not required for the award of call-offs under a framework. Where contracting authorities opt to give feedback following a call-off under a framework, they should be mindful of the rules governing the framework that they are using (i.e. are the framework and any ensuing call-off governed by the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 or the Act) – this will determine which rules will apply to any feedback given, and contracting authorities should not, therefore, forget about their Regulation 86 obligations just yet!
- Where a multi-supplier framework is awarded with more than one most advantageous tender, unsuccessful tenderers can simply be provided with the assessment summary of the lowest scoring successful tenderer.
