Which model applies to this tender?
PPN 026, published 5 August 2026, states application from 1 January 2027 for covered procurements, with transition provisions, and further supporting guidance was promised for autumn 2026. A tender noticed before that date, or outside the defined scope, runs on the earlier model and its own stated weighting. Read the notice’s commencement date and the model version it names; a 10 percent remembered from guidance is not evidence about the pack in front of you. Recheck the autumn guidance before relying on any detail on this page; that recheck is a release-grade obligation, not a nicety.
What are the bands, and what do they cost?
Where PPN 026 applies: central government departments, executive agencies, and non-departmental public bodies; covered procurements at or above £1 million including VAT under the Act, excluding private utilities and overseas-delivered work. Weighting at 10 percent of non-price criteria for £1 million to below £5 million, 20 percent at £5 million and above, subject to the methodology and scope provisions, which is why the pack’s own schedule governs. At £5 million and above, at least one social-value KPI sits atop the statutory KPI duties, published on the central platform, consequences for which are on KPIs, payment terms and performance notices.
Cost every commitment before promising it: apprenticeships, local employment, carbon measures, community outcomes: each with delivery price, evidence burden, and monitoring. An uncosted social-value section that wins the criterion becomes a margin event the month after award. The scoring it feeds is MAT.
The checklist
- Model version. Which model the notice names, and its commencement logic.
- Scope. Buyer type and value inside the defined coverage, or outside it.
- Band. Weight of non-price criteria, and whether the £5m KPI duty fires.
- Commitments. What you will deliver, measured how, evidenced when.
- Delivery cost. Priced into the offer with monitoring resourced.
What does this mean for the bid/no-bid call?
A 20-percent slice without deliverable commitments is a strategy fail, not a writing challenge: partner, evidence, or no-bid. A 10-percent slice with commitments you already operate is priced work. Terms are in the UK glossary. Never present a universal 10 percent rule, on this site or in a response.