Writing a method statement that scores

Start with the marking scheme, not the blank page

Under the Procurement Act 2023 (section 23) a buyer must describe how tenders will be assessed against its award criteria and, where there is more than one criterion, show their relative importance by a percentage weighting, a ranking or another description. The tender notice must include the award criteria or a summary of them (Procurement Regulations 2024, regulation 18), and government guidance on assessing competitive tenders says further detail of the criteria and methodology, including any scoring matrices, goes in the associated tender documents.

So before you write, find and copy into your working draft:

1. The question, word for word, with every sub-point.
2. The weighting of this question and of any sub-criteria.
3. The scoring descriptors, especially the top two scores.
4. The parts of the specification the question refers to, with their clause numbers.
5. The format rules: word or page limit, font, whether attachments are allowed.

Scoring scales are common practice, not law

There is no official universal scale. The Act requires a published methodology, and the guidance mentions scoring matrices, but neither fixes a scale. In practice most buyers use 0 to 5 or 0 to 4, with a sentence describing each score. A typical 0 to 4 version reads something like this, though every buyer writes its own:

Some buyers also set a minimum score on key questions, below which a tender fails. If that applies, the methodology must say so. The tender writing guide covers how weightings turn scores into points and how moderation works, so this guide sticks to the method statement itself.

A structure that fits most method statements

Use the question's own sub-points as your headings, in its order. Within them, most method statements need the same building blocks:

• Understanding. One or two sentences showing you know what this buyer needs and why. Not a summary of the specification back to them.
• Approach. What you will do, step by step, with the tools and procedures you will use.
• People. Named roles, who does what, and the cover when someone is off.
• Timeline. When things happen: response times, schedules, milestones.
• Risks. What could go wrong on this contract and what you do about it.
• Evidence. Where you have done this before, with a number.
• Outcomes. How the buyer will know it is working: the measures and how you report them.

Mirror the specification

Evaluators check your answer against the specification line by line. Use its terms, not yours, and quote its clause numbers (“spec 4.3”) so they can tick each requirement off. If the specification says “two-hour response”, say two hours and say how you meet it. Anything the specification does not ask for spends words and earns little.

Respect word and page limits

A buyer may disregard a tender that breaches a procedural requirement in the tender notice or associated tender documents (section 19), and the government guidance gives going over the word count as an example. Portals often truncate too. Write to the limit, check how the buyer counts (headings, tables, diagrams), and do not hide extra text in attachments unless the instructions allow them.

What a 5 looks like next to a 3

An invented example. The question: “Describe how you will deliver the reactive cleaning service in specification section 4, including how you will meet the two-hour response time.”

The second answer is not longer by much. It names the route in, the hours, who acts, what happens out of hours, the trigger for escalation, the specification clauses, how performance is reported and a measured result from similar work. Every sentence gives the evaluator something to check against a descriptor.

Construction method statements are different

On construction work, a method statement has a second life as a health and safety document. HSE describes it as setting out “in a logical sequence exactly how a job is to be carried out”, and says that while method statements are not required by law for most activities, they are widely used to plan, manage and monitor work. Risk assessment is a legal requirement, and for demolition, dismantling and structural alteration the arrangements must be recorded in writing before work begins (HSE: construction administration).

The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 add a construction phase plan. Where there is more than one contractor, the principal contractor draws it up before the site is set up (CDM 2015, regulation 12); on a single-contractor project the contractor prepares it (HSE summary of CDM duties). A construction tender method statement usually needs to cover:

• Sequence of works and programme, including phasing around an occupied building.
• Site set-up, access, deliveries and storage.
• How you will meet your CDM duties, and who holds which role.
• Key risks for this site (work at height, live services, the public) and their controls.
• Environmental controls: noise, dust, waste.
• Quality checks, handover and the information you will hand over at the end.

A service method statement has no equivalent legal backbone, so the weight falls on staffing, service levels, escalation, quality checks and reporting. Both reward the same thing: a specific, checkable account of how you will do this job.

Evidence and case studies

Each main claim needs a proof point: a case study, a measured result, a named accreditation, a sample report. Keep a library of short case studies with client type, dates, scope, your role and the result in numbers, and pick the one closest to this contract. If you are new to public work, private sector examples count: say plainly why they are comparable. The before you bid checklist covers building that library, and using AI to write tenders covers drafting faster without losing the specifics.

Afterwards, the assessment summary gives your score for each criterion and explains it by reference to your tender. Read it against the descriptors you were aiming for: tender feedback after losing explains how.