The social value model — and what replaces it
A tenth of the score today. A fifth, above £5m, from January.
The social value model is where bids are won
Social value in central government procurement is not a policy statement. It is a scored award criterion, worth a stated minimum percentage of the total, and it is the part of a tender where two technically equal bids are separated.
The carbon plan gets you in the room. The social value model decides who wins.
The duty itself is older than any of these notices. The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 asks authorities to consider how a procurement might improve economic, social and environmental wellbeing.
What the Procurement Policy Notes do is turn that duty into a scored criterion with a number attached. The model in force is set by PPN 002, published by the Cabinet Office on 13 February 2025 and last updated on 5 March 2025. A second model, PPN 026, was published on 5 August 2026 and applies to procurements commenced on or after 1 January 2027.
The difference between them is the subject of this page, and it is larger than a revision. The two documents describe different things: the current model runs five government missions, eight outcomes and seventeen award criteria; the new one runs two outcomes and six.
And one of the eight that goes is the only environmental outcome in the model.
The floor is about to rise sevenfold
The buyers are the same in both notices. PPN 002 ¶3 and PPN 026 ¶4 each apply to central government departments, their executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies. Other contracting authorities “may wish to” adopt the approach — an invitation, not a duty.
The contracts are not the same, and this is the part most summaries get wrong. PPN 002 sets no pound figure at all.
Paragraph 6 is the whole of its contract test: the PPN “only applies to procurement which is a covered procurement under the Procurement Act 2023 - that is to say, above-threshold”. Above-threshold means the Act’s own Schedule 1 amount, which from 1 January 2026 is £135,018 for a contract for the supply of goods, services or works to a central government authority.
PPN 026 ¶5 introduces a figure of its own: covered procurements “valued at £1m total contract value inclusive of VAT or above”. That is a floor roughly seven times higher, and it is new. A £400,000 departmental services contract that has to carry a scored social value criterion today does not have to carry one at all from January.
Neither figure is the carbon one. PPN 006 tests £5 million per year. Different level, different basis.
The exclusions differ too. PPN 002 ¶¶3 and 6 exclude below-threshold procurements, private utilities contracts, and the Ministry of Defence in relation to defence and security contracts as defined by section 7 of the Act. PPN 026 splits its own exclusions across two paragraphs: private utilities in ¶5, and contracts “where the primary purpose is overseas delivery” in ¶7 — embassies are its own example.
Ten per cent today, twenty from January
The weighting is the whole commercial point, and it is not the constant it is usually described as. PPN 002 ¶10 sets one rate: in-scope organisations “must apply a minimum 10% weighting (or an equivalent measurement) of the total score, for social value”. No bands, no second tier, no pound figure.
PPN 026 ¶13 adds one. From £1m to under £5m, a minimum 10%. At £5m and above, a minimum 20%. On the largest contracts the weighting doubles.
Minimum, in both notices. A department can weight it higher, and on some contracts they do.
What the percentage is of is the clause people misread, and both notices carry it. The default is the total score that may be given to tenders. But where “absolute methodologies are used (for example Price per Quality Point (PQP) or Value for Money index)” it is a percentage of the non-price criteria — the overall quality score.
On a PQP evaluation where quality is 40% of the decision, 20% of the quality score is 8% of the whole.
A bidder who budgeted effort against 20% of everything has mispriced the exercise in both directions. Read the invitation to tender for which methodology is being used before you decide how much of your bid team to point at this.
And one more difference is in the verbs. PPN 002 ¶10: in-scope organisations must apply the minimum weighting. PPN 026 ¶13: they should. Neither document explains the change.
It turns on when the tender notice is published
PPN 026 applies “to procurements commenced on or after 1 January 2027”, and ¶10 defines the trigger exactly: “A procurement is considered to have commenced at the point at which a tender notice is published.”
Not when the work starts, not when the contract is signed, not when the department began thinking about it. When the notice goes up.
That makes the boundary sharp and slightly perverse. A procurement noticed on 31 December 2026 runs the eight-outcome model for its whole life, however long that is. One noticed the next working day runs the two-outcome model.
There is a transition provision, and it runs the other way from the one people expect. For procurements commenced under the Act before that date, buyers are “encouraged to transition to this edition” but “may apply the previous edition during this transition period if using the new model would require disproportionate resources or invalidate previous market engagement activities”.
So the new model can arrive early, at the buyer’s discretion, and the old one cannot be relied on to persist. Watch the notice, not the calendar.
That is the frame. Now the model itself.
Five missions, eight outcomes, seventeen criteria
The PPN 002 Social Value Model is organised around five government missions, each carrying one or more outcomes, each outcome carrying model award criteria.
Kick start economic growth — outcome 1 Fair work (criteria 1a–1e), outcome 2 Skills for growth (2a), outcome 3 Resilient, innovative and flexible supply chains (3a–3b).
Make Britain a clean energy superpower — outcome 4, Sustainable procurement practices (4a–4b). Take back our streets — outcome 5, Support the reduction in crime (5a). Break down barriers to opportunity — outcome 6, Employment and training for those facing barriers (6a–6c), and outcome 7, Creating a pipeline of opportunities (7a–7b). Build an NHS fit for the future — outcome 8, Increasing productivity through physical and mental wellbeing (8a).
Eight outcomes, seventeen award criteria, and a buyer selects the ones relevant to the contract rather than applying all of them.
That breadth is the design. A construction contract and a software contract can both find something in the model that genuinely relates to their subject matter, which is what section 23 of the Act requires of any award criterion.
Outcome 4, and what it actually asks for
One outcome in the current model carries the environment, and it is worth quoting in full because it is about to matter that it existed.
Outcome 4 is “Sustainable procurement practices: reducing carbon footprints, minimising waste, and promoting the use of clean energy and green technologies”, sitting under the mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower.
4a: deliver additional environmental benefits in the performance of the contract, “including working towards net zero greenhouse gas emissions and use of clean energy and green technologies”.
4b: “influence staff, suppliers, customers and communities through the delivery of the contract to support climate and nature protection and improvement”.
And it comes with measurement, which is what separates a scored criterion from a statement of intent. The model’s standard reporting metrics for outcome 4 include annual carbon reduction in MTCDE, water use reduction in litres, waste diverted from landfill in tonnes, and green space created in square metres.
A number, a unit, and a contract to deliver it against. That is a lever — and it is the only one of its kind in the model.
Two outcomes, and a very specific definition
PPN 026 does not revise the model. It replaces it, and it opens by redefining the term. Social value for central government contracts is now defined as “taking account of how a supplier will work for our communities to provide good British jobs, skills and opportunities in every postcode”.
Outcome 1 — Good Jobs. 1a create and/or retain high quality jobs; 1b fair working conditions; 1c fair pay.
Outcome 2 — Skills. 2a training and retraining; 2b in-work progression; 2c talent pipeline. That is the entire model: two outcomes, six model award criteria, with sub-criteria and practitioner guidance promised for autumn 2026.
The notes at the end of Annex A are explicit about the intent: the revised model “will prioritise British jobs, skills, and opportunities for people facing barriers to employment within our local communities”. Target cohorts named for future guidance include those not in employment, education or training; those transitioning from education to employment; those with a long term health condition or disability; and care leavers — with further communities facing barriers to employment to be set out in the autumn guidance.
There is one sentence in Annex A that tells you how the model is meant to be read: “45 days of work experience is exactly the kind of social value the Prime Minister is seeking to see delivered through this policy.”
It is a narrower model, deliberately, and a clearer one. Whether that is an improvement depends entirely on what you were using the wide one for.
Seventeen criteria become six
Set the two Annex A tables side by side and the change is not a matter of interpretation. It is a count.
Five missions become none. The mission structure does not appear in PPN 026 at all.
Eight outcomes become two. Fair work, Skills for growth, Resilient supply chains, Sustainable procurement practices, Reduction in crime, Employment and training for those facing barriers, Creating a pipeline of opportunities, and Increasing productivity through wellbeing — replaced by Good Jobs and Skills.
Seventeen model award criteria become six. 1a–1e, 2a, 3a–3b, 4a–4b, 5a, 6a–6c, 7a–7b and 8a — replaced by 1a–1c and 2a–2c.
The two outcomes that survive in substance are the employment ones. Everything else in the model has no analogue in the new one.
And the weighting is not the constant it is usually described as. PPN 002 sets one rate — a minimum 10% of the total score, at every contract value in scope. PPN 026 keeps 10% from £1m and adds a minimum of 20% at £5m and above. So on the largest contracts the score attached to social value doubles at the same moment the field it can be earned across shrinks by two thirds — while the floor for carrying a criterion at all rises from the Act’s threshold to £1m.
No environmental outcome, anywhere in it
Read Annex A of PPN 026 looking for the words environment, environmental, net zero, carbon, climate, emissions, waste or sustainability as the subject of an outcome or a criterion, and they are not there.
Two outcomes: Good Jobs, and Skills. Six criteria: high quality jobs, fair working conditions, fair pay, training and retraining, in-work progression, talent pipeline.
Outcome 4 — the MTCDE metric, the waste-to-landfill tonnes, the clean energy and green technologies criterion, the duty to influence suppliers and communities on climate and nature — has no analogue in the new model.
The practical consequence for a supplier is narrow and specific. From 1 January 2027, on these documents, carbon performance stops being something you can score points for at the award stage of a central government tender. What remains is PPN 006, which is a pass or a fail taken before the bid is read, and which the government’s own guidance says must never be scored or compared.
A floor with nothing above it. Meeting the minimum and leading the market become the same answer.
That is a description of the two documents, not a prediction. The guidance is not out, the sub-criteria are not out, and the position could change before January.
What neither document actually says
The claim in the last chapter is easy to overstate, and most of what gets written about this will overstate it. Here is the line.
PPN 026 does not name PPN 002 as superseded. It refers only to “the previous edition”, which may be applied during a transition period.
PPN 002 carries no supersession banner as at 10 September 2026, and no withdrawal notice. Its landing page still shows it as published 13 February 2025 and last updated 5 March 2025.
No document says the government has removed environmental social value. What the documents do is set out two models, one applying from 1 January 2027, of which the later contains no environmental outcome. The inference from that is sound; the assertion that something was deliberately removed is not sourced, and this page does not make it.
And the guidance is not out. PPN 026 says associated guidance “will follow in autumn 2026”, with sub-criteria, evaluation methodology and a List of Community Programmes still to come.
And clean energy does appear in Annex A — once, and not as an outcome. The notes say Target Skills “will be identified from skills shortages set out in government skills strategies (e.g. skills for clean energy jobs is an example that in-scope organisations could consider)”.
That is a route by which an environmental subject can re-enter the model — through outcome 2, as a skills question rather than a carbon question, and only where a buyer chooses to identify it. It carries no metric and it is not an outcome. But a page claiming the words clean energy appear nowhere in PPN 026 would be wrong, and this one does not claim it.
Anyone planning around January should plan against the model as published and re-read this when the guidance lands. That is the honest position, and it is a more useful one than certainty would be.
That is what changes. Now what it costs.
How a social value response is actually scored
The buyer selects a delivery outcome from Annex A with its corresponding award criteria, puts it in the tender documents, and attaches any relevant community programmes from a “Resource for bidders: List of Community Programmes” published alongside the guidance.
So the response is not a free essay about your values. It is an answer to a named criterion, with a defined evaluation method behind it.
PPN 026 ¶13 says bids are assessed by applying “the relevant evaluation methodology to both community programme and non-community programme outcomes, as set out in the guidance” — and that guidance is the part that has not been published yet.
What is already certain is that the commitments become contractual. ¶16 requires in-scope organisations to ensure that all social value commitments made during the procurement are “appropriately monitored and measured via contractual mechanisms, e.g. Key Performance Indicators”, communicated to contract managers — and where a supplier offers to support a listed community programme, “the KPI should monitor delivery of this programme”.
Whatever you promise in the bid is what you will be measured against for the life of the contract.
A published KPI, and grounds to exclude you later
This is the part of PPN 026 that changes the commercial risk, and almost nobody has written about it.
For contracts with an estimated value of £5 million or more including VAT, valued in accordance with section 4 of and Schedule 3 to the Act, ¶17 requires at least one social value KPI — and that KPI is “in addition to the three or more KPIs set in accordance with section 52(1)” of the Act.
Section 52(3) then requires that all KPIs are published on the central digital platform and reported on at least once every 12 months via the contract performance notice.
So a social value promise on a large central government contract becomes a published, named, annually reported performance indicator. Not a line in a bid document that nobody reads again.
And ¶18 supplies the consequence: “Evidence of poor performance against social value KPIs can be taken into account in considering whether there are grounds to exclude suppliers from bidding for future tenders.”
Over-promise on social value to win one contract and the record of missing it is public, and can count against you on the next one.
Assessed twice, at framework and at call-off
PPN 026 ¶6 is short and consequential: “For the establishment of framework contracts, social value should be assessed at framework and call-off, in accordance with the PPN 026 guidance which will be published in autumn 2026.”
Two assessments, not one. Winning a place on the framework does not settle it.
That is a different treatment from the carbon notice next door, where PPN 006 applies to frameworks and dynamic markets only where the individual call-off is estimated above its own threshold. Social value is assessed at both levels; the carbon plan is filtered to one.
The exclusions are narrow. Private utilities contracts are out. Contracts whose primary purpose is overseas delivery are out. And ¶8 applies the whole notice only where a model award criterion can be chosen that is “relevant to the subject matter of the contract, proportionate, does not create unnecessary burdens for suppliers or barriers to participation, and does not discriminate against treaty state suppliers”.
Those four qualifiers are not policy language. They are the Act’s own tests, and a buyer who ignores them has made a challengeable decision.
What the Act allows a buyer to score
A social value criterion is an award criterion, and award criteria are constrained by the Procurement Act 2023 rather than by policy. PPN 026 ¶14 names the provisions rather than gesturing at them.
Section 23(2)(a) and (d): award criteria must relate to the subject matter of the contract, and be a proportionate means of assessing tenders.
Section 12(2) and (3): buyers must treat suppliers equally. Section 90: buyers must not discriminate against suppliers who benefit from the UK’s free trade agreements. And contracting authorities “must continue to comply with all requirements relating to award criteria”.
Which sets a real limit on how far a social value criterion can go. “Good British jobs” is the policy language of PPN 026; a criterion that in practice discriminated against a treaty state supplier would breach section 90 whatever the notice said. The notice is subordinate to the statute and says so.
The National Procurement Policy Statement, issued under section 13 on 13 February 2025, sits alongside — and, as with the carbon notice, does not name this one.
That is the regime. Now what it means.
Where carbon can still be scored after January
If outcome 4 has no successor, the honest question for a supplier who competes on sustainability is: where is it still worth anything?
Not at award, under the social value model. On the published model there is no criterion to score it against.
Not at selection either. PPN 006 is a condition of participation, and the government’s own guidance says plans “should not be ‘scored’ or compared against each other”. A net zero target of 2030 and one of 2050 both pass and neither gains an advantage.
Possibly in the contract. PPN 016 offers an optional carbon reduction contract schedule. It is a delivery mechanism, applied on proportionality — not a competitive one.
And in the specification. A buyer who wants low-carbon delivery can write it into the requirement, where it is scored as technical quality rather than as social value. That route was always available and is unaffected by any of this.
The short answer: from January, carbon competes on the specification or not at all.
What to change in your bid library now
There is a narrow window, and the work is mostly deletion and redirection rather than new writing.
One. Find every social value response in your bid library that answers outcomes 3, 4, 5, 7 or 8. From January those questions are not asked.
Two. Build depth on the six criteria that remain: high quality jobs, fair working conditions, fair pay, training and retraining, in-work progression, and talent pipeline. The evidence a scorer will want is local, specific and numerical — posts created in the relevant area, pay above the statutory minimum, apprenticeships and placements, days of work experience.
Three. Work out which evaluation methodology each buyer uses, because 20% of the total score and 20% of the quality score are very different budgets. Four. Treat every commitment as a KPI you will publish and report on annually, because on contracts of £5m or more that is exactly what it becomes.
Five. Keep the carbon work. It still has to clear PPN 006, and it is still worth points wherever a buyer writes it into the specification.
And put a date in the diary for the autumn guidance. The sub-criteria, the evaluation methodology and the List of Community Programmes are all still to come, and all three change how a response should be written.
Nine things said about the social value model
Each is in circulation, and each is contradicted by a document in the rail beside this card.
“The threshold is £1 million.” Not yet. That is PPN 026’s figure, from January. Today the model applies to any above-threshold covered procurement — £135,018 for a central government goods or services contract. “The threshold is £5 million.” That is the carbon notice.
“The weighting does not change.” It doubles at £5m from January: PPN 002 sets a flat minimum 10%, and PPN 026 adds a 20% tier. “It is worth 10% of the bid.” Under an absolute methodology it is 10% or 20% of the quality score, not of the total. “PPN 026 supersedes PPN 002.” PPN 026 does not say so and PPN 002 carries no supersession banner.
“The new model applies from August 2026.” It was published on 5 August 2026 and applies to procurements commenced on or after 1 January 2027.
“Social value is a policy aspiration.” It is a scored award criterion, and on contracts above £5m it becomes a published KPI. “A place on a framework settles it.” It is assessed at framework and call-off. “Carbon is still an outcome in the new model.” There is no environmental outcome in PPN 026.
The pattern behind five of the nine is one thing: a fact about one notice restated as a fact about the other. Two of them were in the first draft of this page, and were caught by reading PPN 002’s own text rather than the commentary about it.
What is left is the record.
What is still to come, and what is not established
Three things are promised and not published, and two the record does not answer.
The PPN 026 guidance, with sub-criteria, evaluation methodology and the List of Community Programmes. Promised for autumn 2026; not published as at 10 September 2026.
The target cohorts. Annex A names four — those not in employment, education or training, those transitioning from education to employment, those with a long term health condition or disability, and care leavers — and says other communities facing barriers to employment will be set out in the autumn guidance. Guidance on inherent social value. The Cabinet Office says it “will also develop guidance to support procurement teams intending to take into account existing, inherent social value”, for example the wider community benefits of retaining local jobs.
Not established: whether an environmental outcome returns, in the guidance or in a later edition. No document located says either way.
Also not established: what formally happens to PPN 002. It carries no supersession banner and PPN 026 does not name it. The most likely explanation is administrative rather than substantive, but this page will not print an explanation it cannot source.
Seventeen model award criteria become six. Eight outcomes become two. And the only one that ever asked a supplier to reduce carbon has no analogue in what replaces it.
The bottom line · Photo: Unsplash / name_gravityThe social value model — key facts
Every figure and criterion on this page in one place, each with the document it comes from.
Where the honest answer is that the record does not say, the line says that, and carries the date it was last checked.
The social value model — frequently asked questions
The Social Value Model is the framework central government uses to score social value as an award criterion in its procurements. A buyer selects an outcome from the model with its corresponding award criteria, puts it in the tender documents, and awards a stated minimum percentage of the score against it.
The model in force is set out in PPN 002, published by the Cabinet Office on 13 February 2025. A new model, PPN 026, was published on 5 August 2026 and applies to procurements commenced on or after 1 January 2027.
It depends which model applies, and the two are different. PPN 002, in force today, sets no pound figure of its own: paragraph 6 applies it to any procurement which is "a covered procurement under the Procurement Act 2023 - that is to say, above-threshold". For a central government goods, services or works contract that threshold is £135,018 from 1 January 2026.
PPN 026, from 1 January 2027, introduces a threshold of its own — £1 million total contract value inclusive of VAT or above. That is a floor roughly seven times higher, so a band of contracts that carries a scored social value criterion today will not have to carry one at all. Both are different again from the Carbon Reduction Plan requirement in PPN 006, which is £5 million per year including VAT.
Today, a flat minimum of 10%. PPN 002 paragraph 10 requires in-scope organisations to "apply a minimum 10% weighting (or an equivalent measurement) of the total score, for social value", with no bands and no second tier. From 1 January 2027, PPN 026 paragraph 13 sets a minimum of 10% for contracts valued at £1m and above but less than £5m, and a minimum of 20% for contracts of £5m or above. Those are minimums; a department may weight it higher.
What the percentage is of depends on the evaluation method, and both notices carry the same clause. The default is the total score available to tenders. Where an absolute methodology is used — such as Price per Quality Point or a Value for Money index — it is a percentage of the non-price criteria, that is the overall quality score. Those are materially different denominators and the invitation to tender is where you find out which applies.
Yes, at the top. PPN 002 sets a single rate — a minimum 10% of the total score — applying at every contract value in scope. PPN 026 keeps 10% from £1m to under £5m and adds a minimum of 20% at £5m and above. On the largest central government contracts the minimum weighting doubles from 1 January 2027.
The threshold changes with it. PPN 002 applies to any above-threshold covered procurement; PPN 026 applies only from £1m total contract value inclusive of VAT. So the same policy gets more weight on fewer contracts, and it is spread across six award criteria rather than seventeen.
Eight, grouped under five government missions. Kick start economic growth carries outcome 1 Fair work, outcome 2 Skills for growth, and outcome 3 Resilient, innovative and flexible supply chains. Make Britain a clean energy superpower carries outcome 4 Sustainable procurement practices. Take back our streets carries outcome 5 Support the reduction in crime. Break down barriers to opportunity carries outcome 6 Employment and training for those facing barriers and outcome 7 Creating a pipeline of opportunities. Build an NHS fit for the future carries outcome 8 Increasing productivity through physical and mental wellbeing.
Between them the eight outcomes carry seventeen model award criteria. A buyer selects the ones relevant to the contract rather than applying all of them.
The model narrows to two outcomes and six award criteria. Outcome 1 is Good Jobs, with 1a create and/or retain high quality jobs, 1b fair working conditions, and 1c fair pay. Outcome 2 is Skills, with 2a training and retraining, 2b in-work progression, and 2c talent pipeline. The five-mission structure does not appear at all.
Social value is redefined as "taking account of how a supplier will work for our communities to provide good British jobs, skills and opportunities in every postcode". Detailed sub-criteria, an evaluation methodology and a List of Community Programmes are promised in guidance in autumn 2026.
No. There is no environmental, net zero, carbon, climate or sustainability outcome or award criterion anywhere in the PPN 026 model. Outcome 4 of the current model — Sustainable procurement practices, covering additional environmental benefits, working towards net zero greenhouse gas emissions, clean energy and green technologies, with metrics in MTCDE, litres of water, tonnes of waste and square metres of green space — has no analogue in it.
Three cautions. PPN 026 does not name PPN 002 as superseded, referring only to "the previous edition" during a transition period, and PPN 002 carries no supersession banner. The accompanying guidance has not been published, so the position could change before 1 January 2027. And clean energy is mentioned once in Annex A, not as an outcome but as an example of a skills shortage: Target Skills "will be identified from skills shortages set out in government skills strategies (e.g. skills for clean energy jobs is an example that in-scope organisations could consider)". That is a route in through outcome 2, as a skills question, if a buyer chooses it.
To procurements commenced on or after 1 January 2027. Paragraph 10 defines commencement precisely: a procurement is considered to have commenced at the point at which a tender notice is published.
For procurements commenced under the Procurement Act before that date, buyers are encouraged to transition to the new model but may apply the previous edition where using the new one would require disproportionate resources or invalidate previous market engagement. So the new model can arrive early at the buyer’s discretion.
Yes, and at two points. PPN 026 paragraph 6 says that for the establishment of framework contracts, social value should be assessed at framework and at call-off, in accordance with guidance to be published in autumn 2026.
That is a different treatment from the Carbon Reduction Plan requirement, which applies to frameworks and dynamic markets only where the individual call-off is estimated above its own threshold.
They become contractual. In-scope organisations must ensure that all social value commitments made during the procurement are monitored and measured through contractual mechanisms such as Key Performance Indicators, communicated to contract managers. Where a supplier offers to support a listed community programme, the KPI must monitor delivery of that programme.
On contracts of £5 million or more including VAT, at least one social value KPI is required — in addition to the three or more KPIs required by section 52(1) of the Procurement Act 2023. Section 52(3) requires all KPIs to be published on the central digital platform and reported on at least once every 12 months.
Yes. Paragraph 18 of PPN 026 states that evidence of poor performance against social value KPIs "can be taken into account in considering whether there are grounds to exclude suppliers from bidding for future tenders".
Combined with the publication duty, that makes an over-ambitious social value commitment a real commercial risk rather than a costless promise: the shortfall is on the public record and can count against the supplier later.
No, and the two are frequently merged. A Carbon Reduction Plan under PPN 006 is a condition of participation, assessed pass/fail at the selection stage, triggered above £5 million per year including VAT, and it is never scored or compared between suppliers.
The social value model is an award criterion, and it is scored. It applies today to any above-threshold covered procurement, and from 1 January 2027 only above £1 million total contract value including VAT. The PPN 006 frequently asked questions are explicit that PPN 006 "should not be applied as part of the requirements of the Social Value Model, it is a separate measure".
Audit the bid library for responses that answer outcomes 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8, because those questions stop being asked. Build evidence depth on the six criteria that remain — high quality jobs, fair working conditions, fair pay, training and retraining, in-work progression and talent pipeline — with local, specific and numerical evidence.
Note that the weighting rises rather than holding: a contract of £5m or more carries a minimum 20% from January where a flat 10% applies today. Establish which evaluation methodology each buyer uses, since 20% of the total score and 20% of the quality score are very different budgets. Treat every commitment as a KPI that will be published and reported annually. Keep the carbon work, because it still has to clear PPN 006 and is still worth points wherever a buyer writes it into the specification. And watch for the autumn guidance, which will carry the sub-criteria and the evaluation methodology.
The social value model — primary sources
Every document below was opened in full on 10 September 2026.
Where this page says the record does not establish something, that is a finding from these documents, not an omission.
The model in force
The model from 1 January 2027
The carbon notices next door
The statute, provision by provision
Where the duty comes from
The policy frame, and measurement
Go deeper on bidding and reporting
Carbon Reduction Plans
PPN 006 — the pass/fail condition that sits before this one.
The questionsESG Criteria
What buyers and investors actually ask, and how it is scored.
The formsESG Questionnaires
The requests that arrive from customers, and how to answer them.
The supply chainScope 3 Emissions
The inventory behind any credible carbon claim in a bid.
The numbersCarbon Accounting
How an MTCDE figure is actually built.
Energy and carbonSECR Reporting
The annual disclosure most bidders already produce.
ImportsUK CBAM
The carbon tax on imported goods, from 1 January 2027.
GovernanceESG Governance
Who signs what, and the codes behind it.
The calendarUK Regulation Timeline
Every dated UK sustainability obligation in one place.