MEAT (Most Economically Advantageous Tender)
The historical principle that public sector contracts go to the bid with best overall value, not lowest price; replaced by best-value test under PA 2023.
Definition
MEAT stands for Most Economically Advantageous Tender. It is the historical UK and EU principle that public sector contracts should be awarded to the bid offering the best overall value rather than simply the lowest price. Award criteria under PCR 2015 were designed to identify the MEAT, typically by weighting quality and price together. The Procurement Act 2023 replaces MEAT with a best-value test as the statutory framing, although the practical evaluation methodology remains broadly the same.
How it works in practice
In practice MEAT-style evaluations weight quality (method statement, relevant experience, social value, environmental commitments, technical capability) against price, typically using ratios of 60/40 quality/price for service contracts, 70/30 or 80/20 for high-complexity outsourcing, and as low as 30/70 for commodity goods. The quality side is broken into sub-criteria each with its own weighting; the price side uses a published scoring formula (linear lowest-price-gets-full-marks; capped formulas; or sometimes price-quality ratio). MEAT was a deliberate departure from "lowest price wins" because lowest-price awards drive out quality and lock buyers into expensive remediation later. UK central government has applied MEAT since at least the 1990s, formalised under PCR 2015. The Procurement Act 2023 best-value test reframes the same underlying idea using statutory objectives (value for money, public benefit, transparency, integrity) but the practical bid evaluation continues to use weighted quality and price criteria. Suppliers should treat the published evaluation methodology as the source of truth for how to shape their bid; the MEAT versus best-value framing is largely cosmetic.
Common questions
Has MEAT been replaced by the Procurement Act 2023?
Yes, formally. The Act uses "best value" as the statutory framing rather than "MEAT". In practice the evaluation methodology continues largely unchanged: weighted quality and price criteria, published in advance, scored against descriptors. The shift is more about language and statutory objectives than evaluation mechanics.
What weighting ratio is typical for MEAT?
For service contracts, 60/40 or 70/30 quality/price is the most common. High-complexity outsourcing may use 80/20 or higher. Commodity goods may use 30/70 or lower. Social value is increasingly carved out as a sub-criterion within quality, typically 10 percent of the total under PPN 002.
Can a contract still be awarded on price alone?
For sub-threshold spend and low-value ITQs, price-only awards are still common. For above-threshold contracts under PCR 2015 / PA 2023 the regulations effectively require quality consideration to identify the most economically advantageous tender; pure lowest-price awards are rare and would attract challenge in most cases.