Procurement glossary · Challenge and remedies
Debrief and feedback
The explanation a contracting authority gives an unsuccessful bidder of how its tender scored and why, usually including the scores of the winning bidder. It is normally issued with the award notification and it is the only objective assessment of your submission you will ever receive.
Also called Assessment summary, Award feedback.
What it means in practice
Feedback is free, it is usually available on request where it is not automatic, and most suppliers never ask for it. That is the most expensive small omission in bidding.
Read it for the pattern rather than the individual question. One low score is noise. The same comment appearing across three bids over a year is a structural weakness in how your organisation writes, and it is the thing worth fixing.
The most useful comparison is your score against the winner's on each question, not your total. It tells you whether you lost on price, on one weak answer, or evenly across the quality set, and each of those implies a completely different response next time.
Feedback also serves a second purpose inside the standstill window: it is how you find out whether the evaluation followed the published methodology. Read it for that on the day it arrives, because the window is short.
Where suppliers get caught
Reading feedback once, feeling annoyed, and filing it. Feedback only pays when it is collected across bids and reviewed together. A supplier who has the last six debriefs in one place can see their own pattern; a supplier with them in six inboxes cannot.
Common questions
Am I entitled to feedback on an unsuccessful bid?
Authorities are required to inform unsuccessful bidders of the outcome and give reasons, and in practice this includes scores and an assessment summary. If what you receive is thin, ask for more inside the standstill period.
What should I do with tender feedback?
Compare your score to the winner's question by question, keep every debrief in one place, and review them together at least twice a year. The repeated comments are the ones worth acting on.
Related terms
If a tender in front of you turns on this, send us the documents and the deadline and we will tell you honestly whether it is worth bidding. Call 020 3668 5488, or read the rest of the UK procurement glossary.