Part 3: Award of public contracts and procedures Chapter 2: Competitive award Section 23: Award criteria
This section deals with the rules that apply to award criteria.
	Subsection (1) explains that the "award criteria" means criteria against which tenders are assessed during a competitive tendering procedure, which must be set in accordance with this section.
	Subsection (2) sets out specific rules that contracting authorities must follow when setting the award criteria. The criteria must relate to the subject matter of the contract; be sufficiently clear, measurable and specific; comply with the rules on technical specifications and be proportionate having regard to the nature, complexity and cost of the contract.
	Subsection (3) enables the award process to be transparent and defines and sets out what must be included in the "assessment methodology". Contracting authorities are required to describe how the award criteria will be applied and, if there is more than one criterion, to set out their relative importance, which may be by weighting or ranking them, or through an alternative approach.
	Subsection (4) provides that when procurements are divided into separate lots, a contracting authority may limit the number of lots an individual supplier may be awarded provided it applies an objective mechanism to do so.
	Subsection (5) provides a non-exhaustive list of what may constitute the "subject matter of a contract" (referred to at subsection (2)).
	Subsection (6) provides an additional (non-exhaustive) list of what may constitute the "subject matter of a contract" for light touch contracts. This includes the views of an individual or their carer and the varied needs of different service recipients. It may also include where proximity of the supplier and service recipient(s) is important for the effective and efficient supply of the services. This additional flexibility recognises the special nature of these contracts and provides wide discretion to encourage competition wherever possible.