New public procurement policy for Northern Ireland – social value scoring

Social value to be scored in Northern Ireland government contracts from June 2022

The Department of Finance (DoF) has announced a new policy which will see mandatory scoring of social value within public procurement contracts.

The new policy mandates that from June 2022, tenders must include a minimum of 10 per cent of total award criteria to social value. This policy will apply to:

• service contracts valued above £123,000 and
• construction contracts valued above £4.7million

This accounts for approximately 97 per cent of total government procurement spending.

The minimum weighting will increase to 20 per cent from June 2023, subject to review and approval by the Executive.

What is social value?

Social value refers to wider financial and non-financial impacts on the well-being of individuals, communities and the environment.

Legally, social value outcomes can be included in the procurement process provided they are considered at the business case stage and relate to the contract's subject matter or the performance of the contract.

Further information

There are videos available that provide background to social value and its scoring in Northern Ireland public sector contracts.

If you are bidding for public sector construction contracts - you can view the Scoring Social Value in Construction Contracts – Supplier Information Video.

If you are interested in bidding for public sector services or IT contracts - view the Scoring Social Value in Services/IT Contracts – Supplier Information Video.

First published 11 May 2022