Internal Marking Schemes And Model Answers

The use of internal marking schemes and model answers is something which should be considered carefully in all cases.  This is illustrated by a recent UK case.  Leeds City Council ("LCC") invited tenders for the refurbishment and maintenance of social housing. Mears, an unsuccessful tenderer, challenged the award of the contract on a number of grounds.

The published evaluation table set out the weighting for a number of criteria and also identified the numbered sections of the tender which fell under the heading of each individual criterion.  The tenderers did not know how many marks were allocated to each section which fell under the heading of a particular criterion (i.e. the breakdown of marks among the sections within that criterion).  Each section of the tender had a varying number of questions in it.    The evaluation table also did not set out a breakdown of marks for the questions within each section.