PPN 006 vs PPN 06/20: what is the difference?

The quickest way to keep them apart is to remember when each is judged and how. PPN 006 is a selection-stage pass/fail check on your published CRP. PPN 06/20 is an award-stage scored assessment of the social value your contract will deliver, using the Cabinet Office Social Value Model. The table below sets out the contrast on the dimensions that matter when you are reading a tender pack.

PPN 006 (originally PPN 06/21) is tied to the value of the contract, not your company size. It applies to in-scope central-government procurements above £5 million including VAT per year, where a compliant, published Carbon Reduction Plan is required at the selection stage. The format is set by the GOV.UK PPN 006 guidance, and the detailed requirements sit in the GCA technical standard for Carbon Reduction Plans published by the Government Commercial Agency (GCA, formerly Crown Commercial Service).

PPN 06/20 — "Taking account of social value in the award of central government contracts" — requires central-government buyers to explicitly evaluate social value, with a minimum weighting of 10% of the total score, using the Cabinet Office Social Value Model. It is not gated to the £5 million PPN 006 threshold. Beyond central government, the wider public sector applies social value widely: councils, devolved administrations and the NHS — see NHS England's Greener NHS programme — routinely score social value, including climate commitments, on contracts well below that figure. Always read your tender pack: its evaluation criteria tell you which regime applies.

On a major government contract you will often meet both at once. The mistake is to treat one as covering the other. They are complementary, not interchangeable, so you do two distinct pieces of work.

First, satisfy PPN 006. Produce and publish a compliant Carbon Reduction Plan on your website — baseline year, Scope 1, 2 and the mandated Scope 3 categories, a net-zero-by-2050 commitment, reduction measures and director sign-off, per the GCA technical standard. This is the pass/fail gate: get it wrong and your bid is excluded before anything is scored.

Second, write the "Fighting Climate Change" social-value response for PPN 06/20. This is a scored answer against the tender's chosen Social Value Model themes. Describe measurable, contract-specific actions — carbon reductions you will deliver during delivery, supply-chain engagement, staff training, biodiversity or air-quality benefits — with method statements and evidence. Your CRP is powerful supporting evidence here, but it is not the answer: the panel scores what you commit to do for this contract. Software-generated plans are widely accepted — see are CRP generators accepted? — but a strong social-value narrative is still yours to write. Do both, and reference the CRP from the social-value response so the two reinforce each other.

Is PPN 06/20 the same as PPN 006?

No. They are separate procurement policies that are frequently confused. PPN 006 (formerly PPN 06/21) is a pass/fail requirement for a published Carbon Reduction Plan, assessed at the selection stage on major government contracts. PPN 06/20 is the social value policy, scored at the award stage, and it uses the Social Value Model — of which “Fighting Climate Change” is one of five themes. One decides whether you can bid; the other affects how well you score.

Does my Carbon Reduction Plan satisfy the PPN 06/20 social-value question?

It supports it but does not replace a written social-value response. Your CRP is strong evidence for the “Fighting Climate Change” theme, but PPN 06/20 is scored on the commitments you describe against the tender’s chosen themes — measurable actions, method statements, and delivery plans. You still need to write a dedicated social-value response; the CRP is a supporting document, not the answer itself.

Which one is pass/fail?

PPN 006. On in-scope contracts it is assessed at the selection stage as a pass/fail check: if you have not published a compliant Carbon Reduction Plan, your bid is excluded before price and quality are scored. PPN 06/20 social value is not pass/fail — it is scored and weighted alongside the rest of your bid at the award stage.

Do smaller contracts use PPN 06/20?

Social value is scored across many public contracts regardless of the PPN 006 threshold — check the tender. PPN 06/20 applies to central-government procurement and has no single monetary trigger tied to the £5 million PPN 006 threshold, and the wider public sector (councils, NHS, devolved bodies) frequently scores social value on much smaller contracts. Your tender pack and its evaluation criteria are the source of truth.