1.7 The original Dome Sale Competition was intended to achieve a diverse range of objectives. Besides yielding an acceptable level of sale proceeds, a successful bid would have to meet a range of "hard" and "soft" criteria, including: providing an innovative and distinctive use for the Dome and "cultural significance", (See Figure 6 on page 10). The inclusion of cultural objectives reflected the wish of the Department for Culture Media and Sport to respond to public and parliamentary concerns that the competition should take into account the cultural significance of the Dome, while ensuring the best commercial deal. There was no clearly stated weighting between these criteria to help bidders identify the most advantageous balance between them. The Competition team informed bidders that Ministers would make their own judgement in selecting the winner. The bidders who responded to our survey (see Appendix 1) had mixed opinions about the clarity of the criteria. Learning from this experience, the Government simplified the objectives for the next process, emphasising the deliverability of proposals and increasing the range of possible uses for the Dome.