What is a "Merit" at University Foundation Year level?

Bit of background: I study FY Biomedical Science at Cardiff. I was looking to transfer to some other universities after my FY, particularly Edinburgh, and received a somewhat confusing email.

I asked about what grade % would be needed to transfer, given we don't have anything more than 40% = Pass, and received the following:

"We are happy to consider applicants studying a Foundation programme [...] Normally, we require a merit overall with distinctions in required subjects."

It sounds more like they're talking about an Access course or the HNDs you take in Scotland, but this obviously isn't what I'm doing. They haven't replied to an email asking to clarify.

So in short - what roughly does a merit/distinction equate to in uni standards? I had the idea that Merit = 50% and Distinction is 65% like 2:1 and 1sts are.

I think you are correct.

Write back to them and explain the issue and then ask for further clarification.

the closest I would get a merit as a low 2:1 and distinction to be high 2:1, but its futile guessing , so just get them to tell you.

I asked here because it's been about three weeks since I asked for a clarification, but unfortunate I think you might be right that only they know.

Still those seem like reasonably fair boundaries, I forgot that Distinction Star (D*) exists which likely is a First.