New Mandatory Standard PQQ to be Used When Conducting OJEU Tenders

New Mandatory Standard PQQ to be Used When Conducting OJEU Tenders Crown Commercial Services (CCS) have just published a revised Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (now called a Selection Questionnaire.) this is mandatory for all contracting authorities to use in all tenders that are above the relevant EU threshold to which The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 apply. You should now stop using the previous mandatory Pre- Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) and instead refer to this new guidance and use the new standard Selection Questionnaire.

Why the Changes?

A new document was needed to align the CCS standard PQQ with the requirements of the European Single Procurement Document (ESPD) set out in The Public Contracts Regulations 2015. The ESPD is an online service that allows suppliers to self-certify that there are no grounds for exclusion and as there has been an obligation on contracting authorities since January 2016 to accept completed ESPDs from suppliers, it was important that the two documents mirrored each other.

Important Points to Note:

• The PQQ is now known as a Selection Questionnaire (SQ)
• You should stop using the old PQQ and start using the SQ for above threshold tenders
• The SQ is not dissimilar to the old PQQ and is structured in 3 parts – 1; basic information about the bidder, 2; self-declaration regarding grounds for exclusion from the tender process and 3; self-declaration on whether the bidder meets the economic, financial, technical and professional selection criteria
• There are additional questions that should only be included in relevant procurements
• You are able to add your own additional questions provided they are specific to the tender Mn question, although you are not permitted to change either Part 1 or Part 2 of the SQ. Interestingly, the SQ no longer contains the ‘additional PQQ modules’ on Health & Safety, Environmental Management or Compliance with Equality Legislation. However, depending on whether these were relevant to your tender, presumably these old additional modules could still be included
• You are still required to create your own assessment criteria for all 3 parts of the SQ and publish these alongside the SQ
• You have choices about how you provide access to the SQ and how bidders submit their responses, however you must accept self-certifications by bidders that they pass the grounds for exclusion (part 2 of the SQ) via the EU ESPD template, if a bidder submits one

The SQ is for use when you are conducting your own, above relevant threshold tender processes advertised in OJEU. Of course, one of the benefits of using a framework agreement instead of conducting your own tender process, is that you don’t have to worry about the above as the CPC will have done the selection stage for you. Instead you can concentrate on evaluating the framework suppliers against your specific requirements.

The Further Education Library of Procurement has more information on the selection stage of a tender process or if you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact your CPC Regional Procurement Advisor for more information.