Selection questionnaire (SQ)

Regulation 107 of the PCR 2015 requires a contracting authority to have regard to guidance issued around qualitative selection. The Cabinet Office has issued updated guidance under this section which contains the standardized Selection Questionnaire. The Selection Questionnaire is now aligned with the European Single Procurement Document (which contracting authorities have been under an obligation to accept from suppliers since January 2016) and replaces the old standard pre-qualification questionnaire first published in 2015.

If a contracting authority wishes to depart from the Selection Questionnaire in a way which represents a "reportable deviation", it must report this to the Public Procurement Review Service within 30 days of publication. These requirements do not apply to Academies or maintained schools, or to the procurement of clinical health services.

Except in relation to the procurement of clinical health services and subject to a de minimis test, there is a prohibition at Regulation 111 on using a separate PQQ stage for an under-threshold contract. Note that, for works and light-touch regime contracts, "below threshold" in this specific context (only) means below £118,133 for central government authorities and below £181,302 for sub-central contracting authorities.