Our tender process

Procurement Specific Questionnaire (PSQ)

A Procurement Specific Questionnaire (PSQ)  is a document you have to fill in at the beginning of the tendering process. The PSQ makes sure only suppliers who meet our minimum requirements are invited to a tender.

You may not need to fill in the questionnaire for every opportunity

The PSQ document

The PSQ document will give you:

  • an overview of the contract, including contract length and value
  • an explanation on how the questionnaire will be evaluated
  • the companies we will be inviting to the next stage, which is the Invitation to Tender (ITT)
  • the deadline by which you must return the questionnaire

Filling in the PSQ

You must answer questions about:

  • your business or organisation
  • previous contracts and experience
  • relevant qualifications and accreditations
  • financial information and accounts
  • health and safety policies
  • equality policies
  • insurance levels

We mark all the PSQ against preset scoring to get a shortlist of suppliers to invite to tender.

We also give feedback on scores to unsuccessful candidates.

Confirmation of core supplier information

Suppliers participating in procurements will now be expected to register on a central digital platform (CDP). Suppliers can submit their core supplier information and, where a procurement opportunity arises, share this information with the contracting authority via the CDP. It is free to use and will mean suppliers should no longer have to re-enter this information for each public procurement but simply ensure it is up to date and subsequently shared. 

  • More information on how to register on the CDP can be found on the link below

Suppliers: How to register your organisation and first administrator on Find a Tender in three easy steps (HTML) - GOV.UK