The Cabinet Office has published PPN 03/23 Standard Selection Questionnaire (SQ) and accompanying statutory guidance. This had initially been effective from 1 April 2023 but this has now been pushed back to 1 June 2023.
The SQ was originally introduced in 2016 as a means of standardising the supplier selection process in above threshold procurement processes and introduced the concept of self-certification by suppliers. The PPN 03/23 applies to all Contracting Authorities in England, and CAs in Wales and Northern Ireland which exercise wholly or mainly reserved functions, when they undertake above threshold procurements within Part 2 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.
What are the changes?
·There is updated guidance on the changes contracting authorities can and cannot make to the wording of questions;
·There is greater clarity and guidance on when CAs ask for evidence during the procurement process of when a supplier meets selection criteria;
·Guidance is provided on how authorities decide upon their own selection criteria and scoring system for assessing whether suppliers meet the selection criteria;
·Amendments have also been made to some of the selection questions to align with changes in policy.
More change to come:
The Procurement Act is due to receive Royal Assent in the coming months and is expected to apply to procurements from early next year. It contains some changes to the mandatory and discretionary exclusion grounds set out in Part 2 of the SQ and to the test CAs will use to consider these. There are also new consequences of exclusion from a procurement with the possibility of a debarment investigation being triggered and a supplier being placed on the debarment list.
So we have changes now with more to follow………
In2 the bargain 