Buyers must issue an SPD for procurement exercises over the threshold (Route 3) and it is recommended that it is also used for all Route 2 procurements.

The SPD can be used as part of either a single stage or multi-stage procedure. 

Yes, all members of the consortium need to fill in a separate SPD response. The lead consortium member should return this to the buyer along with their SPD response.

Equality and Health and Safety are not listed as selection criteria in the Public Contracts Scotland Regulations 2015, therefore they have not been created as standard questions.

If buyers think these areas are essential for carrying out the procurement exercise, they could include them as requirements of one of the standard questions.

If you are using PCS-Tender, your requirements should be added to the contract notice or the procurement documents.

If you are using the PCS SPD Module, you can add your requirements directly beside the questions, within the requirement text boxes.

To access the SPD module in PCS, please contact your organisation’s PCS controller. If you do not know who that is, contact the PCS helpdesk 0800 222 9003 and they will assist you.

To access PCS-Tender, please contact your organisation’s super user, if you do not know who that is please contact, the PCS-Tender helpdesk 0800 069 8630

 and they will assist you.

No, questions cannot be added to the SPD. You can add your specific requirements but not additional questions.

Shortlisting in the SPD allows a buyer to rank responses and this is done within the Technical and Professional Ability section.  This will allow the buyer to determine who should be shortlisted and  taken forward into the next stage of the procurement exercise.

How you will ‘shortlist’ bidders must be detailed in the Contract Notice.  This should include weighting and scoring information and methodology. These criteria must be objective and non-discriminatory.

Guidance for suppliers can be found on the Supplier Journey.

If your framework or DPS was launched before the end of the transition period from the EU you should continue to use the ESPD request you created for that procurement exercise, even if that means issuing the ESPD request after the end of the transition period.   The original ESPD request will still be attached to your original contract notice so there will be no need to create another request.

For all procurement exercises launched after the end of the transition period, you should use the SPD.