Focuses on social and environmental impact rather than cost.

Life cycle impacts help the user identify and assess impacts. For example, it may help to focus attention on the disposal phase before the procurement is carried out. This would allow your organisation to build end-of-life management requirements into its performance clauses for successful contractors and its own internal management procedures

Every product and service has a ‘life cycle’ or number of stages it goes through from:

• the extraction and sourcing of raw materials, such as mining
• to the transportation of sub-assemblies and parts, often through a global supply chain
• to the use of products or works
• to the delivery of services
• to the re-use, recycling, remanufacture and
• to the final disposal of materials.

Tender evaluation can only take place once the deadline for tender submissions has passed. The time taken to evaluate the returned submissions will vary from project to project.  This will depend on the complexity and the number of responses received. You should aim to provide approximate timescales for this stage as part of the Invitation to Tender (ITT) document.

An evaluation panel of at least two people should be established. The panel should consist of individuals with the technical ability to evaluate tenders. This may or may not include the buyer. Ideally the panel membership will be consistent throughout the entire process including presentations and site visits.

The evaluation panel should be able to withstand any scrutiny. It is the responsibility of the Organisation to ensure that no member has a conflict of interest which would prevent them from making a fair and objective tender assessment or which might give rise to accusations that they were unable to do so.

The panel members should read and score the quality/technical aspects of the tenders independently. They must use the pre-defined evaluation criteria and scoring system, prior to a moderation meeting taking place.

At the moderation meeting the evaluators come together to agree the final scores. The process to agree the final scores must be fully transparent and documented. You should evaluate the commercial aspects of the tenders separately, including the Price Evaluation. 

As a matter of good practice, no member of the evaluation panel should assess both the quality/technical elements and the commercial elements of the tender.

The evaluation criteria and scoring methodology should have been determined as part of the Develop Documents stage and published to tenderers in the Invitation to Tender (ITT).

The role of the buyer in the evaluation panel is to ensure an impartial and objective approach is taken to the evaluation of tenders. Some suggested ”Dos and Don’ts” are listed below:

The tender evaluation stage may be accompanied by Presentations/Site Visits.

Presentations and site visits can be included as part of the evaluation process. These offer the opportunity for the evaluation panel to gain a clearer and deeper understanding of the tenderers proposal.

The purpose and anticipated outcomes of the presentations and site visits must be made clear in the ITT documentation. This should include details of how the visits will count towards the overall evaluation of the tender submissions. Particular care must be taken to maintain transparency and equal treatment.

Details of any scoring for either the presentation or site visit must be pre-agreed and published within the relevant procurement documents.

You should ensure that the focus of these events is around the specification and delivery of the product or service, and not on the characteristics of the tenderer.

You should ensure the evaluation panel provides justification of their scoring. This will help when informing unsuccessful tenderers. A full justification of scoring is important and a record should be kept to ensure fairness and transparency of the process.

Comments made should not simply be a restatement of the scoring methodology. For example, if a response is assessed as “Good” it will not be sufficient to state that it is “relevant and good”. Comments must identify the features of the submission itself which justify the particular score. It may also be helpful to record what could have been added to the tender response to secure a higher score.

If PCS-Tender is being used, the justification for scores should be recorded on the system.

For the procurement of Care and Support Services, an Organisation should consider whether it is appropriate for people who use the services and their carers to be involved in decision making.  For example, participation in site visits and interviews with service providers or representation on the evaluation panel. The participation of these people must be consistent throughout the process. For example if they are involved in interviews with service providers, they must participate in all of the interviews arranged with service providers. Care must be taken, when involving people who use services and also their carers in the evaluation of tenders, to ensure that they:

• understand the evaluation process and are clear about their role in it;
• understand the criteria against which tenderers are to be evaluated;
• understand their obligation to be objective and impartial and to treat tenderers equally;
• understand issues relating to the commercial confidentiality of service providers;
• are able to commit the necessary time; and
• receive appropriate training and support.

The involvement of people who use services and their carers, if appropriate, in decision making should be considered on a case-by-case basis. It may, for example, be appropriate to involve them in the evaluation of tenders for the delivery of a discrete service for a small number of individuals.

It is best practice to obtain at least three tender responses, where possible. Where tenderers issued with a copy of the ITT do not submit a response, you should ask for reasons why.  You should record these reasons on file to aid future strategy development.

If only two tenders are received you should consider whether to:

• continue with the competition or  
• review the specification and re-start the process with a view to securing higher levels of engagement.

In making such a decision you should consider:

• the size of the market,
• whether the bids received provide sufficient competition  and
• whether there is a risk that one or more of the tenderers would not participate in a new competition.

If only one tender response is received you should consider why this is.  For example has the market been restricted in some way or has the opportunity been unattractive?. In such cases you should consider restarting the process.

If you are satisfied that there are no particular reasons for receiving only one bid, and that bid is compliant, then you may consider continuing.

The above should be conducted in accordance with your internal governance procedures.

Non Competitive Action

You may consider the use of a Non Competitive Action (NCA) in cases of exceptional circumstances. You must receive approval from the appropriate person in your Organisation e.g. your Head of Procurement, before proceeding.

Tenderers must ensure their bid is submitted  under the rules of the competition and before the specified deadline.

In exceptional circumstances a bid that arrived after the deadline maybe accepted into the competition. The policy for addressing late tenders is subject to the internal governance for your organisation, legislation and case law.

If you are in doubt about whether to allow a late bid into the competition professional procurement and/or legal advice should be sought. There must be a clear audit trail of the handling of late bids and any decision taken.

If PCS-Tender is being used, you will be able to identify the tenderers who have submitted late tenders. You can then determine whether to open the late tender or reject it.

It is best practice for you to notify the tenderers if the late tender has been accepted or rejected.

Contract Notices must be published on Public Contracts Scotland (PCS). 

PCS is the national advertising portal.  It provides free access for suppliers to contract opportunities and guides buyers through the process of creating a Contract Notice.  

Contract Notices published via PCS will contain all of the mandatory information required. 

It is important that the Contract Notice provides the scope of the requirement, which could include the value, the volume of goods or the nature and extent of services. 

Framework Agreement Contract Notices must clearly identify the bodies which will be entitled to use it.

If the proposed contract is to be a reserved contract, the Contract Notice must state this.

 The Contract Notice must also state:

• if the organisation intends to hold an electronic auction;

• if presentation of tenders in the form of electronic catalogues is accepted or required;

• whether or not variants will be allowed or required; and

• information in respect of any lots.

Your Contract Notice must state how the bidders will be able to access the Procurement Documentation e.g. if PCS-Tender is used, it must provide the relevant reference numbers for the specific procurement. 

If uploading Procurement Documents to PCS (Advertising) size restrictions currently apply:

• 10Mb per document and a maximum of 40Mb for the buyer; and

• 10Mb per document with a maximum of 30Mb for the Supplier SPD Statements.

The Contract Notice should contain the minimum and specific requirements for your procurement exercise.  You should include statements relating to the relevant SPD.

You should include appropriate statements in the Contract Notice that are aligned to the relevant exclusion and selection questions being used in the SPD for your procurement. 

Standardised statements relating to the SPD questions have been developed.  These support you in adopting a standard approach to defining minimum requirements in your Contract Notice.  

Unlike SPD questions, you can create new or amend the existing standardised statement(s).  These will then be included in the Contract Notice. Any amended or additional statements must reflect the selection criteria and minimum standards of the procurement exercise.

A PIN alerts potential bidders to future planned procurements and allows them time to prepare to bid for the contracts announced. 

It can also enable reduction of timescales once the specific Contract Notice has been despatched.

Organisations can issue a PIN as a means to seek information from suppliers to the market when developing a procurement.

• The standard PIN form should be used
• The PIN must have been sent between 35 days and 12 months before the date on which the Contract Notice is sent
• Once a PIN has been published, reductions in timescales for competitions identified in the PIN are possible

The period covered by a PIN must be a maximum of 12 months from the date on which the notice is sent for publication. 

All Contract Notices must be published on Public Contracts Scotland (PCS).

PCS is the national advertising portal which provides suppliers with free access to contract opportunities. It also guides Buyers through the process of creating a Contract Notice on its website.

PCS automatically creates a Contract Notice on the UK Find a Tender Service (FTS).

Your contract notice must set out the specific requirements and minimum standards that are required in the SPD for your process.  These must be relevant and proportionate to the procurement.

If you are using the SPD capability in PCS-T or the SPD Word document you must set out the specific requirements and minimum standards required. This is not necessary if you are using the online SPD Module on PCS asthe relevant information is contained within the module already and done automatically. 

A selection of Standardised Statements has been developed (and is continually updated) to support Buyers in developing their SPD and these can be used as a guide to help you.

For Route 2 Care and Support Services procurements, you may decide if you wish to advertise the requirement or not. In the case of:

• direct award without advertising the requirement you only need to publish a Contract Award Notice on PCS, but not a Social and other Specific Services Contract Notice advertising the requirement;

• advertising the requirement you need to publish a Social and other Specific Services Contract Notice advertising the requirement and also a Contract Award Notice on PCS.

Electronic auctions cannot be used.

From 26 October 2023, OJEU are making changes to the TED portal (https://enotices.ted.europa.eu/contentView?page=index) which means that notifications from PCS will no longer be compatible. Therefore, from that date, notifications relating to transitional and EU funded procurements will no longer be sent to TED from PCS. Organisations still wishing to notify TED of their procurement activity are able to do so themselves. 

PCS will be updated to reflect these changes after 26 October 2023.

Arrangements Prior to 26 October 2023

Since 1 January 2021, (the end of the transition period after EU Exit) higher value notices have been published on the UK e-notification service Find a Tender Service (FTS) as well as appearing on PCS. This replaced the requirement for them to be published on the Official Journal of the European Union (via their TED) system, with two exceptions. Transitional procurements (public sector contract opportunities that were launched but not concluded before 11pm on 31 December 2020) and all notices relating to EU funded procurement exercises, have continued to be published on TED, as well as FTS and PCS. This has been managed automatically by PCS.  This arrangement will cease on 26 October 2023.

If you are in doubt whether your procurement exercise is or is not EU funded, please seek legal advice. 

Please note that the information and guidance provided in the Procurement Journey routes are not designed to cover the specifics that are often applicable to such procurement exercises and we would always advise you to seek specific legal guidance where you need further support.

When using a two stage process, documents will only be made available to bidders who have passed the selection stage.  Invitations to submit a tender should be issued simultaneously to all bidders and in writing. 

If you are not using a separate selection stage, ITTs should be issued on request to any interested supplier.  This can be at any point prior to the tender submission date set.

Where ITT documents cannot be issued electronically (for example because the information is sensitive or the contract is of a nature that requires specialised tools and/or files) then you can use other means to issue the documents. If you do this, it would be good practice to increase the tender time limit by five working days to allow for this extra process.

The evaluation criteria and weightings must be published within the Contract Notice. For more information refer to Selection, Award & Exclusion.

Price/financial evaluation criteria should include:

• Whole Life Cost comparisons
• Quantifiable financial benefits arising from the technical evaluation (e.g. speed, fuel or electricity consumption, coverage, shelf life, etc.)
• Fixed or variable pricing
• Cost of components, spare parts, consumables and servicing
• Life-cycle costing where appropriate. 
• Risk analysis and financial appraisal (for major contracts of strategic importance, especially those of an innovative nature).

To support this process, as you are developing the documentation you will draw information from the Develop Strategy stage of the Procurement Journey. 

It is best practice to agree the evaluation criteria with the User Intelligence Group (UIG). These criteria will identify which eligible tenderer(s) will deliver best value for money for the organisation, based on the Most Economically Advantageous Tender (MEAT).

You should identify the Most Economically Advantageous Tender, assessed on the criteria linked to the contract's subject matter.  This should include price or cost evaluation using a cost effectiveness approach.  A cost effectiveness approach may include Life Cycle Impact Mapping

It is important to differentiate between Whole Life Costing and Life Cycle Costing  and further information on both an be found in Additional Resources.

Lifecycle Impact Mapping

Focuses on social and environmental impact rather than cost.

Life-cycle impact mapping helps you identify and assess impacts. For example, you may focus attention on the disposal phase before beginning the procurement.  This then allows you  to build end-of-life management requirements into performance clauses and internal management procedures.

Please note:  Life-cycle impact mapping can be used alongside life-cycle costing as part of the procurement process.

You may wish to consider the areas below for inclusion within the ITT documentation:

• e-Commerce: e-Capability, e-Procurement Information, e-Auctions, etc.
• Contract implementation/contract and supplier management information
• Proposed implementation plan
• Management information - requirement to provide line item detail
• Roles & Responsibilities
• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
• Mini-competition guidance: details of process to be followed for call offs

The ITT or the Invitation to Confirm Interest should include comprehensive information for potential bidders about the requirement being tendered. While there are a number of Generic Documents listed below that will require insertion into all packs (e.g. a reference to the relevant Contract Notice or Award Criteria weightings) some of the content will naturally be specific to each requirement and you should select those that you need to include in the ITT pack from the list below:

• A reference to the relevant Contract Notice, previously published
• Instructions to bidders including the tender submission deadline;  address to which the tender submission is to be sent and the language which the tender submission must be submitted in
• It is good practice to issue an SPD to bidders.  For more information, please refer to Selection Criteria and SPD
• Award Criteria weightings
• For services contracts, if deemed applicable, you should ask the bidders to indicate any share of the contract that the tenderer may subcontract and information about the subcontractors including their name and contact details.  You may request separate SPD responses from subcontractors and consortium members, when deemed appropriate, in order to safeguard the effective delivery of the contract, based on relevance and proportionality to the contract
• For contracts which may be extended, the nature, quantity and, where possible, the estimated time for exercising options
• For supply or service contracts, the nature, quantity and, where possible, estimated publication dates of notices of future tenders
• If applicable to the contract, the delivery of supplies commencement or termination date(s)
• The address of the Organisation who will award the contract
• Economic and technical conditions, financial guarantees and any information required from bidders
• The form of the contract to be used e.g. purchase, lease, hire-purchase, or a combination
• If electronic access to the relevant Procurement Documents cannot be offered the address and deadline date for requesting Procurement Documents and the language(s) to be used
• Background and overview of the tendering and evaluation process including details of presentations and site visits, if applicable
• Terms and Conditions which will apply to any resulting contract with the principle supplier
• Specification and technical requirements
• Sustainable Procurement Duty requirements e.g. economic, social and environmental considerations including community benefits and Fair Work Practices. See Sustainable Procurement Tools
• Cyber Security Requirements (example ITT and Contract Notice wording when using the Cyber Security Procurement Support Tool)
• Quality questionnaire

The activities at this stage must be carried out in a carefully managed manner that support the Principles of Procurement. It is the responsibility of you and your Organisation to make sure these requirements are met.

The distinction between selection and award criteria is important.

Selection criteria are focused on "the bidder" and award criteria are focused on "the bid”. You should maintain a clear distinction between both throughout the procurement process.

This means that selection criteria should be addressed at the selection stage and should not form part of the award stage.  This is the case even if the selection criteria were omitted from the selection stage in error.

However, you can apply different aspects at selection and award if relevant.  For example you can look at the bidder's general staffing in selection and the qualifications and experience of those to be assigned to the contract at award, if that is relevant.

Although the selection and award criteria must  be developed and managed separately, it is possible for you to conduct these stages simultaneously or in any order where the process you are undertaking allows for this. For instance you may wish to conduct the Award Stage prior to checking minimum selection criteria are met.

You can include special contract performance conditions as long as they are linked to the contract's subject matter.

Such conditions may cover economic, innovation-related, environmental, social or employment-related conditions.  If specific performance conditions are to be used they must be included in the Prior Information Notice or the Contract Notice and in the Procurement Documents.

At Award Stage bidders may be requested to supply the names and professional qualifications of the staff involved in the performance of the contract.

A clearly documented process must be followed.  This will ensure there are satisfactory responses from bidders and no procurement process inconsistencies. Any failure in this respect will leave the procurement open to audit scrutiny and legal challenge.

You must consider the relevance and proportionality of Fair Work practices for its inclusion in the award criteria. 

Please refer to the Fair Work First in Procurement guidance to determine relevance and proportionality. Example Invitation to Tender questions can also be found in the guidance.

Further information to consider can be found in Fair Work Practices.

At the contract award stage you should ensure that the contract complies with the conditions, requirements and criteria set out in the Procurement Documents.

In addition, you may decide not to award a contract to the winning tenderer, if its bid does not comply with social, environmental and employment law.

Fair and Ethically Traded Goods

Award criteria can also relate to the supply or use of ethically or fairly traded products.

In all cases award criteria must be proportionate and should relate to the work, supply or service being procured, and not to the general capacities or qualities of the bidder. A general corporate social responsibility policy is unlikely to demonstrate suitability to deliver a contract. For further guidance please refer to the Sustainable Procurement Tools. 

Equality Legislation

Equality legislation places duties on all public bodies. In exercising their functions they must have due regard to the need to:

• eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other prohibited conduct 
• advance equality of opportunity - between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not-
• foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not

You should ask bidders to self-certify that they comply with all relevant equality legislation.

Where evidence is provided of equality legislation breaches, you must consider any remedial action the bidder has taken to address these.

For organisations working outside the UK, equality questions relate to the equivalent legislation in the country where the bidder is located / breach occurred.

Effective contract management and monitoring should be undertaken to ensure that the equality assessment continues to be applied throughout the contract duration.

Where you have determined that minimum standards are applicable (either within selection or award criteria) they must relate to and be proportionate to the subject matter of the requirement.  This must be clearly detailed in the appropriate documentation.

When you wish to apply minimum standards to limit the number of potential suppliers to be invited to tender, minimum standards or objective criteria must be specified or referred to in the Contract Notice. This must be detailed in the procurement documentation to allow the rejection of potential suppliers.

Similarly if a pass mark can only be obtained by a response that meets the minimum requirement, this must be clearly stated within the scoring guidance provided to suppliers. 

You may consider variants as long as:

• it has been specified in the Contract Notice and the Procurement Documents. 
• All variants meet the specified minimum requirements
• You specify how variants  will be evaluated. All variant bids should be evaluated using the same criteria as the standard bids and compared on a like-for-like basis.

Variants cannot be considered unless the above are met. You should consider whether to allow bidders to propose different TUPE scenarios within their bids. If so, it should provide clear directions to tenderers to ensure that bids can be compared on a like-for-like basis.

• select the suppliers to be invited to bid for the contract or
• to identify the supplier to whom the contract will be awarded.  

• the selection or award criteria (depending upon the stage of the competition)
• sub-criteria, weightings
• minimum standards
• pass marks (if any) etc.

If there is any doubt as to the level of detail that must be disclosed/published, you should seek specialist professional procurement or legal advice and guidance.

Additional Care and Support Services guidance on award criteria can be found in Care and Support Services.

For Care and Support Services, it is best practice for an organisation to also take account of some other issues when procuring these services including:

• the quality of the service;

• the continuity of the service;

• the affordability of the service;

• the availability and comprehensiveness of the service;

• the accessibility of the service;

• the needs of different types of service users;

• the involvement of service users; and

• innovation.

This is not an exhaustive list and there may be other considerations that an organisation may also take account of and which are relevant on a case-by-case basis.

A single stage procedure asks bidders to submit all relevant information at the same time.  This will usually take the form of a completed SPD document, alongside the bidders response to the rest of the procurement documents e.g. Invitation to Tender (ITT).

In this instance the bidders’ SPD responses should be assessed on a pass/fail basis, and none of the questions should be scored and weighted, as there is no requirement to shortlist.

In a two-stage procedure, bidders will provide the information in two distinct stages.  Firstly the bidder will submit the SPD for evaluation by the buyer.  All of the exclusion questions and most of the selection questions will be assessed on a pass/fail basis. 

The technical and professional ability section of the SPD also includes the ability to score and weight questions.  This allows the buyer to rank responses and shortlist a number of bidders to invite to tender.

The scoring and weighting methodology must be fair, transparent and clearly explained to all bidders upfront.

Buyers should detail the scoring and weighting process that will be used in the Contract Notice or within the SPD module on Public Contracts Scotland.

Bidders must be given the opportunity to provide evidence that they have taken sufficient and appropriate remedial action i.e. they have ‘self-cleansed’. If you are satisfied that the evidence provided is sufficient to demonstrate reliability, you must not exclude the bidder from the procurement procedure on those grounds

The bidder must satisfy that it has:

• paid, or undertaken to pay, compensation for any damage caused by the criminal offence or misconduct;
• provided detailed facts and circumstances by collaborating with the investigating authorities; and
• taken appropriate concrete technical, organisational and personnel measures to prevent further criminal offences or misconduct.

When considering any self-cleansing measures, organisations must consider all relevant factors.  This includes the gravity and particular circumstances of the criminal offence or misconduct.

If you believe the bidder’s remedial action is insufficient to demonstrate reliability, you must provide the bidder with a statement outlining the reasons for the decision. The statement of reasons must be provided in writing as soon as is reasonably practical to allow the bidder to understand why the self-cleansing measures taken are insufficient.

Standardised statements have been developed to support you in explaining your selection criteria to bidders. 

Each standardised statement is aligned to a selection question in the SPD. You should select the statements that are relevant to your procurement exercise.  In some instances, you are able to adapt them.

The full list of statements can found in the standardised statement document, at the bottom of this page and an example is included below:

Some of the standardised statements, for example those relating to Environmental Management Legislation and Quality Management Procedures, are very lengthy. Therefore you should review these carefully and ensure that you only select only those parts of the standardised statements that allow you to specify your minimum requirements. You should be careful to ensure that the criteria included is proportionate..

This process will enable you to adopt a standard approach to defining the selection criteria in Contract Notices.

If using the online SPD module on PCS there is no need to add the statements to the Contract Notice, it should be added directly beside the question in the module.

More information on where to state information in the Contract Notice can be found on the Contract Notice and Advertising station.

Where the bidder is relying on other parties to meet the selection criteria for example as part of a consortium or is using a sub-contractor, you should request a separate SPD response from each party being relied on.

These parties should complete the exclusion criteria section of the SPD and whichever selection questions, the main bidder is relying on them for.

If the bidder is using a sub-contractor but not relying on them to meet the selection criteria, each sub-contractor should complete an SPD response.  In this instance, they will only need to complete the exclusion criteria.

The responses should be evaluated alongside the main bidders SPD response.

Where a party meets the mandatory grounds for exclusion you must require that the main bidder to replaces them.

Where there are discretionary grounds for exclusion you may require the bidder(s) to be replaced.  This should be considered on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the various circumstances of the procurement exercise.

Where a bidder relies upon the capacities of other entities with regard to criteria relating to economic and financial standing you may require the bidder and those entities to be jointly liable for the performance of the contract.

In the case of supply or service contracts your organisation may require certain critical tasks to be performed directly by the bidder itself or, where the tender is submitted by a group of bidders, by a participant in that group.

You can find more information on the SPD for a works contract by emailing: PropertyandConstruction@gov.scot

In the case of Care and Support Services, the mandatory exclusion grounds (regulation 8 of Procurement (Scotland) Regulations 2016) must be applied to all procurements. An organisation can also choose to apply the discretionary exclusion grounds and selection criteria.  It is best practice to use the SPD for this purpose.

You may use Part V of the SPD when using PCS-Tender to reduce the number of already qualified candidates who meet all the exclusion and selection criteria in the SPD.

• Part V of the SPD can only be used for restricted procedures, competitive procedure with negotiation, competitive dialogue procedures and innovation partnerships. It cannot be used in the case of open procedures and negotiated procedure without prior publication. Part V may be used if it is proportionate and relevant to the contract, and it is specified in the Contract Notice.
• If you decide to use Part V of the SPD, you need to specify the objective and non-discriminatory criteria or rules to be applied, the minimum number of bidders and where applicable, the maximum number the organisation intends to invite to tender or conduct dialogue. This information must be accompanied by requirements concerning any (types of) certificates or forms of documentary evidence, , to be produced, as set out in the relevant Contract Notice.

The minimum number of bidders that may be invited to a Restricted Procedure by an Organisation is five. In any event, the number of candidates invited must be sufficient to ensure genuine competition (note: if the number of bidders meeting the selection criteria is fewer than five the procurement can still proceed). In a competitive dialogue, competitive procedure with negotiation and innovation partnership the minimum number of candidates taken forward by the Organisation is three. In any event the number of candidates invited must be sufficient to ensure genuine competition (note: if the number of bidders meeting the selection criteria is fewer than five the procurement can still proceed).

If you are using PCS-Tender financial ratios these should be included in the Contract Notice or procurement documents.

If you are using the online SPD module on PCS, there is a drop-down menu of ratios to choose from. These use standard terminology from the Scottish Government Accountancy Services.  Your organisation may use different terminology than these.  If this is the case, or you want to add other ratios not listed, you can use the other financial requirements question to specify your ratio.

Selection criteria are focused on "the bidder" and award criteria are focused on "the bid”. Selection criteria assess things like the bidders economic standing or technical qualifications whereas as award criteria are concerned with how they will deliver the contract

You should maintain a clear distinction between both throughout the procurement process and you should note that you cannot use the same criteria at both selection and award stage

As a matter of procurement policy, and in order to meet obligations of transparency,

Organisations must publish details of the evaluation criteria to be used to either:

• select the bidders to be invited to bid for the contract or
• identify the supplier to whom the contract will be awarded.

It is best practice that evaluation criteria for both selection and award stages are agreed, along with respective weightings by the User Intelligence Group (UIG) before the Contract Notice is published and any documentation issued.

The evaluation criteria will comprise of (depending upon the stage of the competition):

• the selection or award criteria
• sub-criteria,
• weightings,
• minimum standards,
• pass marks (if any) etc.

If there is any doubt as to the level of detail that must be disclosed/published, you should seek specialist professional procurement or legal advice and guidance.

The agreed and advertised selection and award criteria and weightings must not be changed once they have been notified to the tenderers.

Evaluation criteria should be published under II.2.9 (Information about the limits on the number of candidates to be invited) of the Contract Notice or II.2.14 (Additional Information). of the Social and other Specific Services Contract Notice (if you decide to advertise your C&SS requirements)  This allows bidders to see how their responses will be evaluated.  

If the online PCS SPD Module is used, the scoring methodology needs to be detailed in the module, this does not need to be included in the Contract Notice.

If you are unable to publish these criteria in the Contract Notice or within the SPD Module, as an absolute minimum, you must state them in the published Procurement Documents.

The provisions in the Procurement (Scotland) Regulations 2016 in respect of selection criteria do not apply. However, you may choose to use the selection criteria (Regulation 10 of the Procurement (Scotland) Regulations 2016) and may choose to use the SPD for this purpose without amending the questions, and it is a matter of best practice to do so.

In order to check the bidder’s capability of delivering the contract, the buyer may require bidders to be enrolled in certain professional or trade registers. 

They may also require bidders to prove that they hold certain authorisation or memberships. Buyers should state these requirements upfront either in the contract notice or the PCS SPD module

For example: If the contract relates to the installation of gas boilers, the buyer may specify that the bidders need to be on the Gas Safe Register.

Buyers should assess the financial standing of bidders to ensure that they are financially stable enough to carry out the contract. In order to assess this you may ask for information such as financial ratios or turnover information from the bidders. 

In all cases, care should be taken not to set minimum standards that are disproportionate and/or which might exclude capable suppliers, especially SMEs and newly formed companies. 

For lower-risk procurement exercises – for example, where there are numerous suppliers capable of carrying out the contract, no time constraints, and payment is only to be made after the work completed – you should consider whether it is necessary (i.e. relevant and proportionate) to set any selection criteria relating to economic and financial standing.

Turnover 

Accounts

You may require bidders to provide annual account information for example showing the ratio between assets and liabilities. (The PCS SPD module includes a list of commonly used financial ratios for you to pick from). You can only exclude bidders on the basis of ratios identified in the Contract Notice so you should be sure that they are accurate and relevant.

You should also take into consideration that not all bidders have an audited set of accounts. As a result ,you must consider, on a case-by-case basis, what is essential information. This should be specified in the Contract Notice.

Insurance Levels

To assess the bidders capability you can ask them to provide relevant examples of previous work to demonstrate that they have sufficient  experience to deliver the contract. For goods and services, the examples provided by bidders must only be from the previous three years.

The examples requested should be relevant and proportionate to the procurement exercise.

You should be careful when creating the technical and professional ability minimum requirements to not exclude bidders who can demonstrate  that they have the capacity and capability to deliver the contract, but may not have delivered exactly the same goods or services previously. This will ensure opportunities are provided to bidders to access new markets or provide innovative solutions, no matter their size or status.

Remember that bidders do not need to submit examples from their existing organisation to meet the selection criteria.  They can submit relevant examples which they worked on in previous employment to demonstrate their previous experience.  This is particularly helpful to new businesses.  It is also acceptable for bidders to rely on other parties for certain parts of the selection criteria, for example, they may rely on a sub-contractor for experience in a certain area.

Qualifications

Depending the on the requirement, it can be more appropriate to evaluate qualifications as part of the award criteria.
If you do decide to evaluate qualifications as part of the selection stage, you should ensure the required qualifications are set upfront and clearly stated in the contract notice (or PCS SPD Module)

Use of References 

Buyers may request references from bidders in order to review previous experience. If the bidder is unable to provide the reference required it may provide other evidence which you consider appropriate. 

Depending on the nature of the contract, you may require the bidder to confirm that they comply with certain quality management standards or hold certain certificates.
You should ensure that any minimum standards are proportionate to the contract and are not overly onerous. 

For example if you require BS EN ISO 9001 you should accept any accredited independent third party certificate of compliance in accordance with the relevant requirements.  You should also accept other examples of equivalent measures provided that the bidder proves that the proposed measures comply with the required standards e.g. documented quality management policies and procedures.

Health and Safety Legislation

The degree to which health and safety requirements are required will vary according to the procurement exercise.  Any measure you take must be relevant, proportionate and should not be overly burdensome and be stated in the contract notice.

You must not select any bidders if they do not meet the stated health and safety legislation minimum requirements.

You should put in place on going monitoring procedures throughout the duration of the contracts to ensure compliance with health and safety requirements.  Within the SPD, this should be specified as part of the quality management section.

Further help in setting these standards can be found in the standardised statements.

Depending on the nature of the contract, you may require the bidder to confirm that they comply with certain environmental management legislation.

You should ensure that any minimum standards are proportionate to the contract and are not overly onerous.

For example if you require BS EN ISO 14001 you should accept any accredited independent third party certificate of compliance in accordance with the relevant requirements.  You should also accept other examples of equivalent measures provided that the bidder proves that the proposed measures comply with the required standards e.g. documented environmental management policies and procedures.

Further help in setting these standards can be found in the standardised statements.

You must consider if bidders may use a supply chain to deliver the requirements, and if so, SPD question 4C.4 and its standardised statement should be included in the selection criteria. This will require bidders to provide evidence of their standard payment terms, their payment performance in line with those terms and if necessary, an improvement plan detailing timely remedies to achieve good payment performance.

For examples of payment performance evidence and improvement plan guidance please reference the prompt payment page.

Selection criteria applied to individual procurement processes must be relevant and proportionate to the subject matter of the contract.

It is possible that selection criteria may address social issues by applying relevant criteria in respect of the technical and professional ability of those involved in the performance of the contract. For example, where high volumes of workers are involved, a public body may ask for evidence of capacity and capability to recruit and retain staff in a fair way or ask for evidence of staff development practices.

The bidder must be given the opportunity to provide evidence that they have taken sufficient and appropriate remedial action i.e. they have ‘self-cleansed’. If you are satisfied that the evidence provided is sufficient to demonstrate reliability, you must not exclude the bidder from the procurement procedure on those grounds

The bidder must satisfy that it has:

• paid, or undertaken to pay, compensation for any damage caused by the criminal offence or misconduct;
• provided detailed facts and circumstances by  collaborating with the investigating authorities; and
• taken appropriate concrete technical, organisational and personnel measures to prevent further criminal offences or misconduct.

In the case of tax and social security breaches, the bidder should not be excluded if they have fulfilled their obligations by paying or entered into a binding agreement with the view to paying monies due or the obligation to repay otherwise ceases. 

When considering any self-cleansing measures, organisations must consider all relevant factors.  This includes the gravity and particular circumstances of the criminal offence or misconduct.

If you believe the bidder’s remedial action is insufficient to demonstrate reliability, you must provide the bidder with a statement outlining the reasons for the decision. The statement of reasons must be provided in writing as soon as is reasonably practical to allow the bidder to understand why the self-cleansing measures taken are insufficient.

Questions relating to the above exclusion grounds are contained in the SPD.  It is best practice, and will help promote consistency, to use the SPD document for all route 2 procurement exercises.

The standardised statement document has been developed to support you in explaining the exclusion criteria to bidders.  Within the standardised statement document is a standard paragraph of text that can be added to your contract notice in section II.2.14 (Additional Information) to explain the exclusion criteria.

Please note that if you use the online SPD module on PCS, there is no need to add information on the Exclusion Grounds to the Contract Notice as they are automatically added to the module.

Buyers must ask if a bidder has been convicted by final judgement of one of the criminal offences contained in the relevant regulations

This includes:

• Participation in a criminal organisation
• Corruption
• Bribery and certain types of fraud
• Terrorist offences or offences linked to terrorist activities
• Money laundering or terrorist financing
• Child labour and other forms of trafficking in human beings
   

Buyers must ask if a bidder has taken part in blacklisting activities. 

Blacklisting refers to the practice of systematically denying individuals employment, who would otherwise be able to be employed.  Blacklisting is done on the basis of information, accurate or not, held in some type of database. The Scottish Government regards blacklisting or the compiling of a blacklist as totally unacceptable.

The Employment Relations Act 1999 (Blacklists) Regulations 2010 provide rights for individuals if blacklisting results in refusal of employment, detriment, dismissal or redundancy. 

The above are listed in regulations 8 and 9(1) of the Procurement (Scotland) Regulations 2016.

In exceptional circumstances you may disregard the mandatory exclusion grounds when selecting a bidder.  This can only be done where there are overriding reasons relating to the public interest. This provision is known as derogation from the mandatory exclusion considerations and ensures that organisations are able to respond to unforeseen emergency circumstances.

There is no definitive list of situations in which this derogation can be used and any decision should be made on a case by case basis. Organisations should be able to demonstrate that the actual or potential harm is so great, that the public interest in using the derogation outweighs the public interest in excluding a bidder.

An example may be where urgently needed vaccines or emergency equipment can only be purchased from a bidder to whom one of the mandatory exclusion grounds otherwise applies.

Each situation must be judged on its own merits, but the following situations are, on their own, unlikely to meet this test:

• when a bidder which should be excluded is offering a substantially better quality / more economical product or service;
• when there would otherwise be a lack of competition.

Organisations may exclude a bidder where the bidder has breached its tax or social security obligations.  These may take the forms of judicial or administrative decision or other “appropriate means”.

Buyers can request the following examples of evidence to understand a bidder’s breach in tax or social security obligations:

• credit references, i.e. details of any outstanding tax debt;
• company accounts, depending on the size of the tax debt the bidder may be obliged to include this in their accounts;
• an admission by a bidder to an Occasion of Non-Compliance (OONC); or,
• an admission by a bidder of the failure of an avoidance scheme which they were involved in and was, or should have been, notified under Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Scheme (DOTAS).

In the case of tax and social security breaches, the bidder should not be excluded if they have fufilled their obligations by paying or entered into a binding agreement with the view to paying monies due or the obligation to repay otherwise ceases. 

Note – these examples relate to the UK tax regime, and there will be equivalents in other countries which should be considered, when relevant.

Bidders may be excluded if they have breached any the obligations in relation to environmental, social and labour law both in any relevant national and relevant collective agreements and specific international agreements.

Further information can be found in 9(5)(a) of The Procurement (Scotland) Regulations 2016.

When determining whether to exclude a bidder on this basis, a contracting authority should be proportionate in its decision, taking into account the size of the contract, the relevance of the breach, and its impact on the operational risk to the delivery of the contract and reputational risk to the organisation.

Where a bidder is bankrupt or subject to insolvency proceedings, you can choose whether to exclude them from the procurement exercise.

Potential evidence could include:

• copies of accounts verifying they have sufficient liquidity to perform the contract
• its business plan outlining steps the potential supplier will take to address concerns
• references from other recent customers

When considering whether to exclude such a bidder you should consider contract delivery potential risks, such as:

• the impact this may have on the sub-contracting supply chain
• the size of the contract
• potential consequences of the contract failing

Additionally, organisations should take into account the potential benefits of awarding a contract to such a bidder. These can include:

• providing opportunities to contribute to increased employment in communities
• the wellbeing of local and regional communities 
• helping unlock the innovation or economic potential with local businesses

Bidders may be excluded if they are guilty of grave professional misconduct, which renders its integrity questionable.

Further information can be found in the Procurement (Scotland) Regulations 2016 9(5)(c).

When determining whether to exclude a bidder on this basis, an organisation should be proportionate in its decision, taking into account the size of the contract, the relevance of the breach, and its impact on the operational risk to the delivery of the contract and reputational risk to the organisation.

Bidders may be excluded if a conflict of interest exists which cannot be effectively remedied by other less intrusive measures, and which may impact the procurement process.

Further information can be found in the Procurement (Scotland) Regulations 2016 9(5)(e).

When determining whether to exclude a bidder on this basis, an organisation should be proportionate in its decision, taking into account the size of the contract, the relevance of the breach, and its impact on the operational risk to the delivery of the contract and reputational risk to the organisation.

Bidders may be excluded if a distortion of competition arises from:

• the bidder entering into agreements with other bidders aimed at distorting competition 
• the prior involvement of the bidder in the preparation of the tender which cannot be remedied by other, less intrusive measures.

Further information can be found in the Procurement (Scotland) Regulations 2016 9(5)(d)(f)

When determining whether to exclude a bidder on this basis, an organisation should be proportionate in its decision, taking into account the size of the contract, the relevance of the breach, and its impact on the operational risk to the delivery of the contract and reputational risk to the organisation.

Bidders may be excluded if they have shown significant or persistent deficiencies in the performance of a substantive requirement (under a prior public contractor or a prior concession contract which led to early termination of that prior contract, damages or other comparable sanctions).

Further information can be found in The Procurement (Scotland) Regulations 2016 9(5)(g).

When determining whether to exclude a bidder on this basis, an organisation should be proportionate in its decision, taking into account the size of the contract, the relevance of the breach, and its impact on the operational risk to the delivery of the contract and reputational risk to the organisation..

Bidders may be excluded if they are found to have:

• seriously misrepresented the supply of information (when this information would be used to confirm there are no grounds for their exclusion from the procurement exercise, and therefore the bidder meets the selection criteria) or have withheld information; or

the bidder has:

• unduly influenced the decision making process
• obtained confidential information which may give them undue advantages in the procurement procedure
• negligently provided misleading information that may have a material influence on decisions

Further information can be found in The Procurement (Scotland) Regulations 2016 5(h)(i)(j)

You must consider how, in conducting your procurement, you can involve small and medium enterprises, third sector bodies and supported businesses.  This can include the use of sub-contractors to support the delivery of the contract.

The Procurement (Scotland) Regulations 2016 do not include applying mandatory and discretionary exclusion grounds to sub-contractors for contracts below the GPA Procurement Threshold contract value.  However you should consider the circumstances where this approach needs to be applied to safeguard effective contract delivery.

Exclusions grounds apply to a person who is:

• a member of the administrative, management or supervisory body of the bidder or
• has powers of representation, decision or control in relation to such bidder.

Although the Single Procurement Document (SPD) is not mandatory for below GPA threshold procurements, it is good practice. In the Standardised Statement document, along with the selection statements, you can find two exclusion ground statements:

• one for the Contract Notice for below threshold procurements and
• one for the above threshold Contract Notice

In the case of a Route 2 procurement, please make sure that you copy over the statement for a below threshold Contract Notice exclusion statement to the textbox in the Contract Notice under II.2.14 Additional Information. This will make sure that you have informed the bidders that you will apply mandatory and discretionary exclusion grounds in the procurement exercise.

Please note that if you are using the online SPD module in PCS, there is no need to include this in the contract notice.

In the case of Care and Support Services the mandatory exclusion grounds Regulation 8(1) of the Procurement (Scotland) Regulations 2016 must be applied to all procurements, and you can also choose to apply the discretionary exclusion grounds.

Exclusion statements should be put under section II.2.14 Additional Information of the Social and other Specific Services Contract Notice, or detailed in the online SPD Module on PCS if it is being used.