Scottish Government Should İncorporate Specific Provisions For The Construction İndustry When Bidding For Public Sector Contracts

At the moment, there are many different procedures for pre-qualifying to bid for public sector and local authority contracts. They differ between authorities and sometimes even between different departments in the same authority.

The Holyrood Parliament has just concluded a lengthy consultation process involving key stakeholders from both suppliers and purchasers within public procurement. Its aim is to deliver a more standardised approach to pre-qualification procedures. SELECT is calling on the Scottish Government to incorporate specific provisions for the construction industry in its current shake-up of the procedures for bidding for public sector contracts.

Martin Reid, Member Services Manager at SELECT, said: “The cost of continually dealing with these different sets of questions is enormous and it is adversely affecting the construction industry which, in the current climate, needs all the help it can get. Across the UK, the National Specialist Contractors’ Council estimates that to answer new questionnaires every time a bid is made for government contracts costs the construction industry £250 million a year.”

Mr Reid said that SELECT broadly welcomed the Scottish Government’s consultation on a Standard Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (SPQQ), which would create a database of suppliers’ answers which could be consulted by all public sector buyers. The trade body also welcomes the provision for suppliers to update the database.

But Mr Reid said the SPQQ should also incorporate the Publicly Available Specification (PAS91) which has been developed specifically for the construction industry in the rest of the UK with the aim of saving companies significant time and money.