Tenders FAQs
1. How does the UK Commission work with suppliers?
We do not operate any kind of preferred supplier list or pre-qualification requirements, all suppliers are welcome to bid for work with our company. It would probably be helpful to read the documents included in the tender section on our website – please see application instructions and commercial policies as these describe our principles and what you should or shouldn’t do on a general basis. Each tender is open to all who can fulfil the requirements; simply read the full tender document for any opportunity and respond with the information requested, details of the evaluation criteria and scoring systems are included with each Invitation to Tender.
You can also find all open opportunities with Government via the Contracts Finder website.
2. When would Pre Qualification Questionnaires be used?
We use a pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) as an initial supplier sort document on procurement exercises where there is a large marketplace, e.g. where we could reasonably expect to get a large number of responses.
The PQQ is used for no other purpose and does not pre-qualify you for any other tender or opportunity that we may post at another time. We do not operate preferred supplier lists as we consider these to be anti-competitive and not fully open to the market.
If we do have an opportunity that requires a PQQ we will post this to our website in the usual way and upload a PQQ that is specifically designed to relate to the provision of service under that opportunity.
3. Pre notification of tenders/supplier lists
We do not have any kind of email alert system that would notify you of any opportunities that may be of interest to you. However, you can subscribe to the Tenders RSS feed which update whenever new content is added to this section of the website. In addition, as all government opportunities over £10k are being advertised on Contracts Finder, suppliers who register with them have the opportunity of receiving alerts through that site.
4. What is the format for submission of the main tender document?
All proposals should be sent electronically to [email protected] in either word of pdf format. A scanned copy of the signed declaration should be included with your proposal.
5. What is the e-mail size limit for submissions?
To minimise delays in submission caused by technical difficulties, e-mails should be no greater than 10MB in size. If necessary attachments should be compressed or zipped and pictures or photographs be removed.
Any emails which are bordering on the 10MG size limit MAY NOT reach the Tenders inbox and therefore cannot be considered. All submissions which reach the Tenders inbox will trigger an automated email response confirming receipt. If you do not receive this automated email response your submission has NOT been received.
Late submissions will not be considered whatever the cause of the delay.
6. Can you confirm that you expect tenders to be submitted only by email?
Email is our preferred option – but see section 5 of the application instructions for further details about electronic submissions.
7. Is it acceptable to insert a facsimile signature into the electronic copy of the tender?
Yes
8. Where should questions be sent and where will the answers be displayed?
ALL correspondence with regard to tenders which are displayed on the UK Commission website MUST be sent to [email protected]. Questions and answers will be displayed as Q&A documents in the tender section to which they relate.
Download these faqs (PDF, 73 Kb)
