Selection Questionnaire (SQ): A Complete Guide for UK Suppliers

The Selection Questionnaire (SQ) is the standardised pre-qualification document used by UK public sector buyers since 2016. Before you can be evaluated for a tender, you have to pass the SQ, a check that you are financially solvent, legally compliant, and capable of delivering the contract. Here is how it works and how to make it efficient.

SQ vs PQQ

The SQ formally replaced the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) in 2016 with the Crown Commercial Service standard template. In practice, the two terms are often used interchangeably. Buyers may call the same document a PQQ, SQ, supplier qualification, or pre-qualification. The content is broadly similar regardless of name, and the master document you maintain should work for any of these labels.

The three parts of the standard SQ

Part 1: Supplier information. Your company details, parent company structure, financial information, and accreditations. This part is largely the same for every tender you bid for.

Part 2: Exclusion grounds. A series of yes/no questions confirming you have not been convicted of certain offences, are not insolvent, and meet various legal compliance requirements. Identical wording across tenders.

Part 3: Selection criteria. Buyer-specific questions about your technical capability, experience, and capacity to deliver the specific contract. This is the part that actually varies between tenders and where you do the real bid-specific writing.

What evidence you typically need

• Companies House registration and VAT number.
• Insurance certificates (Employers Liability, Public Liability, Professional Indemnity). Required levels vary by contract; £5 million PI is common for professional services contracts.
• Three years of financial accounts (turnover, profit, balance sheet). Some buyers require audited accounts; others accept management accounts.
• Modern Slavery Statement (mandatory if turnover exceeds £36 million; recommended for all suppliers).
• Equality and Diversity Policy.
• Health and Safety Policy and accident history (typically last three years).
• Environmental or sustainability policy.
• Information security policy or Cyber Essentials certification (increasingly mandatory for IT and data-handling contracts).
• Quality management certification (typically ISO 9001 or equivalent).
• Two to three relevant case studies or contract references covering similar work in the last three to five years.

Common mandatory exclusion grounds

You will be disqualified automatically if you answer "Yes" to any of the mandatory exclusion questions. The most common are:

• Conviction for corruption, fraud, money laundering, or terrorism.
• Breach of tax or social security obligations.
• Bankruptcy or insolvency proceedings.
• Grave professional misconduct.
• Conviction under the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

Discretionary exclusion grounds (where the buyer may exclude you but is not required to) include past poor performance on public contracts, anti-competitive agreements, conflicts of interest, and significant deficiencies in delivery on previous contracts that led to early termination.

The biggest mistake suppliers make

Writing fresh SQ responses for every tender. The vast majority of SQ content is reusable. Your company details do not change, your insurances do not change, your case studies barely change. The work is in maintaining a single master SQ document that you update once when your insurance renews or your accounts are published, then copy and paste from for every bid.

The buyer-specific Part 3 questions are the only section that requires custom writing each time. Even there, you can build a library of methodology statements organised by contract type that you adapt with tender-specific details. Most experienced bidders have eight to twelve reusable methodology templates that cover the bulk of Part 3 question types they encounter.

How long an SQ takes to complete

• First time: 15 to 25 hours of work spread over several days, primarily because you are gathering evidence and writing case studies from scratch.
• With a maintained master document: 2 to 4 hours, mostly tender-specific Part 3 questions.
• With Central Digital Platform integration (Procurement Act 2023): 30 minutes to verify and submit, since Part 1 evidence is pulled from your CDP profile automatically. Worth setting up even if you only bid occasionally.

Building your master SQ document

The most efficient format is a single Word or Google document organised by SQ section, with sub-sections for each common question. Update it whenever any underlying evidence changes, not in response to specific bids. Keep your insurance certificates, accreditations, and policies in one folder named with renewal dates so you can spot expiries before tender deadlines.

Treat case studies as the most valuable section. Write four to six reusable case studies organised by sector, each 250 to 400 words, focusing on outcomes (what the client achieved) rather than process narrative (what you did). Case studies that quantify results win more SQs than case studies that describe activity.

Specific advice on Part 3 (technical questions)

Part 3 questions are typically scored, so they need treating as evaluation responses rather than form-filling. The most common Part 3 question types are:

• Relevant experience (provide case studies matching the contract scope).
• Project team and key personnel (CVs of named individuals).
• Approach to risk management.
• Approach to quality assurance.
• Approach to subcontractor management.
• Capacity to deliver alongside existing commitments.

For each, write to the maximum word count, reference the buyer''s specific context, and provide concrete evidence rather than aspirational statements. The same questions appear repeatedly across tenders, so investing in strong reusable answers pays back many times over.

Practical tips

1. Maintain a master SQ document in Word or Google Docs with all your standard answers, kept up to date as evidence expires.
2. Store your insurance certificates, accreditations, and policies in one folder named with renewal dates, so you can spot expiries before tender deadlines.
3. Write four to six reusable case studies organised by sector, each 250 to 400 words, focusing on relevant outcomes rather than process narrative.
4. Register on the Central Digital Platform if you have not already; it dramatically reduces SQ overhead on Procurement Act 2023 tenders.
5. Time-block SQ updates quarterly so the document does not drift out of date in the weeks before a major bid deadline.

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The SQ is Stage 3 of the UK tender lifecycle. Once it is passed, the next stage is the Invitation to Tender response.

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