What a pre-qualification questionnaire actually asks for

What changed in 2025

The Procurement Act 2023 went live on 24 February 2025. For suppliers the practical change is the Central Digital Platform: core organisation information — Companies House number, address, accounts, connected persons with significant control, relevant convictions — is registered once and shared with buyers, rather than retyped into every submission.

Suppliers register through Find a Tender, and previously registered suppliers had to re-register. The Act also brings a formal exclusions and debarment regime, and a competitive flexible procedure alongside the standard open route.

Below-threshold work, frameworks and private-sector buyers still use their own questionnaires, so the traditional PQQ format has not gone away. What has changed is that the core information is held in one place.

Economic and financial standing

Buyers test whether the supplier can carry the contract financially. Expect requests for two or three years of accounts, turnover against contract value — a common rule of thumb caps a single contract at a proportion of annual turnover — a credit rating check, and confirmation there is no insolvency event.

A young company will not have three years of accounts. Saying so plainly, and offering what does exist — filed accounts to date, a parent or director guarantee, a bank reference — is a better answer than an evasive one. Buyers are used to it; what they will not accept is a gap with no explanation.

Technical and professional ability

Usually two or three contract examples of similar scope, value and sector, from the last three to five years, with a client contact who can be approached.

This is the section that decides most shortlists, and there is no way to answer it other than truthfully. Relevance beats scale: a smaller project of genuinely similar type and constraint is a better example than a larger one that is nothing like the work.

Insurance

Buyers state the cover levels required and ask for confirmation the supplier holds them or will hold them on award. The usual three are public liability, employers' liability — compulsory for any company with employees — and professional indemnity where any design responsibility sits with the contractor.

"Will obtain if successful" is an acceptable answer to a required level above current cover, provided it is stated honestly and the broker will confirm it.

Health and safety

Expect a health and safety policy signed and dated by a director, the arrangements for competence and training, the RIDDOR record for the last three years, any enforcement action, and a named competent person providing health and safety advice.

Many buyers accept a recognised SSIP-member scheme as evidence and skip the detailed questions where one is held. Where it is not, the questions are answered in full.

Quality, environment and the rest

Quality management arrangements, and whether they are certified. Environmental management and waste. Equality and diversity policy. Modern slavery statement or policy. Data protection. Social value, which in public work carries a stated weighting and is increasingly where bids are won and lost.

Certification is often desirable rather than mandatory. Where a scheme is not held, the honest answer is to describe the arrangements that are actually in place and say the certification is not held.

What we hold

ATR Developments Limited is registered in England and Wales, company number 16319104, incorporated 16 March 2025. The registered office is 383 Whitehall Road, Wyke, Bradford, BD12 9DP.

Insurance cover levels, certification and accreditation status are set out on the accreditations and insurance page, and the health, safety and compliance page carries our arrangements. We list what we hold and we do not list what we do not. Where a buyer needs something we cannot yet evidence, we will say so at the enquiry stage rather than at the award stage.