Free SQ readiness checker (Procurement Act 2023): are you ready to bid?

Worked example

A 30-person building contractor scores 77%. Two fixes get it to Ready.

Four years trading, three school extension projects, CHAS and ISO 9001. It registered on the Central Digital Platform in spring 2025 and hasn't looked at it since. Here is what the checker returned.

Notice what didn't cost points: the references. Firms panic about experience and ignore the admin. For the quality stage that follows, our construction bid writing guide shows what evaluators look for next.

SQ and selection questions, answered.

• What replaced the Selection Questionnaire under the Procurement Act 2023?

  For procurements started on or after 24 February 2025, the old standard SQ has been split in two. Your basic company details, connected persons, exclusion declarations and financial information now live as core supplier information on the Central Digital Platform, which you complete once and share with each buyer. The buyer then sets conditions of participation under section 22 of the Act: financial standing, technical ability, insurance, health and safety, quality and so on. So the questions look familiar. They just arrive in a different order and you answer the company-level ones once, not on every tender.

• How do I register on the Central Digital Platform?

  Create a supplier account on Find a Tender, then register your organisation and fill in your core supplier information. That covers basic details (name, address, Companies House number, VAT), connected persons such as directors and anyone with significant control, the exclusion declarations, and your financial information. When you bid, you share it with the buyer from the platform. Keep it current. Check it every time before you submit, and update it straight away if a director changes or you file new accounts. Buyers will not wait while you fix your registration after the deadline.

• What are the exclusion grounds under the Procurement Act 2023?

  Two lists. Mandatory grounds in Schedule 6 cover serious offences such as fraud, bribery, corruption, modern slavery offences and some tax evasion. Discretionary grounds in Schedule 7 cover things like poor past performance, insolvency, professional misconduct and breach of competition law. They apply to your connected persons and to subcontractors or group companies you rely on, not just the bidding company. If something happened, you can still bid if you show evidence of self-cleaning: what went wrong, what you changed and why it won't happen again. There is also a central debarment list.

• What is PAS 91 and do I still need it?

  PAS 91 was the British Standards Institution's standard pre-qualification questionnaire, mainly used in construction. It used to shape most public sector SQs, and you will still see its modules (health and safety, quality, environment, equality) in buyer questions. But no UK buyer now runs a procurement on PAS 91 as such. Under the Procurement Act 2023, company details and exclusions sit on the Central Digital Platform and everything else is a condition of participation. Keep the evidence PAS 91 asked for. Stop calling it PAS 91.

• Do I need SSIP or ISO 9001 to pass selection?

  It depends on the sector. For site-based work (construction, facilities, maintenance) SSIP is close to essential, ISO 9001 not always. Buyers usually set a health and safety condition that an SSIP member scheme (CHAS, SafeContractor, SMAS or Constructionline) meets in one go, and without it you have to answer a long H&S questionnaire from scratch. ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 help most above about £500k a year. Buyers can accept a documented equivalent, but proving an equivalent takes pages of evidence. The certificate takes one upload. If you only fund one thing this year for site-based work, fund SSIP. For IT and consultancy, Cyber Essentials usually matters more.

• How does the SQ readiness checker score me?

  Each section lists the documents and registrations buyers ask for. You tick what you hold today. The checker works out a percentage for each section, averages them, and gives you a verdict: Ready at 90% or more, Borderline at 70% to 89%, Major gaps below 70%. It adds a sector section for construction, IT and digital, health and care, consultancy, facilities or transport, because sector conditions are where specialist bids fail. Your answers stay in your browser unless you choose to email yourself the results.

• What happens if I fail a condition of participation?

  The buyer can exclude your bid before any quality answers are scored, so the work on the rest of the tender is wasted. Conditions must be proportionate to the contract and can only test legal and financial capacity or technical ability (section 22 of the Procurement Act 2023). If a condition looks disproportionate, for example a turnover test several times the contract value, raise a clarification question early. Buyers often accept equivalent evidence, such as other accounts or a parent company guarantee, if you ask before the deadline.

• Do SMEs get any help under the Procurement Act 2023?

  Yes, in a few ways. Buyers must have regard to the barriers SMEs face and consider whether they can be removed or reduced (section 12). Financial conditions must be proportionate, and buyers can no longer insist on audited accounts from suppliers who are not legally required to have them. Public sector buyers must also pay undisputed invoices within 30 days, and that duty flows down the supply chain. None of that changes the evidence you need, but it does make more contracts realistic for smaller firms.