Procurement glossary · Qualification and compliance
Selection Questionnaire
The stage of a procurement that assesses whether a supplier is eligible and capable, as opposed to whether its offer is good. It covers exclusion grounds, financial standing, insurance, accreditations and comparable experience. Most of it is pass or fail, and failing one item disqualifies a bid regardless of the quality of the rest.
Also called SQ, Standard Selection Questionnaire.
What it means in practice
The selection stage answers a different question from the award stage. Selection asks whether you should be allowed to compete. Award asks whether your offer is the best one. Confusing the two is the most common structural error in public sector bidding.
Nearly everything at selection is binary. You either hold the insurance at the required level or you do not. Your accreditation is either current and in the correct legal entity or it is not. Your accounts either meet the financial test or they do not. No amount of good writing changes a binary answer.
The part that is not binary is comparable experience, and it is where most selection responses are lost. Buyers ask for contracts similar in scope, scale and complexity, and suppliers submit their most impressive projects rather than their most similar ones. A smaller contract that matches the requirement closely scores better than a larger one that does not.
Where suppliers get caught
Certificates held in the wrong legal entity. A supplier trades as one company, holds its ISO certification in a sister company or a previous trading name, and submits it without noticing. This is a compliance failure rather than a technicality, it is found at the worst possible moment, and it takes weeks to put right.
Common questions
What is the difference between an SQ and a PQQ?
They are the same stage under different names. Pre-qualification questionnaire was the older term; selection questionnaire is the standard one now. Some buyers still use PQQ informally.
Can I fail selection on one answer?
Yes, and most selection failures are exactly that. Mandatory requirements are pass or fail, so a single missed insurance level, lapsed accreditation or absent reference ends the bid however strong the rest of the submission is.
Related terms
- Exclusion grounds
- Economic and financial standing
- Award criteria versus selection criteria
- Restricted procedure
If a tender in front of you turns on this, send us the documents and the deadline and we will tell you honestly whether it is worth bidding. Call 020 3668 5488, or read the rest of the UK procurement glossary.