The Procurement Specific Questionnaire (PSQ): what suppliers are asked and how to prepare

The PSQ is a template published by the Cabinet Office on its Procurement Pathway service. Its page says it helps contracting authorities receive three things: core supplier information from the Central Digital Platform, additional information on exclusions and debarment, and information on conditions of participation. It says the PSQ will fulfil a similar role to the Standard Selection Questionnaire used under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.

It is a template, not a form every buyer must use. The government’s guidance on conditions of participation notes that the Act does not prescribe how suppliers show they meet the conditions, and that participation templates may be used if they comply with the Act. So the PSQ in your pack may be the Cabinet Office template, a version the buyer has adapted, or the buyer’s own questions on its portal. Read the one you are given.

Much of what an old questionnaire asked, such as your company details, connected persons, accounts and any exclusion events, now sits in your record on the Central Digital Platform. You share it with a share code. The guidance says that where information the regulations put on the platform is missing, the buyer must not ask for it separately: it should ask you to add it to the platform.

So if your record is complete and your share code is current, this part is quick. If it is not, it is the first thing to fix. Our Central Digital Platform guide covers registration and share codes.

Every supplier is checked against exclusion grounds. Mandatory grounds mean the buyer must exclude; discretionary grounds mean it may. Events more than five years old cannot be considered. The checks reach your connected persons, such as directors and parent companies, and your associated persons: the suppliers you rely on to meet the conditions, usually first-tier sub-contractors or consortium members. Buyers must also check the government’s debarment list.

If something applies, the guidance says it is for the supplier to show it has “self-cleaned”. Evidence that counts includes compensation paid, changes of staff or management, new procedures and training, and specific commitments with a way for the buyer to monitor them. Concrete action carries more weight than promises, and time passing is not enough on its own. If an associated person or sub-contractor triggers a ground, you must be given the chance to replace them first.

These are the buyer’s pass/fail tests of your legal and financial capacity and your technical ability. They must be proportionate to the contract’s nature, complexity and cost. The guidance also sets limits worth knowing:

• No demand for audited accounts from a supplier not already required to have them audited; the buyer must look at other evidence.
• No requirement to hold contract-related insurance before award. The buyer can require it from the start of the contract and ask for evidence; a commitment from an insurer is checked before award.
• Experience can be required, including public sector experience, but not experience with that particular authority.
• Where a qualification is named, equivalents must be accepted.
• You can meet a condition through another supplier, such as a consortium member, a sub-contractor or a guarantor, if a legally binding arrangement is in place.

Answers to the conditions are assessed separately from the tender. Once you meet them, your tender is judged on the award criteria alone. A buyer may also let a supplier go forward on condition that it meets a requirement by a later stage, and should say so in the tender notice.

Procurements started before 24 February 2025 still run under the old rules, so a tender under a framework set up before then may follow them. The tender notice says which regime applies.

1. Your platform record and a fresh share code for this tender.
2. Financial evidence: your latest accounts, and, if they are not audited, other evidence a third party can check. The guidance gives bank data and credit ratings as examples.
3. Insurance: current certificates, or a broker’s letter committing to the levels the buyer sets from the contract start.
4. Experience: two or three contracts like this one, with dates, values and a contact who will answer.
5. Qualifications and accreditations: certificates with their expiry dates, and what you hold instead where the buyer names a scheme you do not have.
6. Anyone you rely on: each sub-contractor or consortium member, what they will do, and the agreement that binds them.
7. Any exclusion matter: a short, factual account of what happened and what has changed since, with documents.
8. The buyer’s own extras: policies, plans or declarations its PSQ or specification asks for. These vary by buyer, so list them from the pack.

Then mark each PSQ question pass/fail or scored, note its deadline and who answers it, and ask a clarification question about anything that looks disproportionate. Our guide to pass/fail questions sets out that check step by step.

1. Procurement Pathway (Cabinet Office): (PA 2023) Procurement Specific Questionnaire, template page, Open Government Licence v3.0. www.procurementpathway.civilservice.gov.uk/documents/template/pa-2023-procurement-specific-questionnaire/finalise-and-publish-procurement-pack
2. Procurement Act 2023 guidance: Conditions of Participation (paras 1–3, 8, 11, 13–29, 37–39), updated 17 August 2026. www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-act-2023-guidance-documents-procure-phase/guidance-conditions-of-participation-html
3. Procurement Act 2023 guidance: Exclusions (paras 12, 27–29, 33–52, 53–66), updated 17 August 2026. www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-act-2023-guidance-documents-procure-phase/guidance-exclusions-html
4. Procurement Act 2023 guidance: Central Digital Platform and Publication of Information (paras 59–63), updated 17 August 2026. www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-act-2023-guidance-documents-procure-phase/guidance-central-digital-platform-and-publication-of-information-html
5. PPN 003: The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 (paras 6–7: the Act and the 2024 Regulations apply to procurements started on or after 24 February 2025). www.gov.uk/government/publications/ppn-003-the-public-services-social-value-act-2012/ppn-003-the-public-services-social-value-act-2012-html
6. For contrast: PPN 8/16, the Standard Selection Questionnaire (the Public Contracts Regulations 2015). www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-policy-note-816-standard-selection-questionnaire-sq-template

Read on 24 October 2026. Guidance and tender documents change; check the current version before relying on any detail. Examples that use a fictional supplier say so.