How to respond to an advertisement for tenders

The way in which you should respond to an advertisement for a tender, and therefore the information you need to send us, depends on the type of advertisement we issued for a given tender.  You may need to read How we Advertise for Tender Opportunities before you understand the terms used in this page.

Open invitations

All you need to do is to contact the Fire Service employee named in the advertisement and ask for a tender pack for the contract.

Expressions of interest

If the advertisement asks you to express an interest in a tender opportunity you will need to email the named contact and ask for a Pre Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ).  The type of information requested in the PQQ is:

  • Details of incorporation if you are a company
  • Financial statement/company trading accounts
  • Customer/trade references
  • Health and safety policies
  • Equal opportunity policies
  • Insurances
  • Quality/training and environmental systems.

For higher value or more complex contracts you will also be asked:

  • About relevant experience
  • About the staff who will work on the Fire Authority's contract
  • For more information about your health and safety, environmental and equality policies.

With the PQQ, you will be given more information about the subject matter of the contract.

You will need to complete and return the PQQ to the name and address supplied by the specified return date.

The Fire Authority will use the information in the PQQ to draw up a shortlist of the most suitably qualified organisations to meet the particular requirements of the contract.  These companies will then be invited to submit a tender for the contract.  You will be informed about the outcome of your PQQ on or around the date specified in the PQQ.

A sample PQQ can be viewed by following this link - PDF document, 169 KB.

The Fire Authority has set criteria which organisations wanting to do business with the Fire Authority will need to meet.  These are in three categories - legal, financial and technical:

Legal

  • You must accept English law as the governing law of any contract and the jurisdiction of the English Courts
  • You must accept our contract conditions (where these are supplied), although minor changes may be agreed if they are in the interests of both parties
  • You must have no convictions for serious environmental offences, fraud, corruption of other major breaches of the Companies Act in the last three years or, if you have, you can explain what steps your company has taken to respond to such conviction;
  • You have no findings of unlawful discrimination of any kind in the employment field against your company in the last three years or, if you have, you can explain what steps you have taken to respond to such findings

Financial

  • You must pass a financial check usually based on your (preferably audited) accounts/financial statements
  • You must provide evidence of an acceptable level of public liability insurance, employers liability insurance, and professional indemnity insurance where required.  Very occasionally and dependent upon the subject matter of the contract, we may require additional/alternative specialist insurances.

Technical

  • You must meet the technical requirements as set out in the specification
  • You must provide references for your company that we can contact
  • You must provide evidence of any quality standards (appropriate to the requirements of the contract) held by your company
  • You must provide (as a minimum) a company policy statement covering health and safety, environment and equalities aspects of your business that must meet legislative requirements.

Continue to:  The tendering process.