What is the Single Procurement Document (SPD)?

The Single Procurement Document or SPD is a standard questionnaire that contains questions used at the selection stage of a procurement exercise i.e.  it allows procurement officers to ask questions to identify suitably qualified and experienced bidders for their procurement. This is ensure that public money is spent with lawful, capable and stable suppliers. 

Questions in the SPD are generic. In some cases, the procurement officer must add to the standard SPD selection questions with specific minimum requirements. Procurement officers must ensure that any such requirements are proportionate to the value and risk of the contract, and are not demanding for bidders.

You will use your SPD response to indicate whether your organisation can meet the requirements of the procurement exercise.

The SPD questionnaire is a self-declaration form which means bidders do not need to provide any evidence upfront unless there are clear reasons for doing so.

• ensure a consistent process;
• reduce supplier workload;
• remove barriers to bidding, especially for small suppliers.

The SPD template used by public sector procurement officers can be found in the Procurement Journey.

An SPD is:

• mandatory to use by procurement officers for higher value regulated procurements
• best practice to use by procurement officers for £50k (excluding VAT) and above contracts for goods and services i.e. regulated procurements.

The SPD will be issued to bidders in either of two separate procedures:

• if it is part of a one stage procedure, it will be issued alongside the other procurement documents and will be assessed on a pass/fail basis
• If it is part of a two stage procedure, it will be issued alone and the buyer will shortlist the number of suppliers to take through to the second stage. In this instance most of the SPD will be assessed on a pass/fail basis but the buyer may wish to score and weight the technical section.

SPD Questionnaire

The SPD questionnaire is split into 3 sections:

You should answer all questions truthfully and if you need further clarification, contact the procurement officer.

What do I need to do if I am relying on others or using a sub-contractor?

Where you are relying on others to meet the selection criteria for your bid (for example you are bidding as part of a consortium or you are using a sub contractor) you need to complete a separate SPD response from each of the organisations/groups you are relying on to make your bid.

Each organisation/group must complete the exclusion criteria section of the SPD and whichever selection questions you are relying on them for.

If you are using a sub-contractor (but not relying on them to meet the selection criteria) each sub-contractor should complete an SPD response. In this instance, they will only need to complete the exclusion criteria.

The main bidder is responsible for collecting and submitting all of the SPD’s required as part of the bid being made.

All of the SPD responses will be evaluated alongside the main bidders’ SPD.

Format of the SPD

The SPD is available in three formats.  These are:

The SPD Word Document

• the SPD Word document is available via the PCS postbox. The SPD word document is available via the PCS postbox and suppliers should enter their answers into the Word document and submit it via the postbox.
• the procurement officer will delete or score out any questions which are not relevant to their procurement exercise
• if the procurement officer has included any questions which require minimum requirements these will be included in the Contract Notice or in the procurement documents

 PCS SPD Module

• the module allows procurement officers to create their SPD requests electronically 
• you do not require any additional or new log-ins and the SPD will be available as part of your postbox response.
• the procurement officer will select the questions that are proportionate and relevant to the procurement exercise
• the procurement officer will add minimum requirements beside the relevant question.  As a result this information does not need to be added into the Contract Notice
• you will complete your SPD response online and submit it with any other documents within your PCS postbox prior to the closing date and time of the tender.  
• you can create a Profile with all your answers to the SPD  questions saved within it. These can be used to prepopulate future SPD responses Please note: you must ensure that the responses are still correct and relevant to any  future procurement exercise

The SPD in PCS-Tender

• the SPD questions will be built into the relevant PCS-Tender project (procurement exercise)
• the procurement officer will select the questions that are proportionate and relevant to their procurement exercise online in PCS-Tender.  These are the only questions you will see
• if the procurement officer has any SPD (Scotland) questions which require minimum requirements these will be added into the Contract Notice or within the procurement documents
• the Contract Notice in PCS will include a link to PCS-Tender
• to bid, respond to the questions online in PCS-Tender and submit with any other bid documents you may have before the tender deadline;
• any previous PCS-Tender responses saved as a supplier profile will automatically be pre-populated into future SPD responses.  Please note: you must ensure that the responses are still correct and relevant to any new, future procurement exercise