Selection criteria are concerned with the capability and capacity of an economic operator to deliver the contract. They do not focus on how an economic operator proposes to perform the contract; this is assessed at the award stage.
Any selection criteria deemed appropriate must be tested through the format of the Single Procurement Document (SPD). Buyers must issue an SPD for procurement exercises over the threshold (route 3) and it is recommended that it is also used for all route 2 procurements.
The SPD consists of a fixed set of questions that allows bidders to self-declare whether they meet the exclusion and selection criteria.
Contracting authorities must incorporate statements into their contract notice or prior information notice (PIN) to help with the interpretation of the standardised questions in the SPD.
We have published the SPD Standard Statements document which is available to download from the Procurement Journey and provides some additional guidance on how to use the SPD.
If you are looking for experience of health and safety in the past, then this could be worked into the experience related sections of the SPD (parts 4C.1 and 4C.1.2 ask candidates to provide relevant examples of contracts carried out in the past, “as specified in the Contract Notice”).
Below is an example of a statement you could include in your contract notice:
‘In answering question 4C.1, please [also] describe your experience of your experience of improving health and wellbeing of the users of your service over the past [3 or 5 years, depending on type of contract] where measurable improvements have been secured.’
