03 Oct ESPD – European Single Procurement Document
What is it?
It is a standardised selection questionnaire designed to help bidders speed up the selection stage of the procurement tender process. As part of the Europe 2020 strategy the ESPD standardisation process for tenders across Europe the ESPD was meant to open the market up by making the tender process accessible to all and help businesses to grow.
The ESPD allows companies to self-certify, providing proof at a later date if required, that they meet the criteria on requirements for insurance and accreditation’s for example. From a buyers point of view it is a standardised document with little room for adaption to suit their requirements.
How does it affect the bidder?
As part of the European directive all European countries are required to use it from April 2018. However within the UK there are 3 separate implementations of this. Any contract put out to Tender is obliged to accept ESPD if this is how the bidder submits it application.
- Scotland- From April 2016 they replaced the SPQQ (Standard Pre – Qualification Questionnaire) and ESPD is used in the first stages of the tender process. It has 6 parts covering Supplier information, declarations, exclusions and selection criteria.
- England – Whilst buyers are obliged to accept an ESPD it is uncommon for these to be used and instead the SSQ is used, with a clause stating that if the bidder submits the ESPD in place of an SSQ they may be requested to submit more information. Therefore almost making the ESPD process void and pointless for the bidder to do.
- Wales – Use SQuID (Supplier Qualification Information Database) as their standard and simple selection process which will be replaced in due course this year with ESPD.
What now?
With the uncertainty of Brexit no one knows what is going to happen with the procurement process but it is important to understand what the ESPD is and how you as a business complete them and potentially accept them.
