Selection Questionnaire: What It Is and How to Complete One

A selection questionnaire — commonly referred to as an SQ — is the first-stage assessment document through which public sector buyers evaluate whether suppliers meet the minimum eligibility criteria to proceed to the full tender stage of a competitive procurement. Understanding what a selection questionnaire assesses, how it differs from older questionnaire formats and how to complete one compellingly is the foundation of passing consistently and reaching the Invitation to Tender where the contract is won. This guide covers everything you need to know about the selection questionnaire in 2026.

For the complete guide to the public sector procurement process, visit our pillar guide Tendering for Contracts.

What Is a Selection Questionnaire?

A selection questionnaire is a structured document issued by a buyer at the first stage of a restricted or competitive flexible procedure. It asks suppliers to provide information about their organisation — financial standing, relevant experience, insurance levels, policies, accreditations and legal compliance — to enable the buyer to assess whether each supplier meets the minimum eligibility threshold for participation in the full tender stage.

The SQ functions as a gateway. Suppliers who meet the minimum criteria pass through to the Invitation to Tender. Suppliers who fail a mandatory criterion are excluded from the competition at that point, regardless of their delivery capability. Passing the selection questionnaire does not win the contract — it earns you the right to compete for it at the full tender stage.

The selection questionnaire was introduced by Crown Commercial Service in 2016 as a standardised replacement for the older Pre-Qualification Questionnaire format. Under the Procurement Act 2023, the SQ continues to be the standard first-stage assessment document across UK public sector procurement. Our guide to the pre-qualification questionnaire explains the older PQQ format for reference — the two documents assess the same eligibility dimensions, but the SQ reflects the current legislative framework and introduces self-certification for many compliance requirements.

Selection Questionnaire vs PQQ vs GIQ — What Is the Difference?

Three terms describe first-stage supplier eligibility assessments across UK public sector procurement. Understanding the differences — and the similarities — prevents confusion when you encounter each one in live procurement exercises.

Selection Questionnaire (SQ)

The SQ is the current standard format under the Procurement Act 2023 and its predecessor regulations. It was designed to standardise the first-stage assessment process across public sector buyers — reducing the variation that made PQQ completion burdensome for suppliers who had to provide different information in different formats for each buyer. The SQ introduced self-certification for many compliance requirements — allowing suppliers to confirm they hold the required insurance, policies and accreditations without submitting the certificates at selection stage. Evidence is typically provided at ITT stage or prior to contract award. The exclusion grounds in the SQ align with those in the Procurement Act 2023 — covering mandatory exclusions including criminal convictions, tax evasion and modern slavery offences alongside discretionary exclusions for insolvency, professional misconduct and serious performance failures.

Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ)

The PQQ is the older format that the SQ was designed to replace. While Crown Commercial Service introduced the SQ in 2016 with the intention of making it the universal standard, many buyers — particularly at local authority level and in sectors with less centralised procurement functions — continue to use PQQ format or hybrid documents that combine elements of both. Where you encounter a PQQ, the eligibility dimensions it assesses are the same as an SQ — financial standing, experience, insurance, policies and legal compliance — but the format and evidence requirements may differ. Our dedicated guide to the pre-qualification questionnaire covers the PQQ format in full.

General Information Questionnaire (GIQ)

A GIQ is simply another name for the same type of first-stage eligibility assessment. There is no specific legislative basis for the GIQ format — it is a label used by some buyers who have developed their own assessment documents rather than using the standardised SQ. Where you encounter a GIQ, treat it as you would any other first-stage selection assessment — read every question carefully, confirm you meet every eligibility criterion and complete it with the same rigour you would bring to an SQ or PQQ. The terminology differs. The assessment dimensions do not.

Regardless of which label appears on the first-stage document you are completing, the core message is the same. Read every question carefully. Confirm eligibility before investing completion time. Write quality responses to the standard that earns the highest shortlist position. Never treat any first-stage assessment as a routine box-ticking exercise — the quality of your experience responses at selection stage can determine whether you are shortlisted, which in turn determines whether you have any opportunity to win the contract at all.

What Does a Selection Questionnaire Assess?

Selection questionnaires assess a consistent set of organisational criteria across most public sector procurement exercises. The specific questions, minimum thresholds and evidence requirements vary between buyers and contracts — but the following dimensions appear in virtually every SQ you will complete.

Organisational Information

Every selection questionnaire begins by collecting basic information about your organisation — your legal name and status, your Companies House registration number, your VAT registration number, your registered address and your key contact details. Where you intend to use subcontractors or consortium partners, the SQ typically requires you to identify them and provide information about their role and financial standing alongside your own. Prepare this information in advance and keep it current in your bid library — it appears in every selection questionnaire and should never require redrafting from scratch.

Financial Standing

Financial standing assessment determines whether your organisation is financially stable enough to deliver the contract without risk of failure during the term. In an SQ, you typically self-certify that your financial standing meets the buyer’s requirements — confirming your annual turnover against the contract value threshold, confirming the absence of insolvency proceedings and confirming that your most recent accounts demonstrate financial viability. Evidence — typically your most recent two or three years of filed accounts — is requested at ITT stage or prior to contract award rather than at selection stage.

Buyers generally require annual turnover of at least double the annual contract value. Where your turnover falls below this threshold, consortium arrangements with a financially stronger partner can provide a route through the financial standing assessment. Our guide to government contracts for SMEs covers the financial standing challenge and the practical routes through it for smaller organisations.

Insurance

Selection questionnaires typically require self-certification that your organisation holds the required insurance coverage — public liability, professional indemnity and employers liability at the minimum levels specified in the SQ documents. You confirm coverage levels at selection stage. Evidence — your current insurance certificates — is provided at ITT stage or prior to contract award. Review your coverage levels before monitoring for SQ opportunities in your target sectors. An inadequate coverage level discovered at evidence-provision stage is a compliance failure that cannot be resolved after the fact.

Relevant Experience

The experience assessment is typically the most important quality dimension of the selection questionnaire. Buyers ask for two or three examples of comparable contracts delivered within the last three to five years — at a comparable scope, scale and complexity to the contract being tendered. Strong experience responses name the client, describe the service type and scale, specify the contract value and duration and quantify the outcomes achieved with measurable statistics.

This is where quality writing produces its first competitive dividend in the procurement process. In competitive SQ exercises where multiple suppliers pass the mandatory compliance criteria, quality scores on experience responses determine shortlist positions. Suppliers who write strong, specific, quantified experience responses at selection stage are shortlisted. Suppliers who provide vague, generic descriptions may not be — even when their actual delivery capability is strong. Our guide to writing case studies for tenders gives you the framework for building experience responses that earn the highest shortlist positions.

Policies and Compliance

Selection questionnaires typically require self-certification that you have appropriate policies in place covering health and safety, quality management, environmental management, equality and diversity, data protection and modern slavery. You confirm the existence and scope of these policies at selection stage. The policies themselves are typically requested as evidence at ITT stage or prior to contract award.

Maintaining current, properly structured policies is a core element of organisational tender readiness. A selection questionnaire that requires a data protection policy you have not yet developed cannot be passed while you develop it — the deadline will not wait. Our guide to being tender ready gives you the complete framework for ensuring your policies are always current and submission-ready before opportunities arise.

Quality and Environmental Accreditations

ISO 9001 quality management accreditation is frequently referenced as advantageous or required in selection questionnaires across public sector procurement. ISO 14001 environmental management, Cyber Essentials for information security and a range of sector-specific accreditations also appear regularly. Where an accreditation is listed as a mandatory requirement in the SQ, its absence is a mandatory fail — meaning no amount of quality writing in other sections can compensate. Review which accreditations are most commonly required across the contracts you target and invest in obtaining them proactively.

Legal and Exclusion Declarations

Every selection questionnaire includes mandatory declarations covering your organisation’s legal status, its compliance with relevant legislation and the absence of grounds for mandatory or discretionary exclusion under the Procurement Act 2023. Mandatory exclusion grounds include serious criminal convictions, tax evasion, fraud, corruption, bribery and modern slavery offences. Discretionary exclusion grounds include insolvency, professional misconduct and significant performance failures on previous public sector contracts.

These declarations must be completed accurately and honestly. False declarations are grounds for immediate disqualification and potentially for debarment from future public procurement. Where your organisation has any compliance history that might trigger an exclusion ground, seek specialist procurement legal advice before completing and submitting the selection questionnaire.

How Selection Questionnaires Are Assessed

Selection questionnaires are assessed in two stages — mandatory pass/fail compliance checks followed by scored quality assessment where quality questions are included.

The compliance stage assesses mandatory criteria — financial standing, insurance self-certification, legal declarations and mandatory policy confirmations — on a pass/fail basis. A single mandatory failure is sufficient for exclusion from the competition. There is no averaging or weighting across mandatory criteria. Passing every mandatory criterion is the non-negotiable prerequisite for shortlisting.

Where the SQ includes scored quality questions — experience responses, additional capability assessments or specific quality criteria — these are evaluated using mark descriptor frameworks. Suppliers who pass all mandatory criteria are ranked by their quality scores. The highest-scoring suppliers up to the shortlist number are invited to submit a full tender response. In highly competitive SQ exercises, quality scores at shortlisting stage can be decisive — making the standard of your experience responses as important as compliance with mandatory criteria.

How to Complete a Selection Questionnaire Successfully

Completing a selection questionnaire successfully requires the same preparation discipline as any competitive submission. Read every question carefully before completing any section. Note every mandatory criterion, every minimum threshold and every self-certification requirement. Identify any criterion your organisation does not currently meet and determine whether the gap can be closed before the submission deadline — or whether a disciplined bid no bid decision to decline the opportunity is the right call.

Never treat the selection questionnaire as a standard form to complete quickly. Small variations between SQ documents — a different insurance threshold, an additional policy requirement, a specific experience criterion — can catch suppliers who assume every SQ is the same as the last one. Read every question in every SQ fresh. Confirm eligibility specifically against this buyer’s stated requirements before committing completion resource.

Write experience responses to the highest possible standard. Use the full word count available. Name specific clients, contracts, values and outcomes. Quantify every performance claim with measurable statistics. Select the most directly comparable examples — mirroring the contract type, sector and scale of the opportunity you are pursuing. Where the SQ allows, include client reference details that give the buyer confidence your experience claims are verifiable.

Maintain your bid library with current versions of all documents typically required at or after the SQ stage — accounts, insurance certificates, accreditations and policies. A well-organised bid library makes SQ completion faster, stronger and less stressful — because the information is organised, the documents are current and the experience responses are already developed to a high standard rather than being drafted reactively under deadline pressure.

Submit on time. Selection questionnaire portals close at the stated deadline. Late submissions are rejected without exception. Submit at least twenty-four hours before the deadline. Confirm receipt. Save the confirmation. Our tender submission checklist includes the pre-submission verification steps that make compliance failures and late submissions impossible.

Frequently Asked Questions About Selection Questionnaires

What is a selection questionnaire?

A selection questionnaire is the current standard first-stage assessment document through which public sector buyers evaluate whether suppliers meet the minimum eligibility criteria to proceed to the full tender stage of a competitive procurement. It assesses financial standing, relevant experience, insurance levels, policies, accreditations and legal compliance. Suppliers who pass the SQ are shortlisted and invited to submit a full tender response. Suppliers who fail a mandatory criterion are excluded from the competition at that point.

What is the difference between a selection questionnaire and a PQQ?

Both assess the same first-stage supplier eligibility dimensions — financial standing, experience, insurance, policies and legal compliance. The SQ is the current standardised format introduced in 2016 and aligned with the Procurement Act 2023. The PQQ is the older format it was designed to replace. The SQ introduced self-certification for many compliance requirements — allowing suppliers to confirm rather than evidence at selection stage. Many buyers continue to use PQQ format or hybrid documents. Where you encounter either, treat it as a first-stage eligibility assessment and complete it with the same rigour.

What happens if I fail a selection questionnaire?

Failing a mandatory criterion on a selection questionnaire excludes you from the competition entirely. You cannot proceed to the Invitation to Tender stage or submit a quality response. There is no appeal or correction mechanism within the selection questionnaire process once the deadline has passed. This is why pre-submission eligibility checking is so important — confirming that you meet every mandatory criterion before investing completion resource in any SQ exercise.

How many contract examples do I need for a selection questionnaire?

Most selection questionnaires ask for two or three contract examples from within the last three to five years at a comparable scope and scale to the contract being tendered. The specific number and recency requirement are stated in the SQ documents. Always check the stated requirement before selecting your examples — assuming the standard number without reading the specific requirement risks non-compliance.

Do I need ISO accreditations to pass a selection questionnaire?

It depends on the specific SQ. Some selection questionnaires require ISO 9001, ISO 14001 or sector-specific accreditations as mandatory pass criteria — in which case their absence is a mandatory fail. Others list accreditations as advantageous rather than mandatory — awarding higher scores to accredited suppliers without excluding unaccredited ones. Always read the SQ documents carefully to determine whether specific accreditations are mandatory or discretionary for each specific opportunity you pursue.

How do I improve my selection questionnaire success rate?

Maintain current policies, accreditations and insurance documentation at all times. Develop strong, quantified case studies from every comparable contract you deliver. Apply a disciplined bid no bid decision to confirm eligibility before every SQ. Write experience responses to the highest possible standard — using the full word count and providing specific, quantified, directly comparable evidence. Keep your bid library current so every required document is immediately accessible. Our guide to being tender ready gives you the complete organisational readiness framework that makes SQ success consistent.

Written by Joshua Smith, a seasoned bid-writing expert with experience across the UK, Middle East and US, helping organisations secure the contracts they deserve through high-quality, competitive tender responses.

Pass the SQ. Win the ITT. Get the Contract.

The selection questionnaire is the first competitive stage in any restricted procurement. Getting through it consistently — with strong compliance, current documentation and experience responses that earn the highest shortlist positions — is the foundation every winning bid programme is built on.

We help organisations prepare for selection questionnaires, complete them compellingly and build the bid readiness that makes passing them a reliable outcome. Over a decade across the UK, Middle East and US — we know how to get through the gate and win what is on the other side.

Explore our tender writing services and pass your next selection questionnaire with confidence.