What is a Restricted tender or restricted procedure
28.—(1) In restricted procedures, any economic operator may submit a request to participate in
response to a call for competition by providing the information for qualitative selection that is
requested by the contracting authority.
Any supplier may submit a pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) or selection questionnaire (SQ)
(2) The minimum time limit for receipt of requests to participate shall, subject to paragraph (10),
be 30 days from the date on which—
The PQQ needs to be made available and open to receiving tenders for 30 days
(a) the contract notice is sent, or
(b) where a prior information notice is used as a means of calling for competition, the
invitation to confirm interest is sent.
(3) Only those economic operators invited to do so by the contracting authority following its
assessment of the information provided may submit a tender.
(PQQ’s are assessed and scored, the contracting authority will select a number of suppliers to submit a tender- minimum is 5)
(4) Contracting authorities may limit the number of suitable candidates to be invited to
participate in the procedure in accordance with regulation 65.
regulation 65.—(1) In restricted procedures, competitive procedures with negotiation, competitive dialogue procedures and innovation partnerships, contracting authorities may limit the number of candidates meeting the selection criteria that they will invite to tender or to conduct a dialogue, provided that the minimum number of qualified candidates is available, in accordance with the following paragraphs of this regulation. (2) Contracting authorities shall indicate, in the contract notice or in the invitation to confirm interest, the objective and non-discriminatory criteria or rules they intend to apply, the minimum number of candidates they intend to invite and, where applicable the maximum number. (3) In the restricted procedure, the minimum number of candidates shall be 5. (4) In the competitive procedure with negotiation, the competitive dialogue procedure and the innovation partnership procedure, the minimum number of candidates shall be 3. (5) In any event the number of candidates invited shall be sufficient to ensure genuine competition. (6) Contracting authorities shall invite a number of candidates at least equal to the minimum number indicated in accordance with paragraph (2). (7) But where the number of candidates meeting the selection criteria and the minimum levels of ability as referred to in regulation 58(19) is below that minimum number, the contracting authority may continue the procedure by inviting the candidates with the required capabilities. (8) In the context of the same procedure, the contracting authority shall not include economic operators that did not request to participate, or candidates that do not have the required capabilities.
(5) The minimum time limit for the receipt of tenders shall, subject to paragraphs (6) to (10), be
30 days from the date on which the invitation to tender is sent.
(suppliers have 30 days minimum to work on tender submissions)
(6) Where contracting authorities have published a prior information notice which was not itself
used as a means of calling for competition, the minimum time limit for the receipt of tenders as
laid down in paragraph (5) may be shortened to 10 days, provided that both of the following
conditions are fulfilled:— 28
(If a PIN notice was issued, timescales can be shortened by 10 days)
(a) the prior information notice included all the information required in section I of part B of
Annex V to the Public Contracts Directive, insofar as that information was available at
the time the prior information notice was published;
(b) the prior information notice was sent for publication between 35 days and 12 months
before the date on which the contract notice was sent.
(7) Sub-central contracting authorities may set the time limit for the receipt of tenders by mutual
agreement between the contracting authority and all selected candidates, provided that all selected
candidates have the same time to prepare and submit their tenders.
(8) In the absence of such an agreement, the time limit shall be at least 10 days from the date on
which the invitation to tender is sent.
(9) The time limit for receipt of tenders provided for by paragraph (5) may be reduced by 5 days
where the contracting authority accepts that tenders may be submitted by electronic means in
accordance with regulation 22.
(submission by email or online portal means 5 days can be taken off, I recommend you give the full min days even if electronic method is used, but this allowance should be taken into account if time is an issue)
(10) Where a state of urgency duly substantiated by the contracting authorities renders
impracticable the time limits laid down in this regulation, they may fix—
(a) a time limit for the receipt of requests to participate which shall not be less than 15 days
from the date on which the contract notice is sent, and
(In an emergency 15 days can be given to suppliers to respond)
(b) a time limit for the receipt of tenders which shall not be less than 10 days from the date
on which the invitation to tender is sent.
PRACTICAL EXAMPLE
A restricted tender is useful where there are many organisations who believe they have the skills required to service a contract. A classic example might be a contract for stationery. There could be thousands of suppliers capable of providing stationery products, but by using a restricted tender procedure the contracting authority only has to score 5 tenders. If for example an open procedure was used, the procurement team could be faced with marking thousands of tenders. In practice, this could be avoided if the open procedure is split into a gateway for the PQQ requiring a minimum score to proceed, however, under this procedure thousands of suppliers could be undertaking intensive tender work with a small chance of winning. The extra admin. the burden could be avoided if a restricted tender was adopted in the first place.