Following the last update of PAS 91 in 2013, at the end of 2017, the British Standards Institute published the long-awaited amendment to the PAS 91 Prequalification Questionnaire used by many public sector construction clients. The amendments have been made to ensure that PAS aligns with new legislation, in particular the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (‘CDM’).
The amendments include the following:
- minor changes to the text of some questions;
- an updated section on health and safety, containing 12 general questions more closely linked to specific CDM roles, (i.e. no longer referring to the now defunct CDM 2007 CDM Co-ordinator role);
- amendments to questions about supplier identity and financial information;
- there are also four “optional” modules that clients can choose to apply on – equal opportunity and diversity, Building Information Modelling, environmental policies and quality management;
- new questions covering mandatory and discretionary grounds for exclusion and legislation relating to the Immigration Act and the Minimum Wage Act; and
- new tables, for use by public sector purchasers, with suppliers required to self-declare compliance.
The intention appears to be that PAS 91:2013+A1:2017 is used as the standard questionnaire for procurement of works contracts over the relevant thresholds, without the need to mix and match with the standard Selection Questionnaire published by the Crown Commercial Service.
