What suppliers need to know about Technical Ability Certificates – Supplier Specifics

In this article, Lucy McCormack, Crown Commercial Service’s (CCS) SME Champion, provides guidance on Technical Ability Certificates and explains how small and medium-sized enterprises can successfully complete the certification process to work with the public sector.

Setting SMEs up for commercial success

CCS supports SMEs to understand and navigate public sector procurement requirements, helping them achieve commercial success while recognising the challenges they face in this process.

One aspect of public sector procurement that is necessary for SMEs to understand is the assessment of ‘conditions of participation’, which a supplier must satisfy in order to be awarded a public contract.

Conditions of participation must be a proportionate means of ensuring suppliers have the technical, legal and financial capacity to perform the contract. Typically, CCS assesses suppliers’ technical ability through the use of Technical Ability Certificates (TACs)* (Previously known as Certificates of Technical and Professional Ability under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015).

Under the Procurement Act 2023, contracting authorities must have regard to barriers that may exist for SMEs and consider if they can be removed, TACs help achieve this by simplifying and streamlining the approach to technical ability assessment to make participation more accessible. 

What are Technical Ability Certificates and why does CCS use them in the procurement process?

Technical Ability Certificates are one part of the Procurement Specific Questionnaire (PSQ) which will fulfil a similar role to the Standard Selection Questionnaire used under PCR 2015. PSQs ensure Contracting Authorities receive the necessary supplier information regarding conditions of participation, as well as exclusion and debarment information. TACs are backwards looking, considering the experience bidders have of delivering services within the scope of the contract or Lot(s) they are bidding for. 

To reduce risk, it is important that only suppliers with the necessary technical ability, as demonstrated by past performance in the delivery of contracts, are selected to bid for contracts. By verifying technical ability upfront, procurement teams can minimise the chance of selecting a supplier who lacks the necessary expertise to deliver the required quality.

As part of the PSQ, for most procurements, CCS requests that bidders complete and upload one or more TACs. The scope of the services and criteria that must be met is clearly detailed within section A of each certificate. Occasionally, a procurement may not require TACs, if CCS decides not to use them.

The purpose of a TAC is to help CCS assess potential suppliers’ suitability for contract requirements.  TACs are used to confirm suppliers have completed certain work, and met certain requirements, to the satisfaction of the buyer. This gives confidence in their ability. 

How has CCS made completing Technical Ability Certificates easier for SMEs?

The completion of TACs is streamlined to make it easier for SMEs to participate in government procurement opportunities. Recognising that smaller organisations often lack resource compared to larger organisations, the process is designed to reduce complexity and administrative burden.

For example, rather than providing extensive contract details, bidders typically only need to review Section A of the TAC and confirm their service delivery through a simple tick-box approach. To further ease the process, bidders can often reuse the same customer contract example, depending on the unique needs of the agreement, across different Lots when bidding for multiple opportunities. This helps SMEs who are bidding for multiple lots as they won’t need to find additional contract examples, requiring additional customer signatures.

The scope for acceptable contract evidence is broad. Bidders can often submit examples from public, private, or third sector work. The timeframe for contract examples is also often flexible, typically allowing evidence from contracts delivered within 3 years prior to the tender notice publication. It is sometimes acceptable for the project to have commenced earlier than 3 years prior to the publication of the contract notice, particularly if this would restrict competitions.

Additionally, organisations can sometimes use a contract that they are currently delivering that has been running for at least 6 months.

Further flexibility has been introduced by sometimes accepting contract examples where the bidder served in various capacities – as a prime contractor, key subcontractor, or consortium member. 

What are the steps SMEs need to take to complete the certification process

To complete the Technical Ability Certificate,  suppliers must complete Section A, providing contract details such as customer name, contract title, contract start and end date and tick a box to confirm that they have provided the full scope of service elements detailed in the TAC to the customer. This is followed by customer verifying that the information provided is true and accurate, by completing and signing Section B of the Technical Ability Certificate.

Finally, each TAC undergoes a compliance check against procurement questionnaire requirements, leading to either a PASS/FAIL mark as outlined in the Marking Scheme.

SME tips for TAC success

Incomplete or unverifiable submissions are the most common causes of disqualification. To help you succeed with your TAC submissions, here are 5 top tips:

1. read the instructions in the procurement specific questionnaire and the TAC itself carefully to understand what you need to complete and by when.
2. make sure you complete all of the information requested in the TAC and tick the box to confirm you have provided the full scope of the Services detailed in Section A. Each agreement has unique needs. Ensure your chosen contract example aligns with the specific deliverables required by the lot you’re bidding for
3. choose a customer that is prepared to verify the information you have provided within a reasonable timespan and be contactable in the event that clarification is required
4. if subcontractors and/or consortia delivered part of the contract being evidenced, bidders must tell CCS who they were and describe the function that each such other entity performed under the contract
5. if you are relying on the capacity of another entity e.g. a proposed key-subcontractor to demonstrate technical ability, then they should be named as the supplier

Find out more

For further support on TACs for any CCS procurement, please email info@crowncommercial.gov.uk and entitle your query “TAC query for [name of procurement]. If you require further information when bidding on a CCS procurement please follow the instructions for clarification questions in the published Bid Pack.

To learn more about how CCS is levelling the playing field for suppliers of all sizes, download our digital brochure.

We always welcome feedback, suggestions or queries. These can be submitted to smefeedback@crowncommercial.gov.uk

*Please note that suppliers must refer to the bid pack for the procurement they are bidding for, as the rules set out in the bid pack will take precedence over this guidance.