3. This guidance note is designed to assist project teams seeking to obtain and assess information from potential tenderers at the pre-qualification stage of a PFI project, regardless of whether the project is exempt from the full application of EU Public Procurement Regulations.
4. This note focuses on PFI-specific issues. Project teams should follow generic guidance on pre-qualification questionnaires produced by the Commercial Services Group available on the Acquisition Operating Framework (AOF). In this note, that guidance is referred to as 'The PQQ Guidance'.
5. As noted in The PQQ Guidance, the primary purpose of the PQQ is to obtain sufficient information to enable MOD to assess the suitability of potential suppliers to meet the subject requirement.
6. This guidance note also looks at the purpose and content of an Information Memorandum to provide more project details to potential tenderers replying to the PQQ.
7. Project teams considering a PFI project must, as with any project, ascertain whether or not they are required to apply a process entirely in accordance with the procedures set down in EU regulations, including advertisement in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). Briefly, projects may be exempt from full application if they are in respect of 'warlike stores', in the interests of national security and/or fall below financial thresholds. Further detail on these exemptions is available on the AOF. Any project team seeking to apply any of the exemptions MUST verify its view with MOD's internal legal advisers.