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Winning planned maintenance contracts: what clients ask for in a tender

By the Field Suite editorial team. Every fact checked against its official source (Procurement Act 2023, Procurement Regulations 2024 and Cabinet Office guidance) on 5 November 2026.

Short answer: public buyers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have tendered under the Procurement Act 2023 since 24 February 2025. You register free on Find a Tender, and buyers may only test your legal and financial capacity and technical ability, proportionately. Main contractors and private clients often ask for a pre-qualification certificate such as the Common Assessment Standard, CHAS, SafeContractor or Constructionline.

Public contracts: the Procurement Act 2023

The Act changed the rules on 24 February 2025. Cabinet Office guidance says it affects anyone supplying government departments, "the NHS, local authorities, universities, schools, social housing organisations, police and fire brigades and utility companies". The Act extends across the UK, but authorities devolved to Scotland are excluded and keep following Scottish procurement law.

Find a Tender

Public notices are published on Find a Tender, the central digital platform, which is free to use for everyone. You only need to register when you want to bid. The supplier guide lists what you will need to hand, including:

  • your Companies House number, if you have one;
  • postal address, website and email;
  • the last two years of accounts, if you have them;
  • details of any convictions or offences of the organisation or people connected to it.

Buyers must get your confirmation that this "core supplier information" is up to date and has been shared with them (Conditions of Participation guidance, para 38).

Thresholds

Procurement Act thresholds, including VAT, 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2027
Type of contractThreshold
Works contract£5,193,000
Goods or services to a central government authority£135,018
Goods or services to a sub-central government authority£207,720
Below threshold: notice required if the contract is advertised, central government (devolved Welsh central government: £30,000)£12,000
Below threshold: notice required if the contract is advertised, other contracting authorities£30,000

Most of the Act applies only above the thresholds. For a regulated contract below them, the buyer cannot add a separate stage that screens out suppliers on experience, accounts or similar suitability tests before they can tender, except for works contracts worth at least £135,018 (central government) or £207,720 (other buyers) (section 85). Implied 30-day payment terms apply to most public contracts (section 68) and to regulated below-threshold contracts (section 88). The below-threshold rules do not apply to procurement by schools or by Northern Ireland transferred authorities (section 84(2)), section 85 does not apply to devolved Welsh authorities, and section 68 does not apply to contracts awarded by schools, concession contracts or private utilities.

What a public buyer may ask you

Under section 22, "conditions of participation" may only relate to your legal and financial capacity or your technical ability to perform the contract, and must be proportionate to its nature, complexity and cost. The Cabinet Office guidance adds some limits that help small firms:

Limits on conditions of participation (Cabinet Office guidance)
TopicWhat the buyer can and cannot doGuidance para
ExperienceCan ask for public sector experience, but not experience with one particular authority13
QualificationsCannot require a particular qualification without allowing its equivalents13
AccountsCannot require audited accounts from a firm the Companies Act 2006 does not require to have them audited16
InsuranceCannot require contract insurance in place before award; can ask you to commit to having it at contract start, with evidence such as an insurer's letter. Legally required cover, such as employers' liability, can be asked for18 to 20
EvidenceCan ask for evidence a third party can verify, but it should not be overly arduous24
Relying on othersYou can meet a condition through a consortium or a named subcontractor25
Works pre-qualificationIndustry questionnaires such as the Common Assessment Standard can still be used for works contracts, if proportionate36

Your bid is then scored on the award criteria, separately from the conditions of participation (para 22).

Private clients and main contractors

Outside the Act, each client sets its own pre-qualification. Three things are worth knowing:

  • The Common Assessment Standard is Build UK's industry-agreed question set for pre-qualifying suppliers, with two levels, desktop and site-based. Companies are certified once a year by a Recognised Assessment Body, and it includes a Building Safety section. Build UK lists the organisations using it, among them BESA and several large contractors, and the assessment bodies, which include Achilles, Constructionline and Veriforce CHAS.
  • SSIP (Safety Schemes in Procurement) exists to reduce duplicated health and safety assessments. It does not assess suppliers itself: its member schemes do, and clients can check an assessment on the free SSIP Portal.
  • PAS 91, BSI's standard list of construction pre-qualification questions, was withdrawn on 21 April 2023.

CHAS, SafeContractor and Constructionline each run their own certification or membership, with their own levels and fees, described on their websites.

Evidence a maintenance tender usually turns on

Whatever the form, a planned maintenance contract asks you to show you can legally and safely do the work. Have these ready, with expiry dates:

Evidence to keep ready for building services tenders
WorkEvidenceBasis
GasGas Safe registration of the business, and engineers' ID cards showing the work they are qualified forGSIUR reg 3(3); HSE
Refrigeration, air conditioning, heat pumpsCompany F gas certificate and engineers' personal certificatesRegulation (EU) No 517/2014 as it applies in GB, Article 3(4)
Any employeesEmployers' liability insuranceAllowed as a condition of participation, Cabinet Office guidance para 20
Construction work you subcontractCIS registration and how you verify subcontractorsHMRC CIS 340
Higher-risk residential buildingsHow you meet the Building Safety Act competence dutiesSee our Building Safety Act guide

A planned maintenance schedule, priced properly, is often the heart of the method statement. Our guides to building a PPM schedule, pricing a PPM contract, subcontractor documents and the Building Safety Act for maintenance contractors cover each part.

Worked example: a council schools contract

A council in England advertises a 3-year planned maintenance contract for the boiler houses and cold water booster sets at 12 schools, estimated at £180,000 including VAT. Local councils are not on the list of central government authorities in Schedule 2 to the Procurement Regulations 2024, so the council is a sub-central government authority and the threshold for these services is £207,720.

  1. Below threshold. At £180,000 the contract is below threshold. Because it is advertised and worth more than £30,000, the council must publish a below-threshold tender notice on Find a Tender (section 87).
  2. No separate pre-qualification stage. The council cannot screen bidders out on experience or accounts before they tender (section 85).
  3. The bid. The firm registers on Find a Tender, then sends its Gas Safe registration, insurance, a PPM schedule for each site based on the manufacturers' instructions and HSG274, a price per visit and a sample service report.
  4. After award. The council must pay valid invoices within 30 days (section 88).

Had the same contract been worth £250,000, it would be above threshold, and the council could set proportionate conditions of participation, assessed separately from the award criteria.

Who does what

  • The buyer sets the conditions and award criteria in the tender notice, publishes the notices and, above threshold, gives each bidder an assessment summary of their final tender.
  • Your business keeps its core supplier information up to date on Find a Tender, holds the certificates and insurance, and answers only what was asked.
  • Assessment bodies certify you against their own scheme or the Common Assessment Standard (once a year for the Common Assessment Standard).

What to keep for every tender

  • Company details as registered: Companies House number, address, UTR and VAT status
  • Last two years of accounts
  • Certificates with expiry dates: Gas Safe, F gas company certificate, accreditation schemes
  • Insurance schedules: employers' liability, public liability, professional indemnity if relevant
  • Health and safety policy and sample risk assessments and method statements
  • Two or three anonymised examples of PPM schedules and service reports
  • Records of past performance: visits completed on time, first-time fixes, response times

Showing your records with Field Suite

  • Contracts: each maintenance contract holds its visits, repeating every set number of months, with the form attached, and the contracts page shows active contracts, annual value and visits in the next 30 days.
  • Service reports: each job produces a job sheet and certificates on your own letterhead, which you can use as samples in a bid.
  • Performance figures: the Today screen shows jobs today, punctuality, first-time fix rate and average time on site, with the trend over 7 days.
  • Documents: engineers' qualifications and subcontractors' documents are kept with expiry dates, with reminders 30 and 7 days before and on the day.

See planned maintenance software, subcontractor management, prices, or book a demo.

Field Suite is job management software, not a bid consultancy. Each tender's own documents set what it asks for.

Questions

Do I need to pay to see public tenders?

No. Cabinet Office guidance says Find a Tender is free to use and "you should not pay to view opportunities in the public sector".

Can a council insist on £10 million public liability cover before I bid?

For public contracts above threshold, buyers cannot require contract insurance to be in place before award (section 22(3)(b)). They can ask you to show you will have it from contract start.

Is PAS 91 still current?

No. BSI lists PAS 91:2013+A1:2017 as withdrawn on 21 April 2023.

Sources

Last checked: 5 November 2026 against the sources above.

Checked in detail: Procurement Act 2023 ss. 22, 50, 68, 84, 85, 86, 87 and 88 on legislation.gov.uk (s. 85 thresholds as substituted from 1.1.2026 by SI 2025/1200; s. 87(4) as substituted by SI 2024/782), Procurement Regulations 2024 Sch. 2, Cabinet Office guidance on thresholds (updated 13 July 2026), conditions of participation (updated 17 August 2026), below-threshold contracts (updated 13 July 2026) and devolved authorities (updated 15 April 2026), the February 2025 supplier guide PDF, Build UK's Common Assessment Standard page, the SSIP home page and BSI's PAS 91 page (withdrawn 21 April 2023).

Field Suite is job management software for UK building services firms, not a consultancy. Your own risk assessments, contracts and advisers decide what applies to your work. Spotted a mistake? Email info@fieldsuiteapp.com and we correct it.

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