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afrequently asked questions |
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1. What is an approved list? This provides the council with a “bank” of contractors that meet minimum standards of competence. The council may consider inviting these companies to tender for suitable contracts as they become available. 2. How does my company get on the Approved List? Councils carry out assessments of organisations by asking them to complete a pre-qualification questionnaire, (some councils call them PQQ’s). This provides the council with a profile of the organisation and ensures that they meet agreed standards. 3. Does everyone who applies get accepted? Not every one who applies will be accepted. If an applicant fails to meet minimum requirements for competency they will be rejected. In addition, there will be a set number of contractors that will be accepted for each category of work. Once this number has been reached that particular category will close. Vacancies to the list may occur and regular checks on the website should be made. 4. What are acceptable criteria? The main criteria is to ensure that all questions on the questionnaire are completed. For continued approval status, you must provide up to date accounts, insurance details etc., as and when they expire. 5. Does acceptance onto the Approved List mean my company will get work? Whilst it is the Council’s procedure to operate a rotational system when allocating contractors to a tender list, inclusion onto the Approved List is by no means a guarantee of work. 6. How much does applying to join the approved list cost? At this time there is no charge to join the e-approved list. However this may change in the future to align this with other organisations offering a similar service 7. Who will have access to the information on the form? All information you provide will be made available to officers responsible for the ordering and tendering of work and/or services. For Small Local Businesses (SLB), Small and Medium size Enterprises (SME) and Black and Ethnic Minority companies (BEM), the company name and service details may be published to residents, subject to agreement when the questionnaires are completed. The definitions of SMEs, SLBs and BEMs are given below. 8. What is a SME? An SME is the abbreviation for a Small to Medium Enterprise. Generally, the Government's definition of an SME is a business of 249 or less employees. 9. What is a Small Local Business (SLB)? Small local businesses (SLB) are new start-up organisations that usually provide local services to the communities in which they are located. However for the purposes of this scheme your business is classed as an SLB if you have less than 15 employees. 10. What are BEM’s BEM’s is an abbreviation for Black and Ethnic Minority Businesses (means ethnic groups other than white British). These also tend to be either SLB or SME. 11. What are the benefits of joining the e-approved list? If you are successful in your application to join one of the work categories of the approved list it means that your company details will be available to officers within all participating councils. It is the policy of London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham to operate a rotational system when allocating contractors to a tender list 12. What happened if I submit an incomplete application form? If you submit a form that is not complete then it will not be possible to process your application and therefore you will not be accepted onto the approved list for your chosen work categories. You will be made aware that your application has not been successful. 13. What if my application is not successful? If your application has not been successful, either because your application form was not complete, or because you have not met the minimum requirements for approval, then you will be contacted and invited to reapply once you have met all the minimum requirements. 14. How does the new joint approved list work with European Union procurement rules and EU thresholds? Under European legislation, councils must advertise tendering opportunities for certain high value contracts in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). Acceptance onto this approved list does not mean that the EU directives will not be followed. The current thresholds are approx £153,000 for services and supplies and approx £3,800,000 for works. 14a. What’s OJEU and how can I read it? According to EU legislation, all contracts from the public sector, which are valued above a certain threshold, must be published in the Official Journal of the European Communities. The Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU for short) is the only periodical published every working day in all 11 official languages of the European Union (EU). The term 'Journal' is misleading, as production of the hard copy version ceased in 1997. It can now be accessed on CD ROM or via intermediaries. Around 2500 new notices are advertised every week - invitations to tender, pre information notices, qualification systems and contract award notices from over 80 countries world - wide. Around 10% - 15% of these are from the UK and Northern Ireland. For further information please see ‘Tenders Electronic Daily' ('ted.') at http://ted.publications.eu.int/ or http://simap.eu.int/EN/pub/src/welcome.htm 15. I have a Health and Safety question, where can I go for help? Both councils participate
in the national Contractors Health and Safety (CHAS) Scheme. If you have
any questions regarding the CHAS scheme the answers may be found on the
CHAS website - Page updated 22 July 2005
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