Clarifications

As Order Schedule 14 is part of the Terms and Conditions, any applicable service metrics would have to be included (and highlighted!) to bidders as part of the tender bid pack, so you (as the potential bidder) would have sight of it to review before deciding whether to spend your time on bidding for the opportunity.

This is between CCS and the supplier, therefore any penalty with respect to repeated delays in provision of MI would be first discussed with you. There are conversations that would be had between CCS and the supplier long before penalties are employed, and these would be communicated clearly if no resolution could be agreed upon.

As the potential confidentiality agreement would be between the contracting authority (buyer/customer) and the supplier, they may differ depending on the government department undertaking the procurement. CCS does not mandate a template for other government departments to use.

Order Schedule 7 is an optional schedule. This means that the contracting authority (buyer/customer) can choose not to use it at all. Typically, it is not used at all if the contract duration is less than a year, or if listing key staff is not applicable to the specific requirement/situation. This schedule is very much used practically and would not be implemented unnecessarily - it will be made clear at the beginning of the tender whether the customer is using it or not and you will have an opportunity to clarify with them during the clarification period if it is unclear or impractical.

Yes, as long as you can provide your cyber essentials certificate by the commencement of first contract.

They are defined in the Joint Schedule 1 Definitions as follows: Compliance Officer - the person(s) appointed by the Supplier who is responsible for ensuring that the Supplier complies with its legal obligations. Marketing Contact - shall be the person identified in the DPS Agreement Form. For smaller businesses these roles may not be applicable so it is acceptable for them to be not completed or listed as 'not applicable'.

CCS is happy for this document, the Letter of Confirmation to be amended in order to change section 2 to reflect the organisation correctly and to best suit the contracting authority who is supporting your application by confirming the work you undertook - please be reassured that these documents are not contractual (despite the look and feel of them).

CCS is happy for this document, the Letter of Confirmation to be amended in order to change section 2 to reflect the organisation correctly and to best suit the contracting authority who is supporting your application by confirming the work you undertook - please be reassured that these documents are not contractual (despite the look and feel of them).

A condition is that suppliers must produce a Carbon Reduction Plan and publish it to their website in line with Procurement Policy Note 06/21. This is required for continued appointment to the DPS irrespective of whether you intend to bid for contracts above £5M or not. we will accept a plan that does not contain all of the required Scopes listed in the PPN provided that you are committed to working towards provision of a final version with all of the required scopes in the near future.

Please send a message to info@crowncommercial.gov.uk with your request and someone can look into this for you.

In this instance you could input your immediate parent company postcode in order to get through the application.

They are non-applicable as per the bid pack.

This question is no longer applicable.

The word limit is 4096 characters (including spaces) as per the bid pack.

Yes, that is correct, evidence is not required to be submitted at submission stage for Q166-Q172, Q176 and Q179-185 as per the DPS Needs document.

Yes, please use Attachment 1a for the confirmation of work undertaken. Yes, there can be an overlap with the project example provided under Attachment 1.

If you are registered as a supplier for RM6018 Research Market place then you are able at the Supplier Questionnaire stage to use the option to "re-use an existing questionnaire" before moving to the DPS specific questionnaire.

You must provide one example of research work undertaken. Your response must include: A summary of the works/contract, demonstrating your technical capability and capacity to deliver a research project, detailing: - project name and research topic - research participants (where applicable) - methodology and approach The objectives and/or key performance indicators, set by the customer at the start of the contract, and how you were able to meet them (including targets and the results you achieved). The compliance criteria follows: Example can be from public or private sector Example provided must relate to services delivered during the past three (3) years, prior to publication of the contract notice to be valid as evidence for this procurement (i.e. not started before October 2018) The customer contact provided must be notified by you that they may be contacted by the Authority (the Authority reserves the right to validate the accuracy of details provided) Example must clearly and unambiguously fall within the scope of the research services Example of a contract awarded under Framework/DPS Agreements via call off contracts will be considered valid, but Framework Agreements themselves will NOT be considered valid Customer contact provided must not have been employed or appointed by your organisation, or from within your associated group of companies, within the past three (3) years prior to the publication of the contract notice for RM6126 Research & Insights Marketplace DPS (i.e. October 2018) Example may cover situations where your organisation was acting as prime contractor, key sub-contractor or part of a Group of Economic Operators The signature must be a wet signature where possible and not a printed name of the customer contact, if obtaining a wet signature is not possible then customer contact details will be used to validate the accuracy of details provided

Please refer to the DPS Needs document (which forms part of the RM6126 bid pack), paragraph 51, page 15 'Economic and Financial Standing' section. Also see Attachment 4 Financial Assessment Template (which forms part of the RM6126 bid pack), this shows the template CCS Commercial Finance team utilise.

Yes, as long as you can provide your cyber essentials certificate at a later date you can be appointed on the DPS.