Prequalification for building consultants

The Queensland Government regularly engages building industry consultants to provide services for government building projects.

Government departments use the Prequalification (PQC) System to source building industry consultants when the consultancy fee is either:

greater than $60,000
less than $60,000 for commissions with a service risk rating of 3 or 4.

Criteria for building consultants to prequalify

If you're a building industry consultant seeking government building project commissions above certain values, you must be prequalified through the Prequalification (PQC) System first.

A 'building industry consultant' is considered an organisation or individual contracted directly to the Queensland Government to provide services relating to a government building project.

We prequalify building industry consultants from various disciplines, including:

architects, building designers and landscape architects
civil, electrical, environmental, mechanical and structural engineers
quantity surveyors, consulting surveyors, site classifiers and building certifiers
building project managers.

Applying for building consultant prequalification

Read the Prequalification (PQC) conditions (PDF, 377KB).

To begin your PQC application you will be asked for your Digital ID. This verifies your identity and protects your company's information.

Once you have logged into the PQC portal using your Digital ID, complete the online registration form.

We will ask you for details including:

company name
ABN (registered for GST)
ACN (if applicable)
insurances
office address
licence or registration names and numbers (QBCC, Board of Architects Queensland, Board of Professional Engineers Queensland or equivalent)
management system certifications (if applicable)
project history, including referee reports.

There is no fee to apply for prequalification.

Apply now

What happens next

The PQC team may contact you for more supporting information if required.

The PQC Registrar will send you an email confirming the outcome of your PQC application. If approved, you can review your registration status, including project types and maximum commission value, in your registration's portal profile.

To be invited to submit proposals for government building project commissions, you must:

be appropriately registered in the PQC System
meet project specific requirements.

Note: You can't tender for work as soon as you lodge your application. To be eligible to tender, you must be prequalified and registered on the PQC System.

Prequalification makes you eligible to compete for government building consultancies, but it doesn't guarantee work. You must still go through the submission, review and acceptance process.

Upgrading your registration status

If you have existing access to the online portal for your business, you may upgrade your registration at any time by logging back into the portal.

You can update licences, insurances, management systems, project types and work categories at any time via the portal.

If you wish to increase your maximum commission value, contact the PQC team, as you may need to give the PQC Registrar more information to do this.

If you don't currently have access to the online portal for your business, contact the PQC team for next steps to set this up.

Being removed from the register

We may remove a building industry consultant from the PQC register at any time if they can't satisfy any or all of the prequalification requirements.

More information

Insurance for building consultants

If you're a building industry consultant registered through the Prequalification (PQC) System, you must maintain the correct insurances with the appropriate coverage.

Check what professional indemnity and public liability insurances you need.

Professional indemnity insurance

You must maintain a professional indemnity insurance policy with:

a minimum insured amount of $1 million per claim
personal injury coverage
continuity of coverage for a period that's appropriate to your commission types
a maximum excess of $50,000. A higher excess may be acceptable if you can show your trading entity has enough net tangible assets to justify it.

The invitation documents you'll receive outline the amount of professional indemnity insurance you must hold for particular commissions—usually $1–10 million, depending on commission type, service risk rating and estimated cost of the project.

This table is a guide to the likely amount of insurance needed for various commissions.

Table 1: Professional indemnity insurance ($m) relative to project value and commission service risk rating

Project value ($m)	Minimum insured amount relative to service risk rating
Project value ($m)	Rating 1 ($m)	Rating 2 ($m)	Rating 3 ($m)	Rating 4 ($m)
<2	1	1	1	2
2 to <5	1	1	2	2
5 to <20	2	2	5	5
20 to <50	–	5	10	10
50 to <100	–	–	10	10
100+	–	–	Project specific	Project specific

Public liability insurance

As a building industry consultant on the PQC System, you must maintain a public liability insurance policy with:

a minimum insured amount of $5 million per claim
a maximum excess of $50,000.

As with professional indemnity insurance, a higher excess may be acceptable if you can show your trading entity has enough net tangible assets to justify it.