# Clarification questions in public tenders Source: Tender Navigator Knowledge Base, https://tendernavigator.com/knowledge-base/tender-clarification-questions (canonical HTML). Category: Bidding for public tenders. Published 2026-09-15, last updated 2026-09-15. Note: General guidance, not legal advice. Public procurement rules differ by country, by buyer and by procedure, and the tender documents and the law that governs them decide. Where a guide cites a rule, it names the jurisdiction and links the official text. > A clarification question is a written question a bidder puts to the buyer while a tender is open. Buyers usually share every answer with all bidders, often with the question anonymised, so a question should ask about the requirement rather than reveal your solution. An answer that contradicts the tender documents should be confirmed as a formal amendment: bidders' experience, and US federal rules for sealed bidding, both treat formally issued changes as the ones that count. ## What a clarification question is A **clarification question** is a written question a bidder sends to the buyer while a tender is open, about anything in the notice or the procurement documents that is unclear, inconsistent or appears to exclude it. The buyer's reply is a **clarification**. When the buyer changes the documents themselves, it issues an **amendment**, also called an **addendum**, or, for a correction to a published notice, a **corrigendum**. ## Assume every answer is published Buyers generally share answers with every bidder, and often the question too, without the name of the bidder who asked it. In the EU, additional information about the specifications and supporting documents that was requested in good time must be supplied to all tenderers taking part, no later than six days before the deadline for tenders, or four days in accelerated procedures ([Directive 2014/24/EU](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2014/24/oj), Article 53(2)). In US federal sealed bidding, information given to one prospective bidder is furnished to all the others as an amendment when it is necessary for submitting bids or when its absence would prejudice them ([FAR 52.214-6](https://www.acquisition.gov/far/52.214-6)). So write every question as if your competitors will read it, because they probably will. ## Asking without giving your approach away Bidders trade phrasing techniques for this, and they come down to a few rules: 1. **Ask about the requirement, not your solution.** "Is an equivalent technical standard acceptable?" reveals far less than "Can we use our own method instead?". 2. **Ask to confirm an interpretation in neutral terms.** For example: "Please confirm that requirement 4.2 can be met by any method that achieves the stated outcome." 3. **Ask for information, not permission.** Access to data, sites or existing systems is a question about what the buyer will provide, and the answer helps every bidder equally. 4. **Group related points**, so that a trail of questions does not map out your strategy. 5. **Leave out anything confidential:** client names, product names, prices and technical methods. 6. **If a question cannot be asked without revealing your approach, read the instructions first.** Some tender documents let a bidder mark a question as commercially sensitive; the buyer then decides whether it can answer privately or must publish the question because the answer matters to everyone. Know what the buyer will do before you send it. ## Timing Ask early. Tender documents usually set a deadline for questions, and in the EU the duty to share additional information applies to information requested in good time (Article 53(2)). An EU buyer must extend the deadline for tenders where additional information requested in good time is not supplied at the latest six days before the deadline, or four days in accelerated procedures (Article 47(3)). A question sent in the last days risks an answer that comes too late to use, or none at all. ## When an answer contradicts the tender documents This is where bidders get caught: the answer on the portal says one thing, the invitation to tender says another. Which one binds? - **The documents usually decide.** Many tender documents contain an order-of-precedence clause and say how clarifications become part of the documents. Read it first. - **Bidders' experience** is that clarification answers can be relied on once the buyer issues them formally, as an amendment or addendum to the documents, and that informal answers which contradict the documents carry risk. - **US federal sealed bidding** states it outright: oral explanations or instructions given before the award of a contract are not binding, and information needed to bid is issued to all bidders as an amendment (FAR 52.214-6). - **In the UK**, the Procurement Act 2023 allows a buyer to modify the terms of a covered procurement before the deadline for submitting tenders in an open procedure ([section 31](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/54/section/31)). Treat an answer that changes the documents as reliable once the buyer confirms it as such a modification. - **In the EU**, a significant change to the procurement documents obliges the buyer to extend the deadline for tenders (Directive 2014/24/EU, Article 47(3)), one more reason a real change arrives as a formal amendment rather than a line in a question log. What to do: 1. Ask the buyer to confirm which text prevails, and to issue the change as a formal amendment. 2. Until it does, do not build the bid on the contradicting answer alone. If you must rely on it, say so only in the way the documents allow, and without qualifying your offer in a way that makes it non-compliant. See [Can one missed mandatory requirement disqualify a bid?](/knowledge-base/mandatory-requirements-and-disqualification) 3. Keep a record of the question, the answer, the date and where the answer was published. ## Frequently asked questions ### Will other bidders see our clarification question? Probably. Buyers generally publish answers to all bidders, often with the question anonymised, and EU rules require additional information on the specifications to be supplied to all tenderers (Directive 2014/24/EU, Article 53(2)). Write every question as if competitors will read it. ### Is there a deadline for clarification questions? Usually; the tender documents normally set one. In the EU, additional information that was requested in good time must reach all tenderers no later than six days before the tender deadline, or four days in accelerated procedures (Directive 2014/24/EU, Article 53(2)), so a late question can leave you without an answer. ### Which prevails if a clarification answer contradicts the tender documents? It depends on the documents and the law that governs the procedure, so check the order-of-precedence clause first. Bidders' experience is that answers are safe to rely on once the buyer issues them formally as an amendment or addendum, and US federal rules for sealed bidding state that oral explanations are not binding (FAR 52.214-6). Ask the buyer to confirm in writing which text applies.