Reference
Glossary of commercial conditions
Each rating drives a deterministic chain of flags, route behaviour labels and reshaping choices. Definitions below describe what the rating means commercially — not what counts as evidence (that's a separate confidence layer on the Conditions page).
- Design maturityreverse-scored
- Low maturity increases the risk that fixed-price tendering will produce qualifications, risk premiums, claims or poor tender comparability.
- Survey completenessreverse-scored
- Incomplete surveys leave hidden conditions in scope and tend to convert later into variations, claims or provisional sum disputes.
- Inflation exposuredirect
- High exposure points toward indexation, target-cost mechanisms, capped exposure bands or package-level review on long-lead items.
- Market capacity / bidder appetitereverse-scored
- Low capacity may reduce competition, weaken value for money and increase the cost of aggressive risk transfer.
- Contractor financial resilience riskdirect
- High concern points toward parent company guarantees, performance security, payment controls and insolvency contingency.
- Utilities / third-party dependencydirect
- High dependency points toward interface risk allocation, provisional sum governance and explicit programme float.
- Programme urgencydirect
- High urgency tends to compress procurement and design maturation; consider whether that compression is being priced or absorbed.
- Political / public sensitivitydirect
- High sensitivity raises the risk of premature commercial commitment ahead of design or affordability resolution.
- Contingency adequacyreverse-scored
- Low adequacy combined with high volatility points toward affordability escalation and earlier value-engineering triggers.
- Internal contract management capabilityreverse-scored
- Low capability undermines collaborative or open-book routes that depend on disciplined client-side governance.
- Funding / grant constraintdirect
- Hard funding deadlines or ring-fenced grants reduce the room to delay tender for design maturity to improve.
- Scope certaintyreverse-scored
- Low certainty undermines fixed-price tendering and points toward two-stage, target-cost or staged award structures.
- Provisional sum exposuredirect
- High exposure means a material share of scope sits in provisional or PC sums; without governance it converts into post-award variations and disputed valuations (paper §8 — provisional sum controls).
- Tender qualification riskdirect
- High risk means bidders are likely to qualify their tenders (carve-outs, assumptions, conditional pricing), undermining like-for-like comparison and value-for-money (paper §9 row 10 — qualified tenders).
- Change-control maturityreverse-scored
- Low maturity means the authority lacks a disciplined variation / compensation-event process; change accumulates as cost and time slip rather than governed decisions (paper §8 — cumulative variations / §9 row 9).
- Final-account exposuredirect
- High exposure means a material gap is anticipated between contract sum and final account; without commercial close-out discipline this hits the authority's balance sheet late (paper §9 row 9 / §9.1 variation trend).
Low ratings indicate higher commercial risk (e.g. low design maturity → high fixed-price risk).
Low ratings indicate higher commercial risk (e.g. low design maturity → high fixed-price risk).
High ratings indicate higher commercial risk.
Low ratings indicate higher commercial risk (e.g. low design maturity → high fixed-price risk).
High ratings indicate higher commercial risk.
High ratings indicate higher commercial risk.
High ratings indicate higher commercial risk.
High ratings indicate higher commercial risk.
Low ratings indicate higher commercial risk (e.g. low design maturity → high fixed-price risk).
Low ratings indicate higher commercial risk (e.g. low design maturity → high fixed-price risk).
High ratings indicate higher commercial risk.
Low ratings indicate higher commercial risk (e.g. low design maturity → high fixed-price risk).
High ratings indicate higher commercial risk.
High ratings indicate higher commercial risk.
Low ratings indicate higher commercial risk (e.g. low design maturity → high fixed-price risk).
High ratings indicate higher commercial risk.