16.—(1) Subject to regulation 19, in assessing whether a supplier meets any minimum standards of technical capacity required of suppliers by the contracting authority for the purposes of regulations 11(7), 12(4) and 13(7), and in selecting the suppliers to be invited to tender for or to negotiate the contract in accordance with regulations 12(5) and 13(8), a contracting authority may take into account any of the following information—
(a)the principal deliveries by the supplier of goods of a similar type to the goods to be purchased or hired under the public supply contract in the past 3 years, specifying in each case the date of delivery, the consideration received and the identity of the purchaser accompanied by a certificate issued or countersigned by the purchaser confirming the details of the purchase or hire or, but only where the purchaser was not a contracting authority, a declaration by the supplier attesting the details of the purchase or hire;
(b)the supplier’s technical facilities, measures for ensuring quality and study and research facilities in relation to the goods to be purchased or hired under the public supply contract;
(c)the technicians or technical bodies who would be involved with the production of the goods to be purchased or hired under the public supply contract, particularly those responsible for quality control, whether or not they are independent of the supplier;
(d)samples, descriptions and photographs of the goods to be purchased or hired under the public supply contract and certification of the authenticity of such samples, descriptions or photographs;
(e)certification by official quality control institutes or agencies of recognised competence attesting that the goods to be purchased or hired under the public supply contract conform to standards and technical specifications (within the meaning of regulation 8(1)) identified by the contracting authority;
(f)where the goods to be sold or hired under the public supply contract are complex or are required for a special purpose, a check, carried out by the contracting authority or on its behalf by a competent official body of the relevant State in which the supplier is established, on the production capacity of the supplier in respect of the goods to be purchased or hired under the contract and, if relevant, on the supplier’s study and research facilities and quality control measures.
(2) The contracting authority may only require a supplier to provide information specified in paragraph (1) above and only such of that information as it considers it needs to make the assessment or selection and it shall specify in the contract notice or in the invitation to tender which of that information it requires to be provided.