What approval does the pack require?
Read whether subcontractors must be named at lodgement, approved before award, or notified during delivery, and what the buyer may withhold approval for. Named-sub regimes evaluate the sub as part of your capability: swapping later means re-proving capability under the substitution clause, if it allows substitution at all. Consent “not to be unreasonably withheld” is a different world from absolute discretion, and both are different from deemed approval after silence. The capability those subs evidence sits on the capability matrix.
What flows down, and to whom?
Whatever the contract says must: conduct codes, safety systems, IP grants, confidentiality, reporting, modern slavery controls, payment-time behaviour toward lower tiers. Flow-down converts your subcontract into a compliance instrument, and your margin into the cost of administering it. Small specialist subs without governance machinery struggle here; their failure becomes your breach. Price administration, not just the sub’s rate.
The checklist
- Approval. Named when, approved by whom, on what grounds, within what time.
- Substitution. Permitted circumstances, equivalence standard, consent mechanics, cost of re-proof.
- Flow-down. Which clauses pass to which tiers, with what evidence back up the chain.
- Evidence. Subcontractor policies, insurances, and statements held at the pack’s date, not promised.
- Governing law. The law the approval and flow-down clauses operate under; read together with counsel where it matters.
What does this mean for the bid/no-bid call?
A delivery model that depends on subs the pack will not approve, or that cannot evidence flow-down duties, is a capacity fail in week one. Confirm subs, consents, and evidence before pricing; a priced team you cannot field is the most expensive kind of fiction. Head-contractor diligence from the other side of the table is a wave-9 page; the subcontractor’s own pursuit decision lives there too.