Contractors will be asked to explain themselves if they submit unrealistically low bids for public-sector contracts, according to a senior official at the business department.

Fergus Harradence, deputy director for infrastructure and construction at the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), said any bids which appear unrealistically low will be rejected unless the bidder comes up with a plausible reason.

He said unrealistic bidding meant the government did not get the quality projects it wants and that spending time at the start of the process to get the desgn right paid off down the track.

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