L4M3 CIPS Commercial Contracting Free Practice Exam Questions (2026 Updated)

The question explicitly mentions labour standards and ESG (environmental, social, governance).

Modern Slavery (C): relates directly to labour and human rights (forced labour, trafficking, child labour).

Sustainability (D): covers environmental and social impacts, resource use, and long-term responsibility, key under ESG.

Indemnity and warranty are general legal/contractual concepts, and ISO9000 is a quality management standard, not specifically focused on labour/ESG.

If the deliveries often delay, buyer should use KPI to measure how many missed deliveries there are and the percentage of total missed deliveries on total number of deliveries for period. OTIF (one-time in-full) delivery might help.

Consignment stock availability means that the supplier holds adequate range/number of units of stock to offer a reliable service

Delay damages are the consequences caused by delay of deliveries

Technical support is the acceptable quality of technical information/support provided by supplier for goods supplied.

LO 2, AC 2.2

Risk-minimising contract terms for outsourcing typically include:

Confidentiality (1) – protects sensitive information.

Variation and price adjustment (4) – allows controlled changes to scope and pricing over time.

Service duration is important but not itself a risk-control clause; employee holiday length is an HR detail, not a key risk term.

Correct answer: 1 and 4 only.

A Retention of Title clause allows the seller to retain ownership of goods until full payment is received. If included in a contract, this clause would have enabled ACC to claim ownership of the number plates and potentially recover them from Elite Motors Ltd, even in administration. It protects suppliers against buyer insolvency.

One of the major disadvantages of tendering process is that it is lengthy, bureaucratic and slow. To reduce the preparation time, buying organisation can:

- Plan forward

- Standardise tendering documents (such as notices, terms and conditions,...) whenever possible

- Train procurement staff

- Write down policies for tender-waiver

Buying organisation should not eliminate the pre-qualification stage from all tendering processes. This stage is used as a filter to select the most competent suppliers for next stage in restricted tendering. To save time in this process, you can design a model questionnaire.

Model form contracts (e.g. NEC, JCT, FIDIC) save time and cost because the framework is pre-written and only needs adapting to specific projects.

Option A correctly identifies this benefit.

Capacity to contract relates to legal and mental ability:

Severe mental disorder (1) can mean no true understanding of the contract → lack of capacity.

A corporation acting ultra vires (4) (beyond its legal powers) is considered to lack capacity in that transaction.

Failing to concentrate (2) is carelessness, not incapacity. Being 19 years old (3) is over the usual age of majority (18), so there is capacity.

Correct combination: 1 and 4 only.

In the 'battle of the forms', generally who shot the last will win. This is not applied to this case. Initial RFQ is an invitation to treat, then the quotation forms an offer. Transformers & Rectifiers Ltd edits terms and conditions then sends back to supplier, this act terminates Needs's offer and makes a new offer. Delivery of goods can be deemed as acceptance from Needs Ltd. The contract is formed with its details in the edited terms and conditions.

Product Liability Insurance is a form of general liability insurance meant to protect a business from financial and legal consequences as a result of bodily injury or property damage due to the use of the business’s sold goods or products. Situations that are typically covered by Product Liability Insurance may include:

- A customer harms herself because of the faulty packaging on one of your products

- A drapery set that a customer purchased from your business was highly flammable and caught on fire, eventually damaging her entire kitchen

- A customer with a severe allergy finds trace amounts of tree nuts in your homemade gourmet muffins

- A homemade house cleaner that you sell damaged one of your customer’s entire hardwood floor

- A customer becomes sick with food poisoning after eating old shellfish at your restaurant, goes to the hospital, and incurs medical costs caused by your contaminated food products

- A customer’s pet becomes ill from ingesting some lining in a pet toy product that you sell

In the scenario above, the supermarket is purchasing and reselling house cleaner, which can be covered by product liability insurance.

Public liability insurance is a type of business insurance that covers the cost of claims made by the public that happen in connection with the business activities.

Professional indemnity (PI) insurance is a commercial policy designed to protect business owners, freelancers and the self-employed if clients claim a service is inadequate.

A simple definition of consideration is as follows – an exchange between the parties which results in a benefit to one party, and a detriment to the other. The case of Currie v Misa (1874) LR 10 Ex 153 provides an apt description of this:

“A valuable consideration, in the sense of the law, may consist either in some right, interest, profit, or benefit accruing to the one party, or some forbearance, detriment, loss, or responsibility, given, suffered, or undertaken by the other.”

A practical example of this can be found by examining a simple contract. Party A offers £500 to Party B, who in exchange will fit his car with a new engine. Party A receives the benefit of his car being fixed, whilst Party B incurs the detriment of having to take time, effort, and perhaps expenses to fix the car.

Advantages and Disadvantages of using model form contracts.

Model form contracts save a lot of time and money. They are written by industry experts and the buyers and suppliers both understand what is included in the contract.

They are mainly used in Construction and term maintenance contacts. Typical ones are JCT and NEC.

Without the use of model form contracts the buyer and supplier will take a long time to write the terms, negotiate and finalise the contract.

This is time and money wasted.

However, model form contracts require buyers and suppliers to have training so you understand them.

Finally, if you are a buyer in a powerful position you cannot exploit that with a model form contract as these are written for mutual benefit.

Price adjustment formulae are typically tied to objective, external indices such as fuel prices, labour rates, or commodity costs. Rising fuel costs directly affect logistics and production expenses and are a legitimate reason to activate such clauses.

The formation of the contract is where the contractual journey begins; if no contract is formed, neither of the parties can be under any obligations. Therefore, it is very important to have an understanding of each part of a contract’s formation.

In order for a legally binding agreement to be formed, there are four basic requirements to be met:

2.1 Offer

2.2 Acceptance

2.3 Certainty & Intention to Create Legal Relations

2.4 Consideration & Promissory Estoppel

The license can be amended during its lifespan. However, in this case, it already has a clauseallowing for mechanism of variation which sets out who can authorise changes and prohibits any oral variation. Therefore, the agreement between Rock's director and MWB credit controller is not an effective variation to the license.

Retention money is the payment for a service or product that is withheld pending the completion of some specified condition. For example, buyer may withhold the amount due until the supplier replace all defective goods.

Pay-less notice is the notice under a contract which states that the invoice will only be partially paid because of some issues such as supplier has to pay the damages.

Remedies for late payment are remedies that supplier may seek when a buyer pay it later than the stated payment terms. Normally, the buyer will be charged an interest rate.

A confidentiality and data use clause is designed to govern how information, especially sensitive or personal data, is handled. It sets boundaries on disclosure, data sharing, and use, which is essential under data protection laws such as GDPR, especially when information is passed to third parties.

Gainshare is an incentive for cost control

Liquidated damage is common type of disincentive for late completion

Service credit is a remedy for not achieving targets set out in an SLA

Fixed bonus payment is an incentive for early completion

The five essential elements of a valid contract are: offer, acceptance, consideration (something of value exchanged), capacity (legal ability to contract), and correct form (in writing if required). These ensure that contracts are legally enforceable and binding.

The Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 (c 50) is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom which regulates contracts by restricting the operation and legality of some contract terms. It extends to nearly all forms of contract and one of its most important functions is limiting the applicability of disclaimers of liability. The terms extend to both actual contract terms and notices that are seen to constitute a contractual obligation.

Under this regulation, if a clause within the standard terms in use is considered as 'unfair', the clause will be ineffective (or the other party will be entitled to avoid the clause). At court, the clause that is deemed to be unfair will undergo a 'reasonableness' test or an 'unfairness' test.