Reviews
Part of PR agency reviews in England: five named checks, from Companies House to the CMA's fake-review rules
How to review a PR agency in England: five buyer tests and the evidence file to request
A method for reviewing a PR agency in England: five controlled buyer tests with pass criteria, the evidence file to request, and why this guide scores no named agency.
Test the agency, not the pitch deck: start from the file
The costliest mistake is approving a recommendation from polished presentation material while the evidence file is empty. That leaves the buyer unable to judge service, delivery or price. Do not decide until a traceable record supports the choice; absence of proof is not proof of a defect.
This guide is a method, not a scored review: it names no agency and gives no verdict on any supplier. A blank file says nothing about media relationships, delivery quality or price, so do not convert it into a favourable or unfavourable score.
Identify the service under review and state what any recommendation would rely on. Crisis PR questions and the review methodology offer related context on scope and evidence types; use them to bound the assessment, not to imply that a supplier has passed.
Label what is supplied, verified, missing or disputed
It goes wrong when a buyer treats an agency statement as independently verified. Supplier material records what is asserted, not whether it has been checked. Label each item supplied, verified, missing or disputed, and make no claim beyond the status the record supports.
Suppose the file arrives without a service page, proposal, terms, privacy notice or security statement, and no permissioned reference or authorised test environment is offered. The conclusion is then untested, not disproved, so there is no basis to score delivery.
The ICO business-to-business marketing guidance is relevant when checking an outreach route. It describes direct marketing to a business or business contact and notes that data protection rules still apply when personal data are processed. Ask the supplier to identify the route and process; company status alone does not establish that contact was lawful.
The five buyer tests
Informal tests fail when suppliers receive different briefs or the scoring basis changes after responses arrive. The results then cannot be compared or repeated. Fix the conditions in advance by using the same service scope, written criteria, approval route and deadline for every participant.
Make the request stable before approaching suppliers. The brief a PR agency template can help set out the factual brief and approval details. Score each response against those stated requirements rather than changing the measure after seeing an answer or comparing responses to different requests.
Run these five tests in order, each with the same brief and the same deadline for every agency:
- Written response.Send a factual brief and score the reply against the brief's stated requirements. Pass: every requirement is answered, costs and VAT basis are stated, and assumptions are written down.
- Approval record.Ask to see how a pitch decision and a client claim approval are recorded. Pass: each record shows a date, a named approver and what was approved.
- Correction.Submit a small factual correction and record when it was acknowledged and when it was resolved. Pass: both times fall inside the period agreed in advance.
- Contact suppression.Ask the agency to suppress a test contact and check the instruction is logged. Pass: the log shows the request and no further contact follows in the exercise.
- Crisis escalation.Simulate an escalation outside office hours. Pass: a named person is reached by the route the agency gave you, within the agreed time.
Keep fixture records separate from actual client material. A synthetic pack may contain labelled correction, suppression, accessible-format and mocked-escalation records; mark each as synthetic, exclude it from published claims and delete it when the exercise ends. Similarity to a real file does not make test data evidence of client work.
The evidence file to request
An open-ended document request tends to produce a partial file with no way to check what service or scope the records describe. Ask for evidence categories in advance, tied to the named service version and England scope, so identity, operation, data handling and exit arrangements can be inspected.
| Evidence category | What the record should establish |
|---|---|
| Identity and contracting | Legal and trading names, Companies House record, VAT number, jurisdiction, signatory and payment account |
| Service definition | Service name and version, England scope, exclusions and subcontractors |
| Data and rights | Data roles, UK GDPR and PECR position, intellectual property and brand rights |
| Delivery controls | Correction handling, suppression, accessible output, security and recovery |
| Commercials and exit | Full cost and VAT basis, measurement, contract, continuity and exit |
Review contract terms before commitment; the commercial contract decisions are a useful related reference. Assign a named owner for factual authority and claim approval on each side. The team roles resource explains why those responsibilities should not be left to assumption.
Ask permissioned references the same questions about the same service type and period. Record who selected each referee, any conflicts, missing answers and permission to publish. Treat testimonials and case studies as supplier claims: a single account cannot establish prevalence or a defect. Editorial acceptance, wording, prominence and timing are not controlled delivery.
Use public registers for identity, not quality
Public records mislead when a buyer treats a registry entry as a quality score. Each lookup can establish only what that source reports. Save the date and result, but do not treat a registration or valid identifier as proof of agency performance.
| Register or authority | What to check |
|---|---|
| Companies House, get information about a company | Registered address, incorporation date, current and resigned officers |
| GOV.UK, check a UK VAT number | Whether the number is valid, and the name and address behind it |
| ICO register of fee payers | Whether the organisation is registered with the ICO |
| ICO business-to-business marketing guidance | The PECR and UK GDPR position for outreach |
| NCSC incident management collection | Links between incident response, recovery, continuity and crisis planning |
The NCSC incident management collection can help frame links among incident response, recovery, continuity and crisis planning, but it cannot show whether a named agency handles reputational crises well. Use public guidance to formulate questions, not to claim first-hand proof. Public marketing and incident material does not assess commercial agency conduct.
Record who decides, and when the verdict expires
A verdict without disclosed responsibilities or a review date can outlive the evidence behind it. Record who commissioned the assessment, who set its evidence standard and who decides publication. State which specialist input was not used, so readers can see the limits of the process.
For this guide, the site editorial team commissioned the method, set the evidence standard and decided publication. No specialist legal, privacy, accessibility or measurement review was used, no agency engagement, funding, gift or free account was involved, and no hands-on agency testing was performed.
Give any future verdict an expiry trigger. Recheck if the entity or service changes, if subcontractors, material terms or the data route change, or if test evidence becomes stale. Recheck official pages on publication day, and use the selection checklist to record each gate. A pause in the decision is a procedural step, not an adverse finding about a business.
