Official UK procurement notice
Extension of term of Waste Water Surveillance Testing
Authority: Department of Health & Social Care (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionCollection, Identification, Packing and Transporting to the Laboratories for Wet Swab PCR Testing and analysis for Covid-19, includes subsequent variations to include REACT Wave 7 and Waste Water Testing
CPV: Services provided by medical laboratories
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1Collection, Identification, Packing and Transporting to the Laboratories for waste…Awarded
Collection, Identification, Packing and Transporting to the Laboratories for waste water samples for testing and analysis for Covid-19 as part of the Govt Waste Water Surveillance Programme.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Procedure method
- Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition
- Legal basis
- CELEX · 32014L0024 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (Directive 2014/24/EU)
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Awarded without competition
- Procurement threshold
- Unspecified in notice
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Direct award (no call for competition)
- GPA / WTO covered
- Yes (GPA)
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 14 Jan 2021, 18:14 GMT
- Last source update
- 10 May 2021, 14:00 BST
- FTS notice number
2021/S 000-010116- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-028a7dFind a Tender
- Why no open competition
Extreme urgency brought about by events unforeseeable for the contracting authority/entity and in accordance with the strict conditions stated in the directive
- Published justification
Negotiated procedure without prior publication1. The COVID-19 outbreak is a Public Health Emergency of International Concern as declared by the World Health Organisation on 30 January 2020. The WHO Director General characterised COVID-19 as a pandemic on 11 March 2020.2. A key element of ensuring an effective response to the pandemic is ensuring that there is adequate testing. Subsequently securing sufficient COVID sampling consumables in order to process test results is crucial. A significant constraint on building capacity is timelines for filling and capping machinery. When investigating available delivery capacity, capacity availability was identified with the supplier and an opportunity arose to secure additional volumes of sample collection consumables ahead of lead times being provided by alternative suppliers. There is an ongoing gap between the daily capacity requirement for these consumables, with this contract accounting for a significant proportion of the capacity gap.3. DHSC is satisfied the tests permitting use of the Negotiated procedure without prior publication (Regulation 32(2)(c)) are met:A. As far as is strictly necessary: Increased supply of COVID sampling consumables to meet the increased number of tests now required was identified as strictly necessary to meet the demand to scale up the testing programme in the UK.B. There are genuine reasons for extreme urgency: It is responding to COVID-19 immediately because of public health risks presenting a genuine emergency. Sample collection consumables (i.e. tubes, swabs, and funnels) are a fundamental component in facilitating mass testing. Volume projections on supply of sampling consumables show a deficit v’s supply for the sample collection consumables.C. The events that have led to the need for extreme urgency were unforeseeable: The Commission itself confirmed: “The current coronavirus crisis presents an extreme and unforeseeable urgency – precisely for such a situation our European rules enable public buyers to buy within a matter of days, even hours, if necessary.” (Commissioner Breton, Internal Market, 01.04.2020).D. It is impossible to comply with the usual timescales in the PCR: It is not possible to comply with the timescales of another procedure due to the urgent requirement to ensure the amount of tests processed increases with the necessary demand. E. The situation is not attributable to the contracting authority – DHSC has not done anything to cause or contribute to the need for extreme urgency
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
24 Aug 2020 → 10 May 2021 · 2 dates- Contract starts24 Aug 2020, 00:00 BST
- Notice published10 May 2021, 14:00 BST
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecast| Awarded to | Value | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eurofins Biomnis UK Ltd | £58,800,000 †same award published again · counted once | — | Awarded |
| Eurofins Biomnis UK Ltd | £58,800,000 †same award published again · counted once | — | Awarded |
| Eurofins Biomnis UK Ltd | £58,800,000 † | — | Awarded |
Contracts
Contract 010116-2021-C21570-1 · Eurofins Biomnis UK Ltd
- Signed
- 13 Apr 2021
- Value
- £58,800,000
- Period
- 16 Feb 2021 – 31 May 2021
- Status
- active
- Change Extension of the term and scope (number of tests) of the Waste Water Testing, Need for additional works, services or supplies by the original contractor/concessionaire: No extension would have posed a significant operational risk to the UK Waste Water Surveillance Programme as testing would have ceased after 31.03.21. As no further data would be available the Core Cities surveillance programme would need to be paused until alternative laboratory capacity could be sourced, likely the steady state laboratories (EA and Bangor University) that were due to come online in mid-February ramping up to full capacity only by first week in March. Wastewater data is being used to support key programmes including mass testing and genomic surveillance, therefore the discontinuation would also impact other areas of T&T.
Contract 008674-2021-C21570-1 · Eurofins Biomnis UK Ltd
- Signed
- 5 Feb 2021
- Value
- £58,800,000
- Period
- 1 Feb 2021 – 31 Mar 2021
- Status
- active
- Change Extension of the term and scope (number of tests) of the Waste Water Testing, Need for additional works, services or supplies by the original contractor/concessionaire: No extension would have posed a significant operational risk to the UK Waste Water Surveillance Programme as testing would have ceased after 31.01.21. As no further data would be available the Core Cities surveillance programme would need to be paused until alternative laboratory capacity could be sourced, likely the steady state laboratories (EA and Bangor University) that were due to come online in mid-February ramping up to full capacity only by first week in March. Wastewater data is being used to support key programmes including mass testing and genomic surveillance, therefore the discontinuation would also impact other areas of T&T.
Contract 000809-2021-1 · Eurofins Biomnis UK Ltd
- Signed
- 1 Oct 2020
- Value
- £58,800,000
- Period
- … – 31 May 2021
- Status
- active
Bid statistics published by the authority
| Bids | SME | VCSE | Valid bid range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1bids | — | — | — |
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Dispute resolution & review bodies
- The High CourtReview body
Bidders & participating suppliers
1 commercial party on the notice- Eurofins Biomnis UK LimitedAwarded supplier
Official documents & specifications
Official links; attachments are not copiedNo document links were published on the notice.