Magnets Partner Agreement · UK public procurement notice

Single Suppliers Intellectual Property Exclusive Rights; Single Suppliers Technical Reasons; Additional Repeat Extension Partial Replacement

This direct award is justified under section 41(1) and Schedule 5 of the Procurement Act 2023:

•Single supplier - intellectual property or exclusive rights

•Single supplier - technical reasons

•Additional or repeat goods, services or works

Additionally, and in the alternative, the exemption for national security at Schedule 2 paragraph 25 of the Procurement Act 2023 is applicable.

UKIFS intends to directly award this contract under Section 41 of the Procurement Act 2023, relying on Schedule 5 (Direct award justifications) paragraphs 5 and 6 "Single suppliers" grounds because:

1.Due to an absence of competition for technical reasons, only Tokamak Energy Ltd can supply the Professional Services and only Tokamak Energy Ltd holds the necessary intellectual property rights. Tokamak Energy Ltd holds unique technical knowledge, proprietary intellectual property, and system-level understanding of the existing architecture, supported by specialist methodologies, tooling, facilities, and integration approaches.

2.Only Tokamak Energy Ltd can supply the Professional Services required as it is the only supplier with the capability, technical expertise, and manufacturing maturity necessary to deliver the requirement to the required standard.

3.There are no reasonable alternatives. Market engagement was undertaken to assess the availability of alternatives and confirmed that no reasonable alternatives exist to the Professional Services .No other organisation possesses the combination of fusion-specific expertise, design authority, specialist facilities, and relevant intellectual property required to meet the requirements. The works must interface directly with existing Tokamak Energy Ltd designed equipment and comply with strict interoperability and safety requirements. Introducing an alternative supplier would require extensive reverse engineering, redesign, and requalification, creating disproportionate cost, material programme delay, and increased technical and delivery risk. Furthermore, no other firm globally has an available and operational Tokamak Reactor (and as such cannot fulfil the requirements of the contract).

In addition to the above justification, as the contract relates to an extension of existing goods, services or works provided by Tokamak Energy Ltd under an existing contract the direct award justification in Schedule 5 paragraph 7 also applies. This is because:

1.A change in supplier from Tokamak Energy Ltd would result in UKIFS receiving goods, services or works that are different from, or incompatible with, the existing goods, services or works. A change in supplier would result in interoperability and safety issues with existing systems as the works must interface directly with existing Tokamak Energy Ltd designed equipment.

2.A change in supplier would result in disproportionate technical difficulties with operation because it would require extensive reverse engineering, redesign, and requalification, creating disproportionate cost, material programme delay, and increased technical and delivery risk.

In addition (and in the alternative) to the above direct award justifications, the contract should not, in the interests of national security, be subject to open competition (Procurement Act 2023 Schedule 2 paragraph 25). This is because the requirement involves technologies and associated data of a strategically sensitive nature. Conducting an open competition would create an unacceptable risk of exposing security-critical information and could require engagement with suppliers unable to meet essential sovereign capability, assurance, or compliance requirements.