Operation and Maintenance of Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Units at specific ORCS and LEVI Funded Sites

The Council considers that it is entitled to directly award the Proposed Contract to the Supplier under Section 41(1)(a) and paragraph(s) 6 and/or 7 of Schedule 5 of the Procurement Act 2023 ("the Act") for the reasons stated below.

(i) For the purpose of paragraph 6 of Schedule 5, the Supplier has previously been selected by the Council pursuant to terms of the NEPO Framework Agreement reference NEPO232 Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure to enter into a call-off contract with the Council to supply and install the relevant EVCI Units and related infrastructure pursuant to the ORCS and Pilot LEVI schemes, which includes co-funding from the named Supplier. As a consequence, due to technical reasons, including the Supplier's unique and established knowledge of the relevant infrastructure, its operational requirements, system configuration, maintenance of performance warranties and requirement for a single point of responsibility, competition for the subsequent provision of the Services is now absent and only the Supplier can provide the Services and there are no reasonable alternatives to the provision of the Services;

and/or

(ii) For the purpose of paragraph 7 of Schedule 5, the Proposed Contract concerns the supply of services by an existing supplier which are intended as an extension to existing services where (a) a change in supplier would result in the Council receiving services that are different from, or incompatible with, the existing services, and (b) the difference or incompatibility would result in disproportionate technical difficulties in operation or maintenance.

The Supplier currently provides support and maintenance services in respect of the Council's existing EVCI units and infrastructure network in other city centre locations. The Proposed Contract will therefore enable an extension of the Council's infrastructure network to include the relevant EVCI Units under the ORCS and Pilot LEVI schemes.

A change of supplier in respect of the provision of the Services would therefore mean the Council would receive third party services in respect of the EVCI units that are different from, or incompatible with, the existing services provided by the Supplier in respect of the existing network infrastructure.

This difference or incompatibility would lead to the following technical difficulties:

a) Loss of a single point of responsibility and accountability for the full entire network infrastructure and therefore increased risk for the Council;

b) Risk of adverse impact on overall network integrity, continuity of service and the prevention of disruption to end-users;

c) Loss of one single, consistent and multi-site customer solution for end-users across the full network;

d) Risk of duplication of costs and resource; and

e) Increased administrative and contract management burden for the Council.

The Council therefore considers that a direct award justification exists and it is permitted to directly award the Proposed Contract to the Supplier in accordance with Section 41(1) of the Act. Accordingly, this notice is a UK5 Transparency Notice under Section 44 of the Act in respect of the proposed direct award of the Proposed Contract to the named Supplier.