Provision of the Nuclear Innovation and Research Office (NIRO)

We would therefore like to relet this contract as a Single Tender Action, for the following reasons:

• NIRO has built up a strong reputation amongst end users in DESNZ – people now understand the service and what it offers, and trust NIRO to deliver. It is also respected by the wider nuclear industry as an objective party who can convene groups with different views to encourage collaboration.
• NIRO has recruited a strong team of experts. NNL will need to end the secondments of these people when the contract comes to an end in March, if we do not have certainty about the next contract. DESNZ and NNL would lose credibility with industry partners.
• NNL provide the service at cost – they do not charge profit but reclaim a proportion of their overhead costs for hosting the office (IT, central support costs etc). NNL’s salary remit is approved by DESNZ Ministers in line with Cabinet Office controls.
• Much of what NIRO delivers is related to security / classified issues (e.g work relating to plutonium). Several team members are DV cleared and NNL IT can process sensitive nuclear information. NIRO advise on policy in development when requirements can be unclear and can’t be released publicly.
• We have a seat on the NNL Board, and DESNZ Ministers approve NNL’s salary remit – so we have good oversight of costs, and levers of influence. Both organisations have a desire to make this contract a success on a collaborative basis – we would not have the same levers with a member of the supply chain.
• We have developed a set of ethical barriers with NNL to give assurance that NIRO is separate from NNL’s commercial operations. This was audited recently and practices found to be strong. Of 10 Findings, six were found to be green, and four amber with recommendations for strengthening practices. The recommendations have all been acted upon.
• We consider that competition is absent for technical reasons and that there is therefore a case for relying on the exemption under regulation 32(2)(b)(ii) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (competition is absent for technical reasons).