Supply of Warehouse Services

Official notice

Authority: Department of Health & Social Care (Central government)

ServicesAward procedure without prior publication of a call for competition

Sectors: Supporting and auxiliary transport services; travel agencies services (63) Delivery: China (CN)

Awarded value£33,000,000published contract · exc. VAT

Awarded 24 Jan 2023no call for competition

Awarded to Uniserve Ltd

What is being bought

Published requirement description

The rationale for the bonded warehouse services was to provide bonded warehousing for the safe storage of crucial PPE products purchased by DHSC in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. This was part of an urgent requirement and response to the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuring that PPE, which was required to be distributed across the country was safely stored for DHSC in Shanghai while DHSC arranged for the PPE to be transported to the UK. The contract provides bonded Warehouse services in Shanghai and was a direct award pursuant to Regulation 32 (permitting the use of the negotiated procedure without prior publication on the basis of extreme urgency as a result of the pandemic). A formal written contract was not finalised with Uniserve at the outset of this arrangement but the agreement was formalised and signed in January 2023 with a term of 30 October 2020 to 30 September 2022.

CPV: Warehousing services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published

Lot #1Under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, DHSC considers Covid-19 to be a state of…Awarded

Under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, DHSC considers Covid-19 to be a state of urgency that has been brought about by circumstances which a diligent contracting authority could not have foreseen. This was also confirmed by the European Commission. A response to the pandemic was therefore required in order to safeguard public health risks and risk to life by securing safe and continued provision of PPE and thus, provision of storage of that PPE. <br/>Accordingly, DHSC entered into a contractual arrangement with Uniserve for the provision of PPE storage from October 2020 to 31 March 2021 with extensions to the arrangement from April 2021 to September 2022. The award of this contract followed the negotiated procedure without prior publication pursuant to Regulation 32 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, relying on Regulation 32(2)(c) ‘extreme urgency’.

Delivery listed: China (CN)

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: Unspecified in notice
Recurring procurement: Unspecified in notice
First published: 19 Apr 2023, 13:52 BST
Last source update: 19 Apr 2023, 13:52 BST
FTS notice number: 2023/S 000-011222
Classification (CPV): Warehousing services
Delivery area: China (CN)
Official registry OCID: ocds-h6vhtk-03c208 Find a Tender

Why no open competition: The procurement falls outside the scope of application of the directive
Published justification: Pursuant to Regulation 32 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, contracting authorities are permitted to utilise the negotiated procedure without prior publication in cases of extreme urgency. The European Commission declared the Covid-19 Pandemic as an event of extreme urgency which was not foreseeable to diligent contracting authorities. DHSC was responsible for purchasing PPE as a response to the pandemic in safeguarding public health risks and risk to life. This contract was commenced at a time where PPE was in short supply and organisations from across the world required supply of PPE. As such DHSC purchased some of its PPE from Chinese suppliers and had to store the PPE supply in China while it arranged for the transport of the PPE to the UK. DHSC considers that the purchase of bonded storage for the PPE in China was strictly necessary, given the high demand for PPE across the world and the fact that the PPE needed to be stored before it could be transported to the UK; the Covid-19 pandemic did create circumstances of extreme urgency for the purchase and storage of PPE brought about by events unforeseeable to DHSC given the unforeseeable nature of the Covid-19 pandemic, which meant that the time limits for the open or restricted or competitive procedures could not be complied with. The events of extreme urgency were not brought about by DHSC.

Commercial outcome & contract awards

Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecast

Awards 1

Awarded value £33,000,0001 contract exc. VAT

Bids received 1

Contracts signed 1latest 24 Jan 2023

Awarded to	Value	Date	Status
Uniserve Ltd	£33,000,000 †	—	Awarded

Contracts

Contract 011222-2023-1 · Uniserve Ltd
Signed
24 Jan 2023
Value
£33,000,000
Status
active

Bid statistics published by the authority

Bids	SME	VCSE	Valid bid range
1bids	—	—	—

Contracting authority & participating public bodies

Department of Health and Social Care

Contracting authorityCentral GovernmentMinistry or any other national or federal authority, including their regional or local subdivisionsHealth 39 Victoria Street, London, London, SW1H 0EUContact name, email

Dispute resolution & review bodies

The High CourtReview body London

Bidders & participating suppliers

1 commercial party on the notice

UNISERVE LIMITEDAwarded supplier01826635 Upminster Court 133 Hall Lane, 133 Hall Lane Upminster Essex, Upminster, East of England, RM14 1AL

Official documents & specifications

Official links; attachments are not copied

No document links were published on the notice.