Test facility for the assessment of irritant sprays - Market Engagement Event

The United Kingdom (UK) government is committed to ensuring the police have the best possible equipment to protect themselves and the public from harm. As part of this, the Home Office produce standards for irritant sprays: Standard for Police Chemical Irritant Sprays: CS and PAVA (Publication Number: 23/14). Home Office owns and manages these standards with expert advice being provided from our technical partner, currently Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl). The Standard outlines the requirements that police chemical irritant sprays must meet in order for them to be issued a Certificate by Home Office.

Certification testing of police irritant sprays are currently conducted within government with chemical analysis being provided by an external partner. Home Office are exploring options for partnering with an independent test facility who are capable of conducting the assessment of irritant spray products (pelargonic acid vanillylamide (PAVA)), in accordance with Home Office standard (23/14).

A new guidance document on the irritant assurance certification process is currently in development and will explain the end-to-end process for irritant certification.

Testing must be conducted against defined test methods as described Home Office standard (23/14). It should be noted that the Home Office standard (23/14) is currently undergoing an update but it is expected that the majority of the standard will remain as is.

The release of the new guidance document and an updated Home Office standard (23/14) will be aligned to the launch of an invitation to tender (ITT) via the open procedure. The Home Office is expecting to publish the ITT later on in Summer 2024, however this Market Engagement Event is exploratory and does not commit the Home Office to a procurement exercise.

Ahead of the ITT and in order to gauge interest, together with testing the capability of the market, the Home Office will be holding a market engagement event. This will explain the requirements of the end-to-end process for irritant certification (technical file review and conducting testing and reporting) that Home Office is looking for from an independent test facility. In addition, the market engagement event will explain the testing requirements in accordance with Home Office standard (23/14) and provide an opportunity for suppliers to ask questions to the Home Office; as well as for the Home Office to understand opportunities/constraints to inform the Statement of Requirements. The event will be conducted via a virtual format, on 17th July 2024 at 14:30 (BST).

Please email collaborativeprocurement@homeoffice.gov.uk by 15:00 BST 16th July 2024 to express an interest in attending the market engagement event. Requests received after this time will not be considered. Please include "Irritant Sprays Market Engagement Event" in the subject title of your email. Please note that that a maximum of 3 supplier representatives may attend. Additional information: The Secretary of State for the Home Department (the 'Home Office') is seeking a test facility to conduct the independent evaluation of irritant sprays, which will consist of a technical file review as well as conducting testing and reporting in accordance Home Office Standard (23/14). It is expected that a test facility will carry out all testing in accordance with Home Office Standard (23/14), subcontracting elements where needed (for example chemical testing). If subcontracting, the test facility must exercise due skill and care when it selects and appoints a subcontractor, to ensure that the test facility is able to manage subcontractors in accordance with Good Industry Practice and to comply with its obligations under any contract with the Home Office.

It is important to note that this notice invites test facilities and organisations to register to attend a market engagement event only and is not a call for competition. Any future procurement opportunity will be published on the Find a Tender service. The Home Office is expecting to publish the procurement notice later on in Summer 2024 after the market engagement event.

The potential contract is expected to be for a period of 24 months, with two optional 12-month extension periods (for a total possible extension period of 24 months). This may be subject to change.

It is expected there will be a guarantee of volumes of work for the first 24 months with Home Office funding a minimum of 10 irritant sprays to go through the certification process per a 12 month period. This is subject to change and could increase, but a minimum amount will be provided in the launch of the ITT.

It is expected that the Home Office will fund a maximum cost of £300,000 during a 12 month period (this is subject to change), but it should be noted that Home Office is undertaking a review of how the certification testing is funded in the future and will be exploring alternative costing models.

Testing in accordance with Home Office Standard (23/14) requires the completion of a technical file review, physical and chemical testing and the development of a test report. To enable the establishment of a facility the Authority anticipates a maximum of 3 months will be required at the start of the contract.

The test facility should have the capability of handling irritant devices with the appropriate authority / licenses for the country that the test facility is within. Within the UK, PAVA irritant sprays are classified as Prohibited Weapons under Section 5 of the Firearms Act 1968, which requires appropriate licences to be held; this should be considered by any UK test facilities.

It is expected that test facilities will be required to hold ISO9001 accreditation or ISO17025 accreditation for any aspect of their operations.