Surge Contract (with Variations 1-4)

Concepts

• medical laboratories
• subsequent variations
• surge contract
• variations
• wet swab pcr testing
• react wave
• waste water testing
• laboratories
• analysis
• packing

Location

London

Description

Collection, identification, packing and transporting to the laboratories for Wet Swab PCR Testing and analysis for Covid-19, includes subsequent variations to include REACT Wave 7 and Waste Water Testing.

Award Detail

Award Criteria

CPV Codes

• 85145000 - Services provided by medical laboratories

Indicators

• Award on basis of price.

Legal Justification

Negotiated procedure without prior publication 1) The Covid-19 outbreak is a Public Health Emergency of International Concern as declared by the World Health Organisation on 30 January 2020. The WHO Director General characterised Covid-19 as a pandemic on 11 March 2020. 2) A key element of ensuring an effective response to the pandemic is ensuring that there is adequate testing. Subsequently securing sufficient Covid sampling consumables in order to process test results is crucial. A significant constraint on building capacity is timelines for filling and capping machinery. When investigating available delivery capacity, capacity availability was identified with the supplier and an opportunity arose to secure additional volumes of sample collection consumables ahead of lead times being provided by alternative suppliers. There is an ongoing gap between the daily capacity requirement for these consumables, with this contract accounting for a significant proportion of the capacity gap. 3) DHSC is satisfied the tests permitting use of the Negotiated procedure without prior publication (Regulation 32(2)(c)) are met: A. As far as is strictly necessary: Increased supply of Covid sampling consumables to meet the increased number of tests now required was identified as strictly necessary to meet the demand to scale up the testing programme in the UK. B. There are genuine reasons for extreme urgency: It is responding to Covid-19 immediately because of public health risks presenting a genuine emergency. Sample collection consumables (i.e. tubes, swabs, and funnels) are a fundamental component in facilitating mass testing. Volume projections on supply of sampling consumables show a deficit v’s supply for the sample collection consumables. C. The events that have led to the need for extreme urgency were unforeseeable: the Commission itself confirmed: ‘The current coronavirus crisis presents an extreme and unforeseeable urgency – precisely for such a situation our European rules enable public buyers to buy within a matter of days, even hours, if necessary.’ (Commissioner Breton, Internal Market, 1 April 2020). D. It is impossible to comply with the usual timescales in the PCR: It is not possible to comply with the timescales of another procedure due to the urgent requirement to ensure the amount of tests processed increases with the necessary demand. E. The situation is not attributable to the contracting authority – DHSC has not done anything to cause or contribute to the need for extreme urgency.

Other Information

This notice has previously been published in ‘Find a Tender Service’ (FTS), the UK e-Notification service. Publication in the Official Journal of the European Union was delayed by a technical issue on behalf of the EU publications Office, which has now been resolved.