PCR Testing Services

Concepts

• pcr testing services
• medical laboratories
• urgent requirement
• test
• pcr testing
• trace requirements
• covid

Location

London

Description

Urgent requirement to develop volume for PCR testing for Covid in line with test and trace requirements.

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. Therefore, the scaling up of laboratory capacity is critical to this response. This contract supports the national testing programme, in particular Pillar 2. 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: the provision of laboratory services to provide Covid-19 detection testing to support the UK response to Covid-19 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. 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: Due to the urgency of the situation there was no time to run an accelerated procurement under the open, restricted or competitive procedures with negotiation as there was an urgent requirement to ensure provision of laboratory services in response to the pandemic. 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.