Additional PCR Storage Kitting & Storage Capacity

Concepts

• storage and warehousing
• additional pcr storage kitting
• storage capacity
• dhl
• additional capacity
• additional pcr
• c award
• maximum period
• day
• material increase

Location

London

Description

Regulation 32(2)c award to DHL for additional PCR kitting capacity for an additional 100k per day kitting and increased storage capacity for a maximum period of 6 months. The additional capacity is required due to a range of factors that have led to a material increase in demand for PCR testing

Award Detail

Award Criteria

CPV Codes

• 63120000 - Storage and warehousing services

Indicators

• Award on basis of price.

Legal Justification

Negotiated Procedure Without Prior Publication OJEU Regulation 32 (2) c award to DHL for additional PCR kitting capacity for an additional 100k per day kitting and increased storage capacity for a maximum period of 6 months. The additional capacity is required due to a range of factors that have led to a material increase in demand for PCR testing:1. Rise in symptomatic testing demand due to easing of lockdown measures 2. The spread of the Delta variant and resultant increases in positivity3. Approved expansion of use cases, including ERP4. Anticipated expansion of eligible symptoms . 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 recent lab expansion has created a significant delta between PCR kitting capacity and lab capacity. Current contracted kitting capacity is 375k kits per day, representing a ~435k per day shortfall against capacity required. The Authority plan to secure the additional 435k capacity through contracting 100k via this contract (previous kitting partner), then the remaining volume across specialist packing suppliers b) There are genuine reasons for extreme urgency: The high transmissibility of the Delta variant and the easing of lockdown measures has led to a large increase in symptomatic testing in both Pillar 1 (swab testing in Public Health England labs and NHS hospitals) and Pillar 2 (swab testing for the wider population) laboratories. Positivity has now gone above 10%, a rate which has not been seen since early February 2021. 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, 01.04.2020).d) It is impossible to comply with the usual timescales in the PCR: An award under Regulation 32 (2) c was identified as the most suitable route to award and the quickest to implement in order to address the urgent shortfall in capacity and overcome present inventory constraints. The contracts would be for a maximum period of 6 months, which is the minimum timeframe that suppliers are willing to scale up operations.