The Supply and In-service Support of Emergency Escape Breathing Devices (EEBDs)

Concepts

• marine services
• bristol
• fire escape equipment
• breathing apparatus
• additional eebds
• emergency escape breathing devices
• eebds
• breathing
• emergency
• escape

Location

Bristol

Description

The Salvage & Marine Operations Team, part of the UK Ministry of Defence (‘MOD’), intends to negotiate a contract with Ocenco Incorporated (‘Ocenco’) to provide in-service support for Emergency Escape Breathing Devices (EEBDs), together with the purchase of additional EEBDs. It is intended that the contract will be for a period of 5 years from 1st April 2024, with three additional one-year Options to extend. The estimated value of this contract is £8,000,000 ex VAT. EEBDs are used in the event of an escape from atmospheres that are either toxic or unable to sustain life and are a safety critical item to personnel on board ships/submarines.

Award Detail

Renewal Options

Three additional one-year Options to extend.

CPV Codes

• 98360000 - Marine services
• 35111400 - Fire escape equipment
• 44611200 - Breathing apparatus

Indicators

• Options are available.
• Award on basis of price and quality.

Legal Justification

In accordance with the provisions of The Public Procurement (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 SI No. 2020/1319, this procurement falls to be regulated under the provisions of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 as amended (in particular by SI 2020/1319). Prior publication of a contract notice in the Official Journal of the European Union is no longer appropriate. It is considered that the award of this contract without prior publication of a Contract Notice in the UK e-notification service (in accordance with the relevant legislation) is lawful in accordance with Regulation 32(2)(b)(ii) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR) because competition is absent for technical reasons. This is because Ocenco is the sole manufacturer of the M-20.2, M-20.2XT and M-20.2T EEBDs which are currently in service with the MOD. Ocenco is the only company with the in-depth technical know-how and expertise to fulfil the requirement. Ocenco, as the original equipment manufacturer, is the only company with the ability to provide the legislative safety certification to re-certify or recycle the EEBDs which is required for MOD to comply with statutory legislation (Solas Regulation ii-2/13.3.4, ii-2/13.4.3, IMO Resolution MCS.98(73) Chapter 3.2.2 (FSS Code), IMO Resolution MCS/Circ.849, EN 13794 (2002) and ISO 23269-1 (2008)). The EEBDs provided by Ocenco are a safety critical item to personnel on board ships/submarines. Personnel are trained to use only one variant of EEBDs in the event of an escape from atmospheres that are either toxic or unable to sustain life. Using different equipment would result in disproportionate technical difficulties in operation by Royal Navy (RN) personnel and incompatibility with existing RN equipment. Introducing another type of EEBD would introduce an unacceptable safety risk to personnel.