£1,500,000.00 · UK public procurement notice

CPV: Surveillance boats

Procedure method

Negotiated without publication of a contract notice

Legal basis

CELEX · 32009L0081 Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011 (Directive 2009/81/EC)

Procurement category

Goods

Notice status

Awarded

Procurement threshold

Unspecified in notice

Regulatory regime

Standard

Commercial structure

Stand-alone contract (no framework)

Competition type

Competitive procedure

GPA / WTO covered

Unspecified in notice

Recurring procurement

Unspecified in notice

First published

15 Feb 2024, 15:06 GMT

Last source update

15 Feb 2024, 15:06 GMT

FTS notice number

2024/S 000-005118

Classification (CPV)

Surveillance boats

Delivery area

South West (UKK11)

Official registry OCID

ocds-h6vhtk-043a7d Find a Tender

Why no open competition

The products involved are manufactured purely for the purpose of research, experiment, study or development under the conditions stated in the directive; The works, supplies or services can be provided only by a particular economic operator due to protection of exclusive rights, including intellectual property rights

Published justification

The Boats Team, part of the UK Ministry of Defence (“the Authority”) intends to extend the existing Contract CCS/0106 with Salterns Marina for a period of 24 months, at a total cost of up to £1.5M ex VAT. The current Contract runs to 31 Mar 24 and provides support for Tactical Watercraft through the procurement and upkeep of Spares, Repairs, and Post Design Service (PDS) Tasks for Support Equipment (SE).

It is considered that the contract can be extended using the negotiated procedure without prior publication of a contract notice pursuant to Regulation 16(1)(d)(i)(aa) of the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011: It has been deemed necessary to extend the existing service for technical reasons in addition to the fact to compete the requirement at this time would cause significant disruption to Mod Operations.

Due to the complexity of the TWC contract and the registered designs for “Tactical Water Craft” held by Salterns Marina, it would not be strategically wise or economically advantageous to recompete this support requirement for a 2 year period at this time, as:

a) Salterns Marina has been deemed the only economic operator with access to current technical designs, which form part of the Tactical Watercraft which provide operational continuity for MoD Operations. The loss of Salterns Marina technical designs if awarded to another economic operator, could have safety and operational implications on the end user if sufficient design information and SQEP is not available to maintain existing equipment. Salterns Marina expertise is essential to maintain the elements of the craft which are added to convert the base model Personal Water Craft in to the Tactical Water Craft operated MoD Forces. These modifications are TWC specific and are part of the UK design held by Salterns Marina via the Intellectual Property Office. These modifications greatly improve the performance and capability of the standard craft and are essential to MoD operations.

b) Competing the capability at this time may introduce a mixed configuration fleet, which is essential to avoid at this time for operational purposes. Operating a mixed configuration fleet would cause issues at User/Unit level with regards to spares, training, documentation etc. When MoD Forces deploy, they are generally limited to how much equipment can be deployed because of restrictions on the ship or aircraft. Running a mixed fleet would require two distinct sets of spares to support Ops, possibly restricting other equipment that can be taken. Additionally, extra training would be required for end Users to enable them to make effective running repairs in the field and different supporting documentation would have to be carried. This would be difficult for MoD units to manage at reach in certain regions where they are forward deployed.

c) The lack of rights we have to use information about the TWC in order to compete for its manufacture could cause an increase in development costs and potentially leave the Authority with an unsupported platform until these issues are overcome.

• Salterns Marina Ltd, t/a Golden Arrow MarineAwarded supplier Southampton, South East

No document links were published on the notice.