713335450 - Supply of In-Service Support for Eddy Current Flaw Detector Equipment

This procurement falls to be regulated under the provisions of the Procurement Act 2023. It is considered that the award of the contract without prior publication of a planned procurement notice in the UK e-notification service (as required by the Act) is lawful in accordance with paragraph 5 of Schedule 5 to the Act due to the proposed supplier having exclusive rights and paragraph 6 of Schedule 5 due to an absence of competition for technical reasons.

This is because ETher NDE Ltd is the original equipment manufacturer of the equipment, the design authority for the equipment and the exclusive owner and holder of all intellectual property rights and proprietary technical information (including drawings, specifications and software) relating to the Eddy Current Flaw Detector Non-Destructive Test Equipment and the TE Test Software required to calibrate the equipment and the only supplier with access to the intellectual property rights and the proprietary technical information necessary to enable the ISS services to be performed. In addition, the ISS services, in particular the required software updates for the equipment, are necessary in order to maintain the interoperability of the equipment with other Non-Destructive Test Equipment operated by the MOD in support of the MOD’s Air Defence capabilities.

There are no reasonable alternatives to these ISS services, therefore Ether NDE is the only supplier able to perform the required ISS services.