Collection of Waste, Street Cleansing and Ancillary Services

CPV: Sewage, refuse, cleaning and environmental services

Procedure method

Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition

Legal basis

CELEX · 32014L0024 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (Directive 2014/24/EU)

Procurement category

Services

Notice status

Awarded without competition

Procurement threshold

Unspecified in notice

Regulatory regime

Standard

Commercial structure

Stand-alone contract (no framework)

Competition type

Direct award (no call for competition)

GPA / WTO covered

Yes (GPA)

Recurring procurement

Unspecified in notice

First published

8 Aug 2023, 16:09 BST

Last source update

8 Aug 2023, 16:09 BST

FTS notice number

2023/S 000-023122

Classification (CPV)

Sewage, refuse, cleaning and environmental services

Delivery area

London (UKI32)

Official registry OCID

ocds-h6vhtk-03ee03 Find a Tender

Why no open competition

The procurement falls outside the scope of application of the directive

Published justification

This notice does not relate to the award of a new contract, but rather the modification of an existing contract described at Section II.2.4 above (the “2010 Contract”). The Council considers that the proposed modification to the 2010 Contract must necessarily be carried out by the current contractor pursuant to Regulation 72(1)(b) Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (‘PCR’) and is not ‘substantial’ pursuant to Regulation 72(1)(e) PCR. Accordingly the modification may lawfully be agreed between the parties and implemented without the need to conduct a fresh procurement procedure.

Regulation 72(1)(b) PCR has been satisfied for the following reasons:

• The Council considers that the current contractor must continue to provide the services for the extension period for economic and technical reasons as Veolia provides the depot sites for the services and there is no other suitable land currently available in the region. The Council has conducted a land availability exercise and is in the process of finding land to develop its own depot solution in order to offer these facilities to all potential bidders and thereby run a meaningful procurement exercise in the near future.
• Soft market testing of the relevant waste industry, conducted by the Council, has shown that were the Council to advertise a relet of the services at this time, only the current contractor would be able to meet its tendered requirements, and this would likely be at a significantly higher price than the current contract for the same level of service, due to the lack of available land other than that held by the current contractor. Therefore a change of contractor would cause substantial duplication of costs for the Council.

The Council’s forecasting exercise shows that the extension period is commensurate with the period required to procure and develop its depot solution. Further, the value of the extension will not exceed 50% of the original contract value in accordance with Regulation 72(1)(b) PCR. The original contract value was £518,000,000, the anticipated spend to 15 September 2024 is £594,576,840 and the value of the proposed 3-year extension is £201,085,686.

Further, the proposed modification is not ‘substantial’ within the meaning set out in Regulations 72(1)(e) and 72(8) PCR for the following reasons:

• The character of the 2010 Contract and the services to be delivered by the Contractor will remain substantially the same and is not rendered materially different in character from the one originally concluded.
• The extended contract term would have made no difference to the outcome of the procurement had it been part of the initial procurement procedure.
• The proposed extension does not considerably extend the scope of the 2010 Contract.
• The proposed extension does not change the economic balance of the 2010 Contract in favour of the Contractor in a manner not provided for in the 2010 Contract.
• There is to be no replacement of the contractor to whom the Council had initially awarded the 2010 Contract.

Notwithstanding the above and without prejudice to the Council’s reasons for considering the proposed modification to be permitted under Regulation 72 PCR, in the event that the proposed modification is deemed to be an award of contract under the PCR, it would in any case be permitted under Regulation 32(2)(b)(ii) PCR because competition is absent for technical reasons and no reasonable alternative or substitute exists, and the absence of competition is not the result of an artificial narrowing down of the parameters of the procurement. As described above, market testing has demonstrated that the services can only be provided by the current contractor due to the lack of available land meaning that no other provider would currently be able to provide the contract.

• Veolia ES (UK) LimitedAwarded supplier 210 Pentonville Road, London, London, N1 9JY

No document links were published on the notice.