Contract for the provision of the Crime Survey for England and Wales

CPV: Market research services · Social research 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

Unspecified in notice

Recurring procurement

Unspecified in notice

First published

15 Jul 2022, 16:39 BST

Last source update

15 Jul 2022, 16:39 BST

Authority reference

PU-18/0001

FTS notice number

2022/S 000-019477

Classification (CPV)

Market research servicesSocial research services

Delivery area

UK

Official registry OCID

ocds-h6vhtk-0352bd Find a Tender

Why no open competition

The procurement falls outside the scope of application of the directive

Published justification

Due to COVID-19, all face-to-face survey operations ceased in March 2020 and the CSEW changed to a telephone survey operation (TCSEW), with the option of changing back to face-to-face surveys.

In April 2019, Kantar announced that it was unifying all its legacy brands (including Kantar TNS) and consolidating all services and offerings under the Kantar brand name, hence the name change to Kantar Public.

It is under a contract variation in July 2021 that ONS confirmed it would continue to operate the contract with Kantar for a further two years to 31 March 2024. A Modification Notice was published on 13 July 2021 for this contract variation (2021/S 133-355188), with an increased total value of £28,849,818.23.

ONS is seeking to increase the sample size for the survey, following requests from the Home Office and the UK Government's Implementation Unit, with an increase in the target number of interviews to 70,000 per year by 2024. This will include a boost to the face-to-face interview numbers and the introduction of a longitudinal panel element to the survey with further interviews conducted by telephone at 12 month intervals.

ONS will be running a competitive tender exercise for the CSEW Contract 2024 - 2029. A Prior Information Notice was published on 24 June 2022 (2022/S 000-017318) to inform the market of our intentions. ONS will update the market further in relation to the requirements for the future CSEW Contract in due course.

The CSEW interview is conducted using trained interviewers and a specialised script programmed by Kantar. Another contractor would need to adapt the script to its systems, which would be a considerable amount of work. A new panel of interviewers would have to be trained to conduct the survey, which would result in a significant additional cost for ONS. It would not be possible to develop a new telephone script to complete the follow up interviews within the required timeframes.

ONS (and the Home Office) require the uplift in sample size from October 2022, with the telephone survey starting at the same point. The rapid mobilisation of the uplift in interview numbers is critical and appointing a new contractor would cause significant delay to ONS' ability to deliver the increased interviews.

ONS will continue to update the market, and recommends that interested suppliers register their for upcoming market warming & engagement events on our e-tendering portal Intend via the following link - in-tendhost.co.uk/ons/aspx/Home ↗.

Publisher note: The Contract Notice was published on 6 July 2017 (2017/S 127-259083). A Contracts Finder Notice was subsequently published on 9 March 2018, which is available here: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/710869e2-5b5f-4f6f-9c33-12e9bd378766.

• Kantar PublicAwarded supplier 6 More London Place, London, UK, SE1 2QY

No document links were published on the notice.