Official UK procurement notice
DEFENCE DISCOUNT SCHEME · UK public procurement notice
Authority: Ministry of Defence (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionMOD’s current provision of Defence Discount Scheme (DDS) for Service Personnel, Veterans and Civilians is provided by Bluelight Card Company and expires on 31st May 2022.
The purpose of this PIN is to establish whether there are any alternative suppliers capable of and willing to, supply this service after this date.
The Authority’s intention is to re-let a further four year contract lasting until May 2026 and if there is potential for competition, to conduct that competition and if there is not, to award the new contract to Bluelight Card Company.
Continued provision of this service will be on the basis that there is a NIL cost to MoD for the DDS Service. Currently DDS returns a % of profits to MoD in the form of a gainshare payment which is passed on to the four Service Welfare Central Funds.
Any alternative provider would have to ensure that they could provide retail and online discounts to:
Serving armed forces (regular and reservist)
HM armed forces Veterans
MOD Civilians (except contractors)
Spouse/Partner of Serving Personnel
Cadet Forces
Bereaved Family Member
War/service widow(er)
NATO Personnel
CPV: Administration, defence and social security services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1Bluelight Card Company own the current membership details, the contracts with high…Planned
Bluelight Card Company own the current membership details, the contracts with high street retail providers and the ‘Defence Discount Service’ name. Other providers could build and operate a similar discount card service, but the Authority would require this to be built up rapidly so as to ensure that there would be no immediate drop in the service provided to the Defence community from an MOD contracted provider as a result of reduced range of discounts available. The Authority would also not be willing to experience in drop in the gainshare which is linked to the size of membership and retail and service companies offering discounts.
Current membership of the Scheme is 568,828 with active members (clicked an offer in last 6 months) standing at 225,094. The Total active retail offers (online and High Street retailers) is 9,819. Any alternative supplier would have to be able to reach theses membership figures very quickly and be prepared to offer MoD a gainshare minimum of 15% of the DDS contract profits each year..
Any alternative Supplier will have to hold Cyber security and comply with the Authority’s IR35 Assessment and any Authority’s decision on Limiting the Supplier’s Liabilities. It is unlikely that any current contractor staff would be willing to transfer to any alternative supplier under TUPE.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record · publisher note attached- Legal basis
- CELEX · 32014L0024 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (Directive 2014/24/EU)
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Past planning notice
- Procurement threshold
- Unspecified in notice
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Yes (GPA)
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 20 Apr 2022, 12:03 BST
- Last source update
- 20 Apr 2022, 12:03 BST
- FTS notice number
2022/S 000-010278- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-032ec2Find a Tender
Publisher note: Any Supplier wishing to express interest in this requirement for the period 1st June 2022 to 31st May 2026 should express interest through the Defence Sourcing Portal by 23rd May 2022. They should include a short summary of how they would be able to reach the current membership totals and retailer number very quickly and what kind of gainshare % could be offered to the Authority.
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
20 Apr 2022 → 31 May 2022 · 2 dates- Notice published20 Apr 2022, 12:03 BST
- Tender notice expected31 May 2022, 00:00 BST
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Pipeline notice- Awards (0)
- No award published
- Contracts (0)
- No contract published
- Bid statistics
- No aggregate bid statistics published
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Official documents & specifications
Official links; attachments are not copiedNo document links were published on the notice.