DNO/493 - Labour Market Intelligence

In accordance with Schedule 5, paragraph 5 of the Procurement Act 2023, the Authority considers a direct award to be justified on the basis that Cogent Skills Services Ltd are the only supplier capable of delivering the required Nuclear Workforce Assessment (NWA) service without disproportionate cost, delay, or risk to value for money.

Cogent holds unique and non replicable capabilities essential to the successful delivery of this requirement, including:

• Proprietary historic datasets underpinning the Nuclear Workforce Assessment (NWA), developed and maintained since 2015;
• Specialist technical expertise in nuclear labour market modelling, built over multiple iterations of the NWA; and
• Established relationships and data sharing arrangements with nuclear sector organisations formalised through the Nuclear Sector Executive Council (NSEC).

Cogent has been the sole developer and publisher of the NWA for over a decade, independently refining the methodology and recovering costs directly from sector organisations through individual contributions. The Authority does not own, nor does it hold rights to, previous iterations of the NWA or the underlying datasets. Continuity of methodology and data is critical for tracking trends, ensuring comparability across years, and measuring the effectiveness of the Nuclear Skills Plan (NSP). No alternative provider could replicate the existing dataset or methodology without incurring substantial development time and cost, which would materially undermine both value for money and the timely delivery of the NSP. On this basis, Cogent is the only provider capable of delivering the required service in a way that preserves continuity, avoids duplication of cost, and protects the integrity of the sector-wide evidence base.