Helicopter Services for Aerial Surveillance in Support of Plant Health Operations

We will be awarding a framework agreement for the supply of helicopter services for aerial surveillance and photography for plant health purposes in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This framework agreement requires provision of helicopter services for aerial surveillance and is therefore not suitable for suppliers of UAV (drone) services.

Due to the legal nature of the requirement for this tender we cannot provide precise financial estimates. We cannot forward forecast the occurrence of disease, any impacts or the budget we can make available. The value of this framework agreement could therefore change subject to these parameters.

Our objective for this framework agreement is to work in close association with the successful bidder to provide expert helicopter services for aerial surveillance and photography for plant health purposes. This will enable us to generate results that are of benefit to the whole forest estate in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. This surveillance work is seen as key to improving the Forestry Commission’s knowledge of tree pest and disease progression and evaluating results of controls already implemented.

As the customer on this framework contract the Forestry Commission will aim to provide operational information to the Contractor as soon as it available to help with the successful completion of the contract. There is an expectation of rapid response from the successful bidder, upon our request, to provide piloted aircraft for the work detailed in the framework contract. Due to the nature of the work required and the time frame involved, a high degree of flexibility is required once a call-off contract has been issued.

Operational flexibility is required due to the variable timing of the spring leaf flush, weather conditions, disease progression, photographic conditions, and for contingency planning. A provisional plan will be drawn up between Forestry Commission’s Plant Health Forestry (Tree Health) contacts and the Contractor to cover the peak period of April to October but a high degree of flexibility will be required when consolidating the plan and providing rapid response to flight plan requests.