On-the-man Modular Carriage and PPE Clothing System

The Royal Navy, part of the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD), intends to modify an existing contract with LEVEL PEAKS ASSOCIATES LTD, under Contract Reference 701534395 for the purchase of 100 additional ‘On-the-man Modular Carriage and PPE Clothing System’s’. This is a value increase of 50%, increasing the Maximum Contract Liability from £170,210 (Exc VAT) up to a Maximum Contract Liability of £255,315 (Exc VAT). It is considered that the award of the contract modification without prior publication of a contract notice in the UK e-notification service (in accordance with the relevant legislation) is lawful in accordance with regulation 72(1)(b) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (as amended (in particular by Statutory Instrument 2020/1319)) because it constitutes a permitted modification under that regulation. This is because these additional services/goods have become necessary and to introduce a change of contractor at this stage cannot be made for economic and technical reasons as only LEVEL PEAKS ASSOCIATES LTD has the necessary additional equipment which needs to be identical to the current equipment to ensure interoperability and as MOD personnel have conducted training and designed maintenance regimes tailored to equipment with the existing design. Alternative equipment would introduce a safety risk on urgent operational deployments. To introduce a change in Contractor at this stage would also cause significant inconvenience, delays and substantial duplication of cost for the MOD.