Provision of Nest Scheme administration services

CPV: Administration services · Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security · Financial and insurance services · Government employee pension schemes · IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support · Software package and information systems · Technical testing, analysis and consultancy 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

Yes (GPA)

Recurring procurement

Unspecified in notice

First published

21 Jun 2023, 12:01 BST

Last source update

21 Jun 2023, 12:01 BST

FTS notice number

2023/S 000-017642

Classification (CPV)

Administration servicesBusiness services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and securityFinancial and insurance servicesGovernment employee pension schemesIT services: consulting, software development, Internet and supportSoftware package and information systemsTechnical testing, analysis and consultancy services

Delivery area

London (UKI)

Official registry OCID

ocds-h6vhtk-03d82e Find a Tender

Why no open competition

The works, supplies or services can be provided only by a particular economic operator due to absence of competition for technical reasons

Published justification

Nest requires assurance that its partner is sufficiently experienced and technically capable of delivering the complex requirements of the contract. To this end Nest requires that its partner has experience of operating in the UK Defined Contribution (DC) pensions market; that they can evidence delivering a digital first service in a DC pensions environment; and that they can evidence experience of delivering both a transition and data migration, alongside an ongoing service, to a customer base of Nest's scale and complexity.

Nest has assessed the market against its requirements and has concluded that competition does not exist. Nest commissioned a broad market assessment from PricewaterhouseCoopers to understand whether there is competition in the market capable of meeting Nest's requirements for technical experience. The assessment considered all suppliers with UK DC experience, as well as the participants who engaged in the recent procurement for these services (OJEU ref 2019/S 091-219508). PwC's expert conclusion was that, apart from TCS, there was no single supplier or consortium in the market now or the short term (assessed over the next 12 months) who could meet Nest's requirements.

Nest concludes there is presently no reasonable alternative or substitute available and the absence of competition is not the result of an artificial narrowing down of the parameters of the procurement. This is evidenced by the following points:

1. Given the national importance of a functioning Nest scheme Nest has carefully considered its minimum criteria relating to the experience and successful track record that any potential supplier must evidence and specifically requires the experience set out above so Nest can be assured that its complex technical requirements will be met and that it will not risk service discontinuity and can meet the transforming needs of Nest's customers over the next decade. The experience requirements have been informed by the outcome of the recent procurement where the contract was awarded to a supplier without this level of experience.
2. Nest's output requirements for the service have not changed from those advertised to the market in the recent procurement (which attracted only two final tender submissions in 2021 despite extensive market warming efforts) meaning that Nest can be confident of the judgement it is taking of the market based on the response to the recent procurement and the up-to-date market assessment provided by PwC.
3. The disaggregation of the scheme is not possible at this stage because the current solution is not readily interoperable with other suppliers' solution(s) and a change from a single service provider solution would add complexity to an already highly complex project. The new contract incorporates flexibility aimed at being able to disaggregate elements in future.

Nest considers that there is no supplier in the market other than TCS that can meet Nest's requirements. Accordingly, and in the best interests of its members, Nest is able pursuant to Regulation 32(2)(b)(ii) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR) to negotiate a contract directly with TCS without needing to advertise the opportunity and has done so.

• Tata consultancy servicesAwarded supplierGB-COH: BR007627 18 Grosvenor Place, London, London, SW1X 7HS

No document links were published on the notice.