Description of how these justifications apply
Justification for direct award is based on Schedule 5 of the Procuement Act 2023:
Single Suppliers – section 5
(a)due to a particular supplier having intellectual property rights or other exclusive rights, only that supplier can supply the goods, services or works required, and (b) there are no reasonable alternatives to those goods, services or works.
The Authority is relying on this condition as the contract is for the continued use of the Heywood system to which they own the intellectual property rights. No other supplier could provide access to this system.
Single Suppliers – section 6
The following conditions are met in relation to the public contract—
(a)due to an absence of competition for technical reasons, only a particular supplier can supply the goods, services or works required, and (b) there are no reasonable alternatives to those goods, services or works.
The Authority is relying on this condition as there are no justifiable alternative systems in the market that can provide what the Heywood system provides
Additional or repeat goods, services or works - section 7
The public contract concerns the supply of goods, services or works by the existing supplier which are intended as an extension to, or partial replacement of, existing goods, services or works in circumstances where
(a) a change in supplier would result in the contracting authority receiving goods, services or works that are different from, or incompatible with, the existing goods, services or works, and (b) the difference or incompatibility would result in disproportionate technical difficulties in operation or maintenance.
The Authority is relying on this condition as a change to an alternative supplier/system at this present time would result in disproportionate technical difficulties in operation as well as potential incompatibilities.
In the Authority's view it is not possible for a supplier other than the incumbent to continue this service for technical reasons. There are no reasonable alternatives and the parameters of the procurement (including timescales) are driven by the circumstances the Council finds itself in and have not been artificially narrowed. These circumstances are:
1. The impact and timing of McCloud Remedies, the National Dashboards Programme and further regulatory changes from April 2026 which are expected to involve significant workloads over the next 2 years.
As a result of these intended regulatory changes it is not possible to scope the technical requirements or implement a risk assured transition to a new supplier to coincide with the current contract cycle.
2. The unreasonable cost (due to scarcity) of resource to dedicate to a transition to a new supplier, due to difficulty recruiting specialist staff nationally within pensions administration.
3. There are no viable alternatives within a highly specialist marketplace able to provide both the Local Government Pension Scheme and the Fire Service Pension Scheme (including McCloud Remedy calculations).
Overall the Council believes this justifies the Direct Award as any alternative supplier/system at this present time would result in disproportionate technical difficulties in operation as well as potential incompatibilities
The Council is withholding publishing the contract value under Section 94 of the Procurement Act 2023. The Council considers the release of the contract value is commercially sensitive information to Heywood.