Contract award notice
Results of the procurement procedure
Section I: Contracting
entity
I.1) Name and addresses
Department of Health and Social Care
39 Victoria Street
London
SW1H 0EU
UK
E-mail: FreightContractNotices@dhsc.gov.uk
NUTS: UKI32
Internet address(es)
Main address: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-of-health-and-social-care
Address of the buyer profile: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-of-health-and-social-care
I.4) Type of the contracting authority
Ministry or any other national or federal authority, including their regional or local subdivisions
I.5) Main activity
Health
Section II: Object
II.1) Scope of the procurement
II.1.1) Title
The Provision of Freight Services for the Supply of Personal Protective Equipment and Medical Equipment
Reference number: VIRGIN PVG EXTRA NOV
II.1.2) Main CPV code
63521000
II.1.3) Type of contract
Services
II.1.4) Short description
The provision of freight services for the supply of personal protective equipment and medical equipment.
II.1.6) Information about lots
This contract is divided into lots:
No
II.1.7) Total value of the procurement
Value excluding VAT:
390 000.00
GBP
II.2) Description
II.2.3) Place of performance
NUTS code:
UK
II.2.4) Description of the procurement
Direct Award under Reg 32 of the Public Contracts Regulation 2015 for Covid-19 response.
II.2.5) Award criteria
Price
II.2.11) Information about options
Options:
No
II.2.13) Information about European Union funds
The procurement is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds:
No
Section IV: Procedure
IV.1) Description
IV.1.1) Type of procedure
Award of a contract without prior publication of a call for competition
Justification for selected award procedure:
Extreme urgency brought about by events unforeseeable for the contracting authority and in accordance with the strict conditions stated in the Directive
Explanation
1) The consequences of not responding rapidly to the pandemic to meet the exceptional increases in demand for PPE to protect care providers and key workers, and medical products to treat patients, would be a significant excess illness and deaths in the UK.
2) Huge increases in global demand, export restrictions from various nation states all contributed to a shortage of product availability. Where product could be sourced it was imperative that this product was moved at the earliest opportunity to prevent it being sold to higher bidders.
3) The urgent need for PPE and medical products in the UK created a requirement for the fastest mode of transport. Air freight transit times were in the region of 4-5 days whereas sea freight was between 56-84 days.
4) The disruption to freight and exports from China following their lockdown and export restrictions led to the severely restricted availability of freight capacity.
5) The market for air freight was particularly disrupted by the cancellation of many scheduled passenger airline flights (removing significant air freight capacity from the market). This created a situation where there was severe lack of physical air freight capacity and dramatic cost inflation in this market.
6) No pre-existing government commercial agreements were identified which covered the nature and scale of the services required.
7) This contract was awarded to Virgin Atlantic Airways to meet a specific urgent need to transport PPE to the UK, utilising flights from Shanghai, China to the UK during November 2020.
IV.1.8) Information about Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)
The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement:
Yes
Section V: Award of contract
A contract/lot is awarded:
Yes
V.2 Award of contract
V.2.1) Date of conclusion of the contract
28/10/2020
V.2.2) Information about tenders
Number of tenders received: 1
The contract has been awarded to a group of economic operators:
No
V.2.3) Name and address of the contractor
Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd
Virgin Atlantic Airways
The VHQ, Fleming Way
Crawley
RH10 9DF
UK
NUTS: UK
The contractor is an SME:
No
V.2.4) Information on value of the contract/lot (excluding VAT)
Initial estimated total value of the contract/lot:
Total value of the contract/lot:
: 390 000.00
GBP
V.2.5) Information about subcontracting
Section VI: Complementary information
VI.4) Procedures for review
VI.4.1) Review body
High Court
39 Victoria Street
London
SW1H 0EU
UK
Internet address(es)
URL: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-of-health-and-social-care
VI.5) Date of dispatch of this notice
26/11/2020