CONTRACT NOTICE – OFFICIAL JOURNAL

Section I: Contracting Authority

I.1)

Name, Address and Contact Point(s)

I.2)

Type of contracting Authority and Main Activity or Activities

Ministry or any other national or federal authority, including their regional or local sub-divisions National or federal agency/Office Regional or local Authority Regional or local Agency/Office Body governed by public law European Institution/Agency or International Organisation

General public services Defence Public order and safety Environment Economic and financial affairs Health Housing and community amenities Social protection Recreation, culture and religion Education

Forestry Commision

Rural Payments Agency

Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

The Environment Agency

Section II: Object of the Contract

II.1)

Description

II.1.1)

Title attributed to the contract by the contracting authority

II.1.2(a))

Type of works contract

II.1.2(b))

Type of supplies contract

II.1.2(c))

Type of service contract

II.1.2)

Main site or location of works, place of delivery or performance

II.1.3)

This notice involves

A public contract
The setting up of a Dynamic Purchasing System
The establishment of a framework agreement

II.1.4)

Information on framework agreement (if applicable)

Framework agreement with a single operators
Framework agreement with several operators

Number of participants to the framework agreement envisaged

Duration of the framework agreement

Justification for a framework agreement the duration of which exceeds four years

Estimated total value of purchases for the entire duration of the framework agreement

Frequency and value of the contracts to be awarded

II.1.5)

Short description of the contract or purchase(s)

Natural England is a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). Natural England administers agri-environment schemes under Pillar 2 of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE). These schemes cover some 70 % of the farmed environment in England. Circa 400 000 000 GBP in scheme grants is paid to agreement holders annually to:

— create, protect and enhance wildlife habitats;

— protect soils and natural resources;

— conserve protected landscapes;

— protect archaeological sites and historic landscape features;

— provide opportunities for recreation and education.

Natural England is seeking to continue the provision of its current IT systems to enable us to administer our existing ongoing multi-annual agreements and meet our obligations under the regulations governing the EU-funded CAP schemes.

Following the award of the Genesis Legacy contract (Ref: Contract Award Notice 2014/S057095641) last year, the contract to be awarded under this procurement procedure, together with 2 parallel procurement procedures, will replace the above referenced contract. This has been necessitated by an internal change of strategic direction within Defra.

The scope of this contract will consist of the secure hosting of the existing application components and capabilities, either reusing the existing hardware assets or by providing a cost effective alternative solution.

You will be required to work with our incumbent service provider and our future service integrator to effect the seamless transition of services, minimising downtime and impacts to Natural England's business.

You will co-operate with Natural England's other IT providers and those of other Government Agencies to manage interfaces and dependencies to ensure the end to end service meets our requirements.

The Genesis system is a complex, multi-environment set of IT capabilities and components employing multiple technologies, including databases, application server, workflow, web-server, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Enhance Transform Load (ETL), business intelligence and reporting capabilities and bespoke components.

It is anticipated that the contract(s) will have a go live date of 1.4.2016, with an earlier transition period still to be determined.

II.1.6)

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

II.1.7)

Contract covered by the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)

II.1.8)

Division into lots

II.1.9)

Will variants be accepted

II.2)

Quantity or Scope of the Contract

II.2.1)

Total quantity or scope

II.2.2)

Options

Provisional timetable for recourse to these options

Number of possible renewals

In the case of renewable supplies or service contracts, estimated time frame for subsequent contracts

II.3)

Duration of the contract or limit for completion

Section III: Legal, Economic, Financial and Technical Information

III.1)

Conditions Relating to the Contract

III.1.1)

Deposits and guarantees required

Reserve the right to require a parent company guarantee.

III.1.2)

Main Terms of financing and payment and/or reference to the relevant provisions

III.1.3)

Legal form to be taken by the grouping of suppliers, contractors or service providers to whom the contract is to be awarded

III.1.4)

Other particular conditions to which the performance of the contract is subject

III.2)

Conditions for Participation

III.2.1)

Personal situation of economic operators, including requirements relating to enrolment on professional or trade registers

Suppliers Instructions How to Express Interest in this Tender:

1. Register your company on the eSourcing portal (this is only required once) — Browse to the eSourcing Portal: https://naturalengland.bravosolution.co.uk and click the link to register — Accept the terms and conditions and click ‘continue' — Enter your correct business and user details — Note the username you chose and click ‘Save' when complete — You will shortly receive an e-mail with your unique password (please keep this secure).

2. Express an Interest in the tender — Login to the portal with the username/password — Click the ‘PQQs/ITTs Open to All Suppliers' link. (These are Pre-Qualification Questionnaires or Invitations to Tender open to any registered supplier) — Click on the relevant PQQ/ITT to access the content — Click the ‘Express Interest' button at the top of the page — This will move the PQQ/ITT into your ‘My PQQs/My ITTs' page. (This is a secure area reserved for your projects only) — You can now access any attachments by clicking ‘Buyer Attachments' in the ‘PQQ/ITT Details' box.

3. Responding to the tender — Click ‘My Response' under ‘PQQ/ITT Details', you can choose to ‘Create Response' or to ‘Decline to Respond' (please give a reason if declining) — You can now use the ‘Messages' function to communicate with the buyer and seek any clarification — Note the deadline for completion, then follow the onscreen instructions to complete the PQQ/ITT — There may be a mixture of online and offline actions for you to perform (there is detailed online help available) You must then submit your reply using the ‘Submit Response' button at the top of the page. If you require any further assistance please consult the online help, or contact the eTendering help desk.

III.2.2)

Economic and financial capacity

III.2.3)

Technical capacity

III.2.4)

Reserved contracts

The contract is restricted to sheltered workshops
The execution of the contract is restricted to the framework of sheltered employment programmes

Section IV: Procedure

IV.1)

Type of Procedure

Open		Restricted
Accelerated restricted		Negotiated
Accelerated negotiated		Competitive dialogue

Justification for the choice of accelerated procedure

IV.1.1)

Have candidates already been selected?

IV.1.2)

Limitations on the number of operators who will be invited to tender or to participate

Objective criteria for choosing the limited number of candidates

IV.1.3)

Reduction of the number of operators during the negotiation or dialogue

Recourse to staged procedure to gradually reduce the number of solutions to be discussed or tenders to be negotiated

IV.2)

Award Criteria

IV.2.2)

An electronic auction will be used

IV.3 Administrative Information

IV.3.1)

Reference number attributed to the notice by the contracting authority

IV.3.2)

Previous publication(s) concerning the same contract

Prior Information Notice
Notice on a Buyer Profile

Other previous publications

IV.3.3)

Conditions for obtaining specifications and additional documents

IV.3.4)

Time-limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate

IV.3.5)

Date of dispatch of invitations to tender or to participate to selected candidates

IV.3.6)

Language or languages in which tenders or requests to participate can be drawn up

IV.3.7)

Minimum time frame during which the tenderer must maintain the tender 

IV.3.8)

Conditions for opening tenders

Section VI: Other Information

VI.1)

Indicate whether this procurement is a recurrent one and the Estimated timing for further notices to be published

VI.2)

Does the contract relate to a Project/Programme financed by Community Funds?

Rural Development Programme of 2007 and 2014.

VI.3)

Additional Information

The Contracting Authority intends to use an eTendering system in this procurement exercise and reserves the right to use a reverse auction.

VI.4)

Procedures for appeal

VI.4.1)

Body responsible for appeal procedures

Body responsible for mediation procedures

VI.4.2)

Lodging of appeals
Precise information on deadline(s) for lodging appeals:

VI.4.3)

Service from which information about the lodging of appeals may be obtained

VI.5)

Dispatch date of this Notice