Description of how these justifications apply
East Midlands Railway Limited (the Contracting Authority) requires the continued provision of hotel and conference billback services to support the booking, management, payment and reconciliation of accommodation and conference expenditure across its operations. These services are operationally critical to the Contracting Authority's day‑to‑day activities.
The incumbent supplier currently provides these services and has established operational processes, systems integrations and payment arrangements that are embedded within the Contracting Authority's business operations.
The Contracting Authority is undertaking a fully compliant competitive procurement exercise to establish a long‑term contractual solution for these services. However, a short‑term direct award is required to ensure continuity of service while that procurement is completed and the replacement contract is mobilised.
Awarding an interim contract to an alternative supplier would require duplicate implementation and onboarding activity, including systems configuration, process changes and payment set‑up. This would result in additional cost, inefficiency and operational disruption that would be disproportionate given the limited duration of the interim requirement.
The contract is therefore being awarded for a period of 12 months only, which is the minimum period considered necessary to complete the competitive procurement process and implement the replacement contractual arrangement.
This direct award is made in accordance with Schedule 5 of the Procurement Act 2023, for the purpose of ensuring continuity of essential operational services and avoiding service disruption during the interim period. A fully regulated and competitive tendering process will be undertaken to appoint a long‑term supplier.