Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2017-05-19
Buyer: Ministry of Defence, Land Equipment, Dismounted Close Combat (DCC)
Country: UK
Region: Bristol, City of
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 35300000: Weapons, ammunition and associated parts
Estimated value: 400000 GBP
Award criteria: Other

Technical requirements: A contract is required for the combined supply, repair and support services for the L111A1 Heavy Machine Gun, the L110A3 Light Machine Gun, the L130A1 7.62 mm Light Machine Gun, the L10A2 General Purpose Machine Gun mount, the PAC24 General Purpose Machine Gun mounts, the 81 mm mortar ancillaries, and all associated spares and special tools and test equipment for an initial term of 3 years, with an option to extend for a further 2.
This includes a requirement to act as a Design Authority and provide Post Design Services to underwrite that any changes or modifications do not compromise the operational performance of the weapon, or invalidate the Safety Case for the weapon systems.
The Authority intends to place a 3 year contract (with the option to extend for a further 2 years) with Manroy Engineering Ltd for the provision of combined support and supply services for the in service fleet of machine guns.
It is considered that this Contract can be placed directly with Manroy Engineering Ltd using the negotiated procedure without prior publication pursuant to Article 28(1)(e) of Directive 2009/81/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (Regulation 16(1)(a)(ii) of the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011) for technical and safety reasons. Manroy Engineering Ltd is the Design Authority and current supplier of these weapons systems. No other supplier has access to the technical data, proprietary information, knowledge and experience required to provide the support required as Design Authority, and underwrite the integrity of any modifications or changes to the weapons systems.
It would take another economic operator a disproportionate amount of time to become sufficiently qualified to undertake the requirement and to be able to provide the requisite assurances that alternatively produced weapons systems could be safely and reliably used with the existing systems and ancillaries. The qualification programme required to provide such assurances is a lengthy and complicated process and would mean that identifying another economic operator would invite substantial risks to the safe functioning of the Armed Forces and the interoperability of parts within the weapons systems.
It is considered that this contract can be placed using the negotiated procedure without prior publication pursuant to Article 28(1) (e) of Directive 2009/81/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council Regulation 16(1)(a)(ii) and 16(1)(b) of the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011.
The Authority reserves the right to amend any condition related to security of information to reflect any changes in national law or government policy. If any contract documents are accompanied by instructions on safeguarding classified information (e.g. a Security Aspects Letter), the Authority reserves the right to amend the terms of these instructions to reflect any changes in national law or government policy, whether in respect of the applicable protective marking scheme, specific protective markings given, the aspects to which any protective marking applies, or otherwise. The link below to the Gov.uk website provides information on the Government Security Classification.
Advertising Regime OJEU: This contract opportunity is published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU), the MoD Defence Contracts Bulletin and www.contracts.mod.uk GO Reference: GO-2017516-DCB-10219168.


Winner: Manroy Engineering Limited
Award value: 400000