Public procurement notice: Contract Award Notice
Published: 2017-11-10
Buyer: Ministry of Defence, Ships, Queen Elizabeth Class
Country: UK
Contract type: Supplies
Procedure: Contract award without prior publication
CPV classification: 35520000: Parts for warships
Estimated value:  GBP

Technical requirements: Ship Acquisition, part of the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD), intends to place a contract (the ‘Contract’) with Score Marine Limited (company number: SC229821) (the ‘Company’) for the supply of spare components (the ‘Goods’) for Hull Valves (which are parts associated with QEC Wholeship Valves) installed and manufactured by the Company on the Queen Elizabeth (QE) Class Aircraft Carriers. The mechanical and electrical sub-systems of the Wholeship Valves consist of Electrically Actuated Flow Control Valves, Dynamic Balancing Valves, AVTUR Tank Bursting Disc Holder Assembly, Walton Control Unit, Rotork Profibus Actuator Valve Test Kit, Hull Valves and includes parts associated with the Wholeship valves. The estimated contract value of 2 000 000 GBP (two million pounds) and a duration of 2 (two) years.
It is considered that the Contract can be entered into using the negotiated procedure without prior publication of a contract notice pursuant to (a) Article 28(3)(a) of Directive 2009/81/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (Regulation 16(1)(b)(i) of the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011); and (b) 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 reasons. This is because obliging the MOD to procure the Goods from a manufacturer other than the Company would result in goods being purchased which have different technical characteristics, which would result in incompatibility between the existing Goods and the goods being purchased and would result in disproportionate technical difficulties in operating and maintaining the Hull Valves. If any of the components fail, they could go on to cause irrecoverable damage to the many different systems of which the Hull Valves comprise, even if the component that has failed is of a low economic value. Additionally, the Company is the only economic operator with the necessary technical know-how such as technical data and schematics, proprietary processes and equipment-specific tooling and test equipment that are necessary to produce compatible spares for the Hull Valves.
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-2017119-DCB-11363963.