Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2019-04-26
Buyer: Ministry of Defence, Ships, Other
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Contract award without prior publication
CPV classification: 35500000: Warships and associated parts | 35512000: Submarines | 50240000 | 50246000 | 63723000
Estimated value: 2114000000 GBP

Technical requirements: The supplier is required to provide submarine engineering services to meet the requirements of the Authority at Devonport and Clyde Naval Bases.
Provision of submarine engineering for the Royal Navy at Devonport and Clyde comprising the following elements: fleet time engineering; work package planning; production and upkeep of technical docs; design support; underwater services (engineering); upkeep of “A” class submarines; upkeep of “V” class submarines; engineering design and safety management data; radiological and health physics.
The Future Maritime Support Programme (FMSP), part of DE&S, intends to award a contract to Devonport Royal Dockyard Ltd and Babcock Marine (Clyde) Ltd for the provision of Submarine Engineering at Devonport Naval Base, Plymouth and Clyde Naval Base for a period of 5 years to 31 March 2025, with an option to extend by up to a further 2 years.
The contract is being procured under the Single Source Contracts Regulations 2014 because of the existence of legally binding agreements, namely the Terms of Business Agreement with Babcock International Group plc, Devonport Royal Dockyard Ltd, Babcock Marine (Clyde) Ltd and Babcock Marine (Rosyth) Ltd which grants the contractor exclusivity for nominated roles, including the scope of these services, and the Sale of Dockyard Agreement which granted ownership of Devonport Naval Base to Babcock Marine. In addition, there are synergies across the 2 sites which are critical to submarine availability. It is therefore, impractical for any other supplier to provide these services, as they are in support of other contractual arrangements which are also being procured through single source arrangements.
This contract is considered to be exempt from the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) under Article 346(1)(a). The economic operator to be awarded the contract may be required to handle and protect UK Eyes Only (UKEO) National Caveated information or assets and they must not permit anyone who is not a UK National to access such information or assets, as the contract concerns the maintenance of the UK’s continuous at-sea nuclear deterrent (amongst other things). Information identified as UKEO must not be sent to foreign governments, overseas contractors, international organisations or released to any foreign nationals (either overseas or in the UK) without the originator‘s specific consent. Due to this requirement, the Authority is proceeding with the procurement process in reliance on the exemption in Article 346(1)(a) TFEU and the general exclusion from the Defence and Security Public Contract Regulations 2011 (DSPCR) under Regulation 7(1)(a).
In addition, it is considered that Article 346(1)(b) also applies to this procurement as it is in support of War Material (specifically submarines) as set out in the official translation of Council Decision 255/58.
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-2019423-DCB-14827551.


Winner: Devonport Royal Dockyard Ltd
Award value: 2114000000