Public procurement notice: Contract Notice
Published: 2016-02-06
Buyer: Natural England
Country: UK
Region: UNITED KINGDOM
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Open procedure
CPV classification: 34513550 | 48326100 | 71354100 | 71354500 | 71355000
Estimated value: 1750000 GBP
Submission deadline: 2016-02-29
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: Natural England is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for Food and Rural Affairs. Natural England's role is to provide advice and an evidence base to government and regulators to improve decision making in the marine environment and deliver environmental objectives. This Notice is being issued to highlight the Invitation to Tender for the five lot, multi-supplier marine monitoring framework. This framework will improve the evidence base through data collection and analysis to guide and inform effective and practical marine conservation. The Authority has discretion to award by Direct Award or Mini-Competition. Differing survey methods have been broken down into separate lots, with a framework being placed to deliver each lot covering the following areas:
The role of this Lot is to acquire high quality remotely sensed and/or ground truthing survey data of suitable resolution to provide a sound evidence base to contribute to long term monitoring, and Natural England led condition assessments.
For each feature/sub feature the ecological attributes for which survey data is required will be made clear during the mini-competition process. Natural England will consider what attributes are relevant, these will be guided by the most up to date site conservation advice packages as well as Common Standards Monitoring (CSM).
These attributes are not exhaustive and the wording of these may alter through the revision of conservation advice packages.
The Contracting Authority intends to use an eTendering system in this procurement exercise and reserves the right to use a reverse auction.
The role of this Lot is to acquire survey data to provide a sound evidence base to contribute to long term monitoring and Natural England-led condition assessment of Annex 1 habitats, taking account of current and potential future pressures affecting these sites.
This Lot comprises in-situ sampling but sample in fauna and particle size analysis will be undertaken by a third party contractor under a separate Natural England/Environment Agency Framework.
The work may be located within and/or outside designated sites, and the geographical scope of work undertaken within this Lot will be:
— Within cross border Marine Protected Areas between England and Wales, and England and Scotland, if conducted on behalf of Natural England.
Contractors under this Lot may also be required by Natural England to work collaboratively with contractors working under other Lots (particularly Lot 1) and/or partners of Natural England.
The Contracting Authority intends to use an eTendering system in this procurement exercise and reserves the right to use a reverse auction.
The role of this Lot is to collate available remotely sensed (primarily, but not limited to, sidescan and multibeam bathymetry and backscatter) and ground truthing survey data and to interpret these data to provide high quality data products which will form a sound evidence base to contribute to long term monitoring, and Natural England led condition assessments.
For each feature/sub feature the ecological attributes for which survey data is required will be made clear during the mini-competition process. Natural England will consider what attributes are relevant, these will be guided by the most up to date site conservation advice packages as well as Common Standards Monitoring (CSM).
These attributes are not exhaustive and the wording of these may alter through the revision of conservation advice packages.
The Contracting Authority intends to use an eTendering system in this procurement exercise and reserves the right to use a reverse auction.

Eligibility requirements: 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://defra.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 email 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. Please see Invitation to Tender. As stated on Invitation to Tender. Tenderers are required in delivering the contract to comply with the Authority's policies, strategies, and standards.
Please see Invitation to Tender.
As stated on Invitation to Tender. Tenderers are required in delivering the contract to comply with the Authority's policies, strategies, and standards.