Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2020-02-17
Buyer: Ministry of Defence, C&C, Other
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 73110000
Estimated value: 245565 GBP

Technical requirements: Defence statistics, part of the UK Ministry of Defence, intends to place a contract with The University of Manchester (the University) to update the research undertaken between MOD and Manchester University in 2009, to include a further 12 years of data on service leavers. The study is to understand the rate, timing and risk factors for suicide for those who have left the UK Armed Forces between 1996-2017. The study will include analysis of data in the confidential inquiry into suicides and mental health as well as a review of coroner’s records and inquest hearings for the veteran suicides identified to provide more detail of the antecedents of suicide (particularly early and recent vulnerabilities, in-service exposures, difficulties after discharge, living circumstances, and contact with a variety of health and third sector providers).
Defence Statistics, part of the UK Ministry of Defence, intends to place a contract with The University of Manchester (the University) to update the research undertaken between MOD and Manchester University in 2009, to include a further 12 years of data on Service leavers. The study is to understand the rate, timing and risk factors for suicide for those who have left the UK Armed Forces between 1996-2017. The study will include analysis of data in the confidential inquiry into suicides and mental health as well as a review of coroner’s records and inquest hearings for the veteran suicides identified to provide more detail of the antecedents of suicide (particularly early and recent vulnerabilities, in-service exposures, difficulties after discharge, living circumstances, and contact with a variety of health and third sector providers).
It is considered that this contract can be placed using the negotiated procedure without prior publication of a contract notice pursuant to Article 32(2)(b)(ii) of Directive 2014/824/EU (Regulation 32(2)(b)(ii) of the UK Public Contracts Regulations 2015) for technical reasons. This is because the National confidentiality inquiry into suicide and mental health (NCISH) is only held by Manchester University. A key component of the proposed study is identifying all those in contact with specialist mental health services in the 12 months before death, and detailed information on their clinical characteristics and the care they received. The data are subject to strict data security and data access controls under the terms of NCISH's ethics and other approvals. The information collected is not publicly available or available through other data repositories. Another key component of this study is the collection of data from Coroners' records; NCISH are the only organisation who have conducted a recent nationwide study using this data source.
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-2020213-DCB-15989108


Winner: The University of Manchester
Award value: 245565