Section one: Contracting authority
one.1) Name and addresses
DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS
Seacole Building, 2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF
Contact
Tom Dubberley
Telephone
+44 7827903738
Country
United Kingdom
Region code
UK - United Kingdom
Internet address(es)
Main address
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-environment-food-rural-affairs
Buyer's address
https://defra-family.force.com/s/Welcome
one.4) Type of the contracting authority
Ministry or any other national or federal authority
one.5) Main activity
Environment
Section two: Object
two.1) Scope of the procurement
two.1.1) Title
Procurement of Continued Development and Support to RAFT+ Software
two.1.2) Main CPV code
- 72000000 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support
two.1.3) Type of contract
Services
two.1.4) Short description
Procurement of Continued Development and Support to the RAFT+ Tool
two.1.6) Information about lots
This contract is divided into lots: No
two.1.7) Total value of the procurement (excluding VAT)
Value excluding VAT: £378,610
two.2) Description
two.2.3) Place of performance
NUTS codes
- UK - United Kingdom
two.2.4) Description of the procurement
Direct Award with the Supplier
two.2.5) Award criteria
Price
two.2.11) Information about options
Options: Yes
Description of options
Optional Extension of One Year at maximum cost of £106,230 (ex VAT)
two.2.13) Information about European Union Funds
The procurement is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds: No
Section four. Procedure
four.1) Description
four.1.1) Type of procedure
Award of a contract without prior publication of a call for competition in the cases listed below
- The services can be provided only by a particular economic operator for the following reason:
- protection of exclusive rights, including intellectual property rights
Explanation:
The Environment Agency are submitting this Voluntary Ex-Ante Transparency (VEAT) Notice with a view to completing a Single Tender Award. Please note that this is not a tender opportunity, and that the contracting authority intends to award a Single Tender Award to HR Wallingford Limited.
The Risk Attribution and Field Based Tool + (RAFT+) is a bespoke web application tool which allows the Environment Agency (EA) to assess the risk of failure associated with vital EA flood risk assets. It has been built and developed in a partnership with HR Wallingford who own crucial elements of the intellectual property within and underpinning the tool. With their bespoke tool and the ownership of the associated IP, the Environment Agency has concluded that HR Wallingford is the only supplier who can deliver the required technical solution for the moment.
The justification under the Public Contracting Regulations 2015 for this Single Tender Action is against regulation 32 (2) (b) of the PCR 2015 for use of the negotiated procedure without prior publication where (ii) competition is absent for technical reasons, and also (iii) where exclusive rights, including IP rights, meaning that services can only be supplied by one economic operator – this is for the following reasons:
• HR Wallingford have developed the RAFT+ tool with the EA to meet all of the requirements of the EA and the need to analyse fragility curves. No other equivalent tool is available, either immediately or in a form that could be readily adapted along with IP Rights to elements of the tool that the EA is unable to purchase at this moment.
• Due to the ownership of elements of the RAFT+ tool (and the resultant IP Rights), no other supplier could be onboarded and use the tool, supporting this and developing it for the EA. The tool contains an element known as HR Reliable; this is a key aspect of the tool that is owned by HR Wallingford and is not available for third parties. Without this element, the tool would not be effective and would not meet the objectives of the EA. This would therefore result in a new system needing to be built, supported and maintained from another Supplier; this goes against value for money principles (as the EA would be paying twice for two systems), but also would create an operational risk as no system would be in place for a period of time (likely to be a minimum of six months). As Flood Coast and Risk Management is one of the Government’s key area of focus and a DEFRA mission, This creates an unacceptable operational risk to the EA, if flooding were to effect areas that this tool could have been used to protect.
• The EA will look to analyse the future market and the need for this requirement going forward past the proposed contract term, to understand whether this requirement should be tendered on the open market for future implementation.
• The tool is more than simply the front-end element of RAFT+; the integration with HR Reliable, which is proprietary to HR Wallingford [and not available for licensing to third parties], is crucial to the successful operation of this tool. An alternative supplier would need to be able to deliver both an equivalent to the RAFT+ front-end of the tool and the underpinning software.
four.1.8) Information about the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)
The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement: Yes
Section five. Award of contract
A contract/lot is awarded: Yes
five.2) Award of contract
five.2.1) Date of conclusion of the contract
19 February 2025
five.2.2) Information about tenders
Number of tenders received: 1
Number of tenders received from SMEs: 1
Number of tenders received from tenderers from other EU Member States: 0
Number of tenders received from tenderers from non-EU Member States: 1
Number of tenders received by electronic means: 1
The contract has been awarded to a group of economic operators: No
five.2.3) Name and address of the contractor
HR Wallingford Ltd
Howbery Park
Wallingford
OX10 8BA
Telephone
+44 1491835381
Country
United Kingdom
NUTS code
- UK - United Kingdom
National registration number
Wallingford
Internet address
The contractor is an SME
Yes
five.2.4) Information on value of contract/lot (excluding VAT)
Initial estimated total value of the contract/lot: £378,610
Total value of the contract/lot: £378,610
Section six. Complementary information
six.4) Procedures for review
six.4.1) Review body
DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS
Seacole Building, 2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF
Country
United Kingdom
Internet address
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-environment-food-rural-affairs
six.4.2) Body responsible for mediation procedures
DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS
Seacole Building, 2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF
Country
United Kingdom
Internet address
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-environment-food-rural-affairs
six.4.4) Service from which information about the review procedure may be obtained
DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS
Seacole Building, 2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF
Country
United Kingdom
Internet address
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-environment-food-rural-affairs