Section one: Contracting authority/entity
one.1) Name and addresses
UNITED UTILITIES WATER LIMITED
Haweswater House,Lingley Mere Business Park, Lingley Green Avenue, Great Sankey
WARRINGTON
WA53LP
Contact
Adam Almond
Country
United Kingdom
Region code
UKD61 - Warrington
Companies House
United Utilities Water Limited
Internet address(es)
Main address
https://www.unitedutilities.com/corporate
Buyer's address
https://www.unitedutilities.com/corporate
one.4) Type of the contracting authority
Other type
Utilities
one.5) Main activity
Other activity
Water
Section two: Object
two.1) Scope of the procurement
two.1.1) Title
Services-Contract-River Dee Monitoring
Reference number
PRO004566
two.1.2) Main CPV code
- 71600000 - Technical testing, analysis and consultancy services
two.1.3) Type of contract
Services
two.1.4) Short description
This requirement is being let by the Dee Steering Committee (DSC) on behalf of the Water Companies taking potable water from the River Dee. United Utilities, Welsh Water and Severn Trent are the companies who form the DSC.
Requirements include; monitoring of water at specific points in the River Dee, carrying out analysis of samples and providing reporting based on sampling.
The main elements of the contract are as follows:
• The Deesit (Dee Situation Report)
• Intake Protection Stations
• Deepol (Dee Pollution Incident) and Operational Trigger incidents
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: £3,806,204
two.2) Description
two.2.2) Additional CPV code(s)
- 38341500 - Contamination-monitoring devices
- 38344000 - Pollution-monitoring devices
- 38500000 - Checking and testing apparatus
- 71620000 - Analysis services
- 71700000 - Monitoring and control services
two.2.3) Place of performance
NUTS codes
- UKD - North West (England)
two.2.4) Description of the procurement
The Deesit (Dee Situation Report)
The Deesit is the name given to the routine analysis carried out on samples taken from the River Dee.
The Deesit monitoring system requires the Contractor to take twice daily samples from the River Dee, provide analysis of those samples and subsequent reporting. Any evidence of visible pollution, such as discolouration, foaming or dead fish, and an assessment of odour shall be recorded, by the sampling Contractor, at the time of each sampling event. The samples (Deesits 1 and 2) shall be taken by the Contractor such that Deesit sampling events are separated by 12 hours + or - 2 hours. The results from the Deesits 1 and 2 must be available by 13.00 and 20.00 hours respectively. The earliest morning sample should be no earlier than 01:00 at Newbridge and the evening sample should be no earlier than 11:00 at Newbridge. The Contractor is, as well as collecting the Deesit samples, required to operate a UKAS accredited laboratory capable of analysing the samples and of reporting the results to the parties making up the DSC. The location of the laboratory is required to be within 30 minutes of the catchment area, due to strict sampling and reporting turnarounds, and also to react to pollution events as quickly as possible.
Intake Protection Stations
The Contractor will operate a full standby cover system in respect of the IPS. This will operate 24 hours per day, 365 days per year, as part of the monitoring system for IPS. Such a system will deal with instrument failures and incident related alarms. Such standby staff will ascertain the root cause of the alarm and take appropriate action as required.
Following receipt of an alarm by the contractor, remote monitoring and interrogation will be carried out by the Contractor. This could result in a number of possible actions;
a) An immediate site visit. An immediate site visit is defined as arriving at the Intake Protection Station
b) Continuation of monitoring and interrogation.
c) A next day routine site visit.
d) Report on actions and findings
No additional charge whatsoever will be made by the Contractor for remote monitoring and interrogation following receipt of an alarm as it is intrinsic to the service provided.
Contractor must ensure that information from the intake protection stations is made available remotely in real time to the Duty Analyst, Deepol officer and Duty Abstractor to assist in management of incident situations.
Deepol (Dee Pollution Incident) and Operational Trigger incidents
Non-routine analytical and reporting requirements will be carried out by the Contractor in the event of a Deepol. A Deepol is an abbreviation for a River Dee Pollution Incident. The Contractor will also be required to take additional samples on the River Dee in the event of a Deepol in accordance with a sampling strategy devised by the Deepol officer and Duty Abstractor at the time of the incident. The Contractor must maintain capability to take such samples on a 24 hour basis as required with a response time for initiation of sampling of no more than 4 hours.
The Contractor will, in the event of a Deepol, provide a Duty Chemist and a Duty Analyst.
The Contractor's laboratory shall, in the event of a Deepol, be capable of carrying out a variety and number of tests including inorganic analysis outside the scope of the normal Deesit reporting.
The Contractor shall ensure that such tests are capable of being carried out 24 hours per day. If necessary, additional staff and equipment shall be made available to facilitate and analyse for the Deesit as well as a Deepol. Any evidence of visible pollution, such as discolouration, foaming or dead fish and an assessment of odour shall be recorded, by the sampling Contractor, at the time of each sampling event. The Contractor will be expected to provide monthly and annual reports detailing contract performance.
two.2.11) Information about options
Options: No
two.2.14) Additional information
N/A
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 procurement falls outside the scope of application of the regulations
Explanation:
Type of procedure: Award of a contract without prior publication of a call for competition
Explanation:
This procurement falls under Regulation 50 (c) (ii) Competition is absent for technical reasons.
Following a market intelligence exercise, and knowledge sharing between the Water Companies who form the DSC, we have concluded that competition is absent for technical reasons.
• Location of UKAS accredited laboratory
Due to issues with sampling and reporting timescales, and also delays in tracking pollution events under previous procurements, the DSC requires this laboratory to be within a 30 minute radius of the catchment area.
Due Diligence:
United Utilities completed the following due diligence:
• A Prior Information Notice was prepared and published to the market via Mercell UK (EU Supply) on 08/11/2021 and responses were returned on 22/11/2021. We received 2 responses, both of whom did not have the UKAS accredited laboratory within the catchment range, and both planned to subcontract to ALS Global (the incumbent).
• The Water Companies who form the Dee Steering Committee run this tender, in turn, every 5 years. The Water Company who ran the previous procurement and confirmed that 2 Suppliers and ALS Global were successful through pre-qualification. During the contract that this WC procured, one of the Suppliers were acquired by ALS Global. The other Supplier, confirmed they were unable to fulfil the scope in terms of capacity and resource.
• The DSC members have confirmed that there is limited interest from laboratories regarding this requirement, and that through their experience tendering this requirement the market has not grown.
• United Utilities internal laboratory team were contacted and confirmed that they currently outsource some testing requirements to 3 Suppliers, one of whom are ALS Global. One of the Suppliers identified did not have a UKAS accredited lab within the catchment area, and the other Supplier was unable to offer a sampling service and could only complete laboratory analysis. Additional market intelligence identified a further Supplier who may have been able to support, however, they confirmed they would need to recruit and expand capacity within the region and did not have the laboratory facility within the catchment area.
• During the term of this contract, United Utilities and the DSC will continue to monitor the market, and should there be more competitors in the future then there may be an opportunity for United Utilities and the DSC to issue a formal tender for this agreement.
four.1.8) Information about the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)
The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement: No
Section five. Award of contract/concession
A contract/lot is awarded: Yes
five.2) Award of contract/concession
five.2.1) Date of conclusion of the contract
17 October 2022
five.2.2) Information about tenders
The contract has been awarded to a group of economic operators: No
five.2.3) Name and address of the contractor/concessionaire
ALS Laboratories (UK) Limited
Coventry
CV4 9GU
Country
United Kingdom
NUTS code
- UKD - North West (England)
Companies House
ALS LABORATORIES (UK) LIMITED
The contractor/concessionaire is an SME
No
five.2.4) Information on value of contract/lot/concession (excluding VAT)
Initial estimated total value of the contract/lot/concession: £3,806,204
Total value of the contract/lot/concession: £3,806,204
Section six. Complementary information
six.3) Additional information
Type of procedure: Award of a contract without prior publication of a call for competition
Explanation:
This procurement falls under Regulation 50 (c) (ii) Competition is absent for technical reasons.
Following a market intelligence exercise, and knowledge sharing between the Water Companies who form the DSC, we have concluded that competition is absent for technical reasons.
• Location of UKAS accredited laboratory
Due to issues with sampling and reporting timescales, and also delays in tracking pollution events under previous procurements, the DSC requires this laboratory to be within a 30 minute radius of the catchment area.
Due Diligence:
United Utilities completed the following due diligence:
• A Prior Information Notice was prepared and published to the market via Mercell UK (EU Supply) on 08/11/2021 and responses were returned on 22/11/2021. We received 2 responses, both of whom did not have the UKAS accredited laboratory within the catchment range, and both planned to subcontract to ALS Global (the incumbent).
• The Water Companies who form the Dee Steering Committee run this tender, in turn, every 5 years. The Water Company who ran the previous procurement and confirmed that 2 Suppliers and ALS Global were successful through pre-qualification. During the contract that this Water Company procured, one of the Suppliers were acquired by ALS Global. The other Supplier, confirmed they were unable to fulfil the scope in terms of capacity and resource.
• The DSC members have confirmed that there is limited interest from laboratories regarding this requirement, and that through their experience tendering this requirement the market has not grown.
• United Utilities internal laboratory team were contacted and confirmed that they currently outsource some testing requirements to 3 Suppliers, one of whom are ALS Global. One of the Suppliers identified did not have a UKAS accredited lab within the catchment area, and the other Supplier was unable to offer a sampling service and could only complete laboratory analysis. Additional market intelligence identified a further Supplier who may have been able to support, however, they confirmed they would need to recruit and expand capacity within the region and did not have the laboratory facility within the catchment area.
• During the term of this contract, United Utilities and the DSC will continue to monitor the market, and should there be more competitors in the future then there may be an opportunity for United Utilities and the DSC to issue a formal tender for this agreement.
six.4) Procedures for review
six.4.1) Review body
High Court of England and Wales
London
Country
United Kingdom